Unfortunately, though, many times the deepest of musical feelings does not find an outlet on the airwaves and Ramsay says, "I find electronic media to be way too shallow and uninquisitive and just follow fashion. When I go to America and Europe everybody a play wha everybody a play, which is what the record producers give them to play. If you are an independent person in today's landscape you have to be very faithful to yourself and your craft to retain your dignity."

level playing field

The Internet has now been established as an outlet with a relatively more level playing field and Ramsay says that "it can break you in the underground and that is a good place to be".

Still, he says, "I am not depending on the media. I am taking the music to the gatherings and the halls. We are taking the music to the forum where the people are listening."

As for events dubbed 'school tours', where music is taken to the school campuses, Ramsay dismisses them as "garbage. If you analyse what they are singing at the schools, the children should not be exposed to that. It is about money by a mornin' ... That is an empty thought".

"You can't carry water in empty vessels.. There is a concerted effort to take away the heroes and give them zeroes, It is ideas that make a nation great, not entertainment," Ramsay says. "They are just entertainers."

And he would not appreciate being called an entertainer.

"Imitation is not flattery, it is suicide. If you want to be original how can you be mimicking someone?" he asks.

He further asks if someone who makes music simply listens "to what the country is saying and package it on a rhythm? Or do we listen and get ideas and throw it back to them and say hey, there are other ways?"

"Songs must be made to stimulate people's minds and their passions ... Music stimulates the finer emotions. Everything else is noise," Ramsay said. And is it possible for him to be heard through that noise?

"Definitely," Ramsay tells The Sunday Gleaner. The rubbish has reached a peak. It has to go back down. It can't go any higher,"

As Ramsay affirms, "I've never lost faith. I've never lost faith."

- M.C.