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Artist News Releases
Ghetto Priest announces covers album
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 30 March 2021
Asian Dub Foundation’s Ghetto Priest has announced a new solo album, ‘Big People Music’, which sees him performing covers of records his parents regularly played when he was growing up.
The album was originally conceived as an EP, made in tribute to Ghetto Priest’s late father, but as he remembered more of the songs that had been staples of his childhood, it expanded to a full album. Now it features his own versions of songs including Nat King Cole’s ‘Nature Boy’, Aaron Neville’s ‘Hercules’, The Maytones’ ‘Madness’, and more.
“It’s a history lesson in black music”, he says. “‘Big People Music’ looks back on a time when my parents came over to England [from Jamaica in the 1960s]. I was going back into the past to bring these songs into the future. There are lessons to be learned from previous generations”.
“Every Sunday was a time for music when I was growing up”, he goes on. “In the morning after church, you’d hear the sounds of Jim Reeves, Fats Domino, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, a lot of the old classics, and in the afternoon it was reggae. Jamaica has always had a love of blues and R&B. We just put our own twist on it. On ‘Big People Music’, I wanted to follow that tradition”.
The album is set for release on Ramrock Records on 9 Apr. Listen to Ghetto Priest’s version of ‘Hercules’ here:
