Artiste shares near-death experience on new single

Dancehall artiste Slvastne survived a near fatal shooting incident in 2006, when he received 17 gunshot wounds in an incident that left him in a coma.

Now 19 years later, he shares his story on a song titled No Failure, a collaboration with Stylaforlife which was released via Ano Vybz Music in February.

"I was inspired by my life story, that's why I recorded No Failure. I also have my daughter and son who depend on me. I have received a lot of positive feedback on the song so far and it has also been getting a lot of airplay on most of the radio stations locally," said Slvastne.

The song has also been gaining traction at weekly dancehall events, thanks to popular selectors including Boom Boom, DJ Mental and Dwayne Pow.

"I am truly grateful for the feedback and support from the people. I will continue serving them with positive music," he added.

Slvastne, whose given name is Christopher Spencer, has been doing music professionally for the past 20 years. He is originally from the community of Waterhouse, St Andrew but he now resides in Manchester. He explained that he got drawn to music when his mother wrote a song for him when he was just seven years old.

"It was our little song among my peers, and that's when my music journey began. I was then fully authorised to do music at the age of 16," Slvastne shared.

Ironically, it was just as his music career started to take off the right way in 2006 that he was shot 17 times.

"I was able to overcome this major obstacle by focusing on my music career more and receiving support from my loved ones. That was where my motivation came from," he said. "The shooting did definitely hamper my career for a very long time, because I was in a coma for four months due to the severity of my injuries. One of the bullets was one inch away from my windpipe. That's when I realised that God had a purpose for me and I'm a survivor."

Slvastne has been working with Ano Vybz Music Production for the past five months and he shared how the collaboration with Stylaforlife came about.

"I always had the idea for the song, but I was able to execute the song as soon as the connection was made with Stylaforlife," he said.

Slvastne has also worked with Unknown Flava, All Faces Entertainment and MTP Records among other producers.