Andre Jebbinson, Staff Reporter

Rondell 'Positive' Allen....A 'Positive' performance for a worthy cause. - photos Contributed

If jesus can turn water into wine, surely, he can turn a negative into a positive. That is what he did for gospel artiste Rondell 'Positive' Allen.

"I was a negative influence. I was a sound system selector that was negative, since I was leading people down the wrong path," Positive said.

He grew up in a home where both his parents were Christians and not open to secular music. However, he snuck out of the house in 1996 to attended a secular show in Manchioneal, St. Ann. That was about the same period his pursuit of music began, after entering a singing competition. He won $500, which he said, at the time, was like winning a million dollars. This gave Positive a glimpse of what he could be making in the business.

Musical impulse

It turns out Positive did not follow through with music; instead, he went on to become a teacher. Still, there was a musical impulse in his life. Positive got saved around 1998 and then began singing in church. "It was a like a rebirth for me. It didn't die, but I had stopped doing it," he said.

Now that he is back in music, hoping to pursue it full-time, Positive said he wanted to bring transparency to the industry. "It is a fact that the business is corrupt. There are so many talented artistes who really have good messages, but they are not heard because they don't have the money," Positive said.

Positive has performed on a few local shows, such as the Transformation Music Festival and Tribute To Culture, as well as the Titchfield High leg of the STAR's No Violence High School Tour.

Tribute

Currently, he has two singles, Leave The Children and Threefold Solution, which are expected to set the stage for his debut album, Peace, Love and Unity. Leave The Children was written as a tribute to the women and children who were brutally murdered in St. Thomas, in February.

Positive's main goal is to use his talent to glorify God and bring about change in Jamaica. "The whole thing is music is a tool that can bring change and a weapon that can bring negative change. There is power in music," Positive said.

He will, however, use this weapon to touch the hearts of Jamaican young people who are heading on the wrong path. According to him, that will only result in positive things for Jamaica.