No More Messenjah
45 years after they first plugged in, Messenjah is not slowing down, they are staking their claim as one of the most important bands Canadian music has ever produced. Today, the group releases "No More," a bold, defiant new single that finds Canada's reggae originators sounding as fierce and vital as they did the day they started, and demanding, once and for all, that the world take notice.
Listen on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/2Loe8h5D7txiwBVweO051J
Formed in Kitchener, Ontario in 1981 by Rupert "Ojiji" Harvey and Errol "Skippah" Blackwood, Messenjah became the first Canadian reggae band ever signed to a major label, breaking down doors that had never been opened for the genre in this country. Their debut, 'Rock You High,' and its follow up, 'Session,' turned them into pioneers, and "Jam Session" became a bona fide national anthem. They performed at Jamaica's legendary Reggae Sunsplash, appeared in the Hollywood film Cocktail, and in 1998 played for Nelson Mandela at Toronto's SkyDome the same year they took home a Juno Award. Messenjah has spent more than four decades helping write the story of Canadian music.
"No More" picks up that legacy and pushes it forward with urgency. "No More shall we settle for less than the highest height, like a lion who trods in the darkest night, with no fear in our hearts cause we know Jah light," the band declares, a lyric that reads like a mission statement for a group that refuses to be counted out. The chorus lands with the same unshakable resolve: "No More messing around, No More wearing no frown, No More believe in what they say, No More giving things away." This is a band telling its truth loudly, on its own terms.
The song's bridge names the band directly, and it carries the confidence of a group that knows exactly what it has built: "Messenjah flag bearer, storm and thunder society teacher, Messenjah truth giver, sent to Earth to set the people free ya." It is a rare thing for a band to declare its own legend so plainly, and rarer still for that declaration to be earned. Messenjah has earned it.
Today's lineup carries that legacy forward with founding member Rupert "Ojiji" Harvey still leading from the front, along with Carl "Carlos Bandana" Harvey of Toots and the Maytals on lead guitar, Charles "Tower" Sinclair on bass, Orville "Wyz" Malcolm on keyboards, and newest member Sammo "The Genius" on drums. "No More" was written by Harvey and composed alongside Malcolm and Sinclair, with Malcolm producing and Sinclair co producing, a full circle collaboration between musicians who have spent decades building this sound together.
Messenjah's influence on Canadian music runs deep. They are the reason Canadian reggae broke through to mainstream radio in the first place, and every Canadian reggae act that has followed owes something to the road they paved. Warner Music Canada's re release of the band's classic catalogue introduced their music to new generations, and a 2014 reunion performance at a Toronto Bob Marley tribute confirmed the fire had never gone out. "No More" stands as the loudest confirmation yet that more than 40 years after their first note, Messenjah remains a working band, still writing, still performing, and still leading.
Now is the time for Messenjah to be recognized as one of reggae's essential architects, active, urgent, and very much in command of their sound.
