The Story Behind Gyptian’s ‘Serious Times’

When Reggae star Gyptian recorded his breakout single, Serious Times in 2004, Jamaica teetered on the brink of total anarchy as blazing guns obliterated 1400 lives that year.

The track, which was inspired by the island’s growing crime problem at the time, topped local and international reggae charts and was even declared the Song of the Year. Seventeen years after its initial release, its producer Kenneth ‘Spragga’ Wilson believes that the song’s message is still relevant today.

“We always used to hang out at Wong studios in Garveymeade and I saw Gyptian in the voice box. I told him ‘yo, yu bad’,” Spragga began in an interview with DancehallMag.

“At the time, the song was on an unfinished riddim that his cousin had built and mi tell him say ‘yu lock pon the riddim , mi a go voice yu, mi ah go fix up the riddim and voice yu’. Mi go look the riddim,  get what mi fi get and go back to Gyptian and carry him up to Anchor. At the time, Fatta (Delroy Pottinger) was the engineer. Mi ask dem fi get Bongo Herman to beat a kette drum because the riddim needed that and then Tony Greene walked in on the session and say him want to blow horns on the riddim,” he explained.

Tony Greene is a master saxophonist, producer and arranger who is well known in s music circles.

“Greene was listening to the session then him take over the session. When Gyptian sing, him say ‘stop singer, sing the part about Serious Times’ , this is what me want  you to do . Him direct him, ‘sing over his part’, stop  ‘continue from where you were’, then him say ‘stop, sing back the Serious Times part again’ and ting. The song was just a freestyle , it wasn’t an official official song. The part about the corner was rehearsed around  Wong studio , the corner part had phrases like  big batty gal inna it and we took out that cause it ah talk about serious times, so we can’t have big batty gal on the corner,” he recounted.

Wilson said he also contributed significantly to the production, especially in the mix of the song.

“We practiced that part but he didn’t have it  locked. You can ask Fatta, we had to literally cuss him to sing it and hold the note on the part about the corner so it could work . When it was being mixed, I had to tell Fatta to pull down this, bring up that and take down that until we got it to where it should be,” he explained.

The song was released on the Friends Records label, and then the hard part of the job began: the promotion.

“I called Scratchy B(a selector) and him say him nah run with no young artiste, and mi say yu have to buy the song when it ah come out cause mi serious about it. We went to a little stage show in Westchester (Portmore) and Gyptian  sang the song and the whole place erupt , then one of my friend who used to work for the company MiPhone said they were celebrating Bob Marley birthday up a Livity place and he wanted some artistes. I put him on to I Wayne and Bascom X, and I told him I have a young artiste and he said speak to his manager about putting Gyptian on the show. I spoke to his manager and she said yes. We went up there to do the show, and that’s when the whole thing just take off,” he said.

Serendipity intervened and ‘Spragga’ made a crucial link with IRIE FM broadcaster Mutabaruka that served as a catalyst for the song’s explosion onto the music scene.

“While at the show, I gave Muta a copy and Sonya Simms from IRIE copy . She told me can give disc jocks but can’t make dem play it, but the same night,  Muta played it the same time up ah Livity. He played it and he talked highly about it and then the artist performed afterwards. When Muta came on the radio a few days later, he played the song before him even talk , and then he spoke about it and played it again, he was the first man play it on IRIE FM,” he said.

Spragga also followed up with IRIE FM presenter Sonya Simms and sent her 18 copies which she distributed to all the disc jocks.

“Sonya gave everybody and Elise Kelly start play it. Then we started to campaign, we went to Weddy Weddy , Uptown Mondays , Boasy Tuesdays and mek the song play. Some nights, we go to all six sessions , even a Greenwich Farm stage show, there is no Friday where we no out a campaign, anywhere a drum pan de, we mek it play,” he said.

The song took off like a ballistic missile in Westmoreland as well.

“I had a rasta friend from Westmoreland carried it to Vybz FM and it buss ah Westmoreland before it buss a town, me never even  know that. ,Vybz Fm play it until it become the hottest ting. Kurt Riley told us the story that the song ah lock down the place. He went to my friend for the song and asked him for it and my friend say he is not giving it to him, he’s going to give him a number and he can call for it and pick up the song , and that s how Kurt Riley start play it, then Zip FM make it an anthem playing it every hour on the hour,” Wilson reminisced.

Serious Times went on to top several radio charts in Jamaica and overseas. The single appeared on Strictly the Best for VP Records and Greensleeves reggae compilation.

“Serious Times will always be a relevant song in the Jamaican context, it is a song everyone can relate to,” Wilson said.

Eventually, Wilson voiced Anthony Cruz,  Chrisinti, Lutan Fyah, Perfect and others on the same rhythm but none of them matched the success of Gyptian’s Serious Times.

Wilson said he has never done a media interview about the success of the song. He only recorded Gyptian once when he did Hold Yuh with Gyptian, but Lady Luck was not with him that time.  Wilson had converted to Christianity at the time and had cut ties with secular music.

“Gyptian licked over the riddim for the song and produced it himself with another producer from New York. The song hit the Billboard and made history. I have no problem with that because once you create something great, you can do it again,” Wilson said.

Wilson revealed that has no regrets about his conversion to Christianity, and missing out on a chance to record Hold Yuh.

“Once you have greatness in you, people will always copy and follow you. I was young and naive and I took time to learn business, which publishing company, what rights the artistes have, learn about split sheets, I know about management and production, and. I know it like the back of my hand,” he said.

Wilson said he is working with a new reggae artiste called Aden Mitchell, and is promoting a new song called Everyday. The song was released on all streaming platforms and was uploaded on Youtube on May 3.

Gyptian told The Gleaner in an interview last year that the Serious Times song remains relevant today, and that the world is still living in serious times.

“These are indeed some serious times and even the blind can see. It’s crazy how much things are happening, and just when we think we’ve had enough, something else happens,” he told a reporter.

“That song was done for a reason. When me sing ‘yuh see yuh wake up this morning, yuh better give thanks. Yuh don’t know if you’re gonna live to see tomorrow’, a nuh joke thing, man. The way things a run right now, waking up every morning is a blessing,” Gyptian, whose real name is Windell Edwards, added.

“Back then when I did this song, some might say they didn’t think there would be a worse time than at that time because so much was happening in terms of crime and violence and so on. But, if you really look at things and compare what was happening then to what is happening now, it has got worse. Everybody can see fi dem self say everything turn up a notch now. It is safe to say that Serious Times will be one of those songs that will forever be relevant.”