Gramma Zone wants to give back

Filled with passion and driven by his purpose, dancehall artiste Gramma Zone is confident that after gaining global recognition, his main aim is to invest and give back to his country and friends who helped to fuel his career.

Putting a pause on his master's degree to pursue his musical dreams, the singjay is confident that the world will know his name - one which he intentionally coined to create "curiosity".

"Suh di 'Gramma Zone' is not the poisonous grammaxone enuh, but when yuh hear my songs and melodies, it normally leaves you in a zone of grammatical expressions," said the musical lyricist, whose given name is Miguel Reid.

Hailing from Linstead, St Catherine, through a life of challenges and "humble beginnings", Gramma Zone said gaining his Bachelor's degree was a huge milestone, but still wanted a career in music.

"I got through for [several other degree programmes] both at UWI [The University of the West Indies, Mona] and UTech [University of Technology, Jamaica] and while mi family excited, me go behind everybody and mi type in 'music' in the UWI portal because mi want a new course, because mi know mi need fi study music and understand [it] more. I saw a course came up marked 'Entertainment and Cultural Enterprise Management.' Mi just register fi it and that's how mi end up inna UWI a do music," he shared with a smile. Gramma Zone aspires to better his craft while acknowledging that he would've reached further with better "mentorship".

"I have the talent and everything but I just didn't have the right connections to crack it. And when yuh duh too much things on di side instead of just guh fi weh yuh a guh fah, that [slow down the process]. Suh dis a me now a guh fi my dreams," he said.

With no back-up plan for an alternative career choice, the determined singjay has been rigorously trotting a path for musical success.

"Mi want di Grammy, di money, fame and di love, and mi love di art itself. So I want everything that comes with it. Suh it ago tek a lot of effort, people skills and investment for you to become a master of this [music] enuh, suh me cannot a focus pon so many other stuff," he shared.

"The drive and passion comes from who I am as a person because anything mi a go fah, I'm like a mad dog on a NASCAR track - not even speedbump, nutten cyaah stop mi," he added, noting that Vybz Kartel and Mavado are two of his biggest musical influences.

Drawing his musical styles from them, Gramma Zone is being dubbed 'The Melody King' as he managed to capture the minds and hearts of his supporters through his poetic, lyrical prowess.

"I understand music from both the marketing and artistic side [due to my degree], so I can't get too lost in the art, I have to always think of the balance. So I know that the lyrics always tend to appeal to the intellect but melody appeals to the emotions, and humans are emotional beings. So I know that with melody, that will appeal to everybody," he opined. The singjay admitted that he has given up many times on his journey.

"Mi have so much people weh nuh believe inna mi and tek mi thing fi some gimmicks ting. But mi affi memba seh addi same thing dem duh to [famous physicist Albert] Einstein, Kartel etc. So who am I fi have big dreams like dem people here and people fi nuh style mi thing and tek it fi some joke? So [giving up] would be disrespectful to all di 'greats. Mi affi just block out di naysayers," said Gramma Zone.

He noted that having a nine-to-five is good but "average" and his aim is to exceed way beyond that.

"Mi nuh waah average. Mi waah fi live great and experience the abundance weh God create ... life is out there enuh, and mi have one life suh mi affi ensure mi do everything I can fi experience the earth at its highest level," Gramma Zone said. He is also adamant that he wishes to help people, and "be a walking abundance".

"I want to be one of the biggest superstar in the history of Jamaica's music and help my team - Vybranium Entertainment - to be one of the biggest entertainment brand. When mi get out inna di game, mi need fi can just sign artistes because yuh see di struggles weh me guh through. I don't want fi know seh people have talent out there and dem affi guh through dis yah roughness yah mi guh through," he said.