Sean Paul Releases New Song ‘Guns of Navarone’, Hails Mutabaruka For Kickstarting His Music Career
On the heels of the release of his latest single Guns of Navarone last Friday, which features Reggae singer Jesse Royal and Mutabaruka, Dancehall superstar Sean Paul has paid a heartfelt tribute to veteran dub poet, whom he said was influential in his rise to stardom.
According to the Dutty artiste, he definitely had to send out blessings to Muta’s and Irie FM radio station, As The Cutting Edge host was the first radio personality to ever play any of his songs.
This, he said, took place in 1994, whilst he was a hotel management student at the College of Arts Science and Technology (CAST), now University of Technology (UTech).
“This man was the 1st person 2 play my music on radio anywhere. In 1994 on irie fm. I was an still am a huge fan of his work. That being a dope dub poet/ philosopher/ teacher & radio show host. He had a radio show I used 2 listen 2 back then. Was very educational/ informative/ entertaining/ controversial,” Sean Paul wrote in a lengthy post on Instagram on Monday.
According to the Wolmer’s High School old boy, like Guns of Navarone, his first records comprised more conscious material, and so he approached Muta one day at his bookshop in new Kingston, to get his opinion. He said he waited at the store until Muta arrived and gave him the copy of what was his first single, and the rest is history.
“I walked up 2 him nervously an said “Muta. I am a young dj. This is my 1st single.” I Handed it 2 him an told him I jus wanted his opinion. He took it. looked @ me an said ‘aright mi wi check it’ an went inside. I left not really sure if he would check my likkle chune,” he explained.
That song, was Ghetto Story, a track on which he said he attempted to show the differences and inequality in Kingston and St. Andrew which is, for the most part, segregated into Uptown and Downtown.
“It was a subject that was on my mind an something that I felt really strongly about An had 2 say,” the artiste, whose full name is Sean Paul Henriques said.
Sean Paul said he was at home doing his homework when Muta played his song that very night on his programme, The Cutting Edge, an experience he described as magical.
“I heard Mutas voice say ‘yeah well this yute yah have a chune weh him gimi fi listen. So. Yeah check it out’. An played my song. I jumped up an down an had no one 2 tell. Being that late my mom was sleeping an so was my likkle brother. Didn’t have a soul 2 call no internet no fb no Twitter no IG. Nuttn. I sat in awe an listen as my general played my song an jus fulljoyed every second of it. It gave me a feeling I will never 4get,” he wrote.
“An so this is another special day 4 me. That my teacher is premiering another conscious song 4 the 1st time 4 me. This is a blessing indeed. REAL RECOGNIZE REAL RRR!!!” he said.
Produced by Sean Paul’s Dutty Rock productions, Guns of Navarone sees Muta doing the intro and outro. The song describes the incessant violence Jamaica is grappling with, the murder rate, use of guns, struggles of youths in the ghetto and their exploitation by politicians.
The song has an infectious hook, with Sean singing:
Si dem a run out wid full clip
Seh dem gun naw stick
Yow It’s like guns of Navarone
Buss shot, wid head back split
Dem a buss shot fi tear through flesh an bone
Mama bawl when shi haffi write di yute dem name down inna stone
Dem a dash away people but dem caan dash away dem soul
Sean Paul is not the first Jamaican artiste to record a song titled The Guns of Navarone. In 1965 The Skatalites, with music adapted from the film of the same name did a version, which is largely instrumental, with the only voice being an intro stating:
In the winter of nineteen sixty-four this movie came to Jamaica
The Skatalites took the music from the movie and put it into ska
And came up with this song, it’s called:
BAP… BAP… BAP..BA..BAP… Guns of Navarone
The film The Guns of Navarone from which the Jamaican artistes got their title, was an explosive 1961-released World War II production, depicting a specialized commando team of allied and Greek soldiers, organized in 1943 during the height of the war.
The team was deployed to sabotage and destroy the seemingly impregnable German artillery units, which bolstered the Axis firepower on the fictional mountainous Greek island of Navarone in the Aegean Sea, and turn free 2,000 British soldiers on Kiros, another neighbouring island.
The film, which was based on a novel by Alistair MacLean, was nominated for seven Oscars and took home the prize for special effects back then.