A “Royal” Interview With Reggae Star Jesse Royal About His New Album And Inspirations

Reggae star Jesse Royal is on the verge of releasing his highly anticipated sophomore album Royal on June 11. Having already released Natty Pablo, Lion Order with Protoje, Rich Forever with Vybz Kartel, and Dirty Money with Stonebwoy from the upcoming project, the Modern-Day Judas singer seems ready for a big follow up to his chart-topping debut album Lily Of Da Valley. Natty Dread, the fifth song revealed from the 11-track project, was released on Friday.  In this ride-or-die anthem, he confesses his devotion for his Queen on an infectious dub riddim, produced by Sean Alaric.

As one of the front runners of the Reggae Revival that began in the 2010s, Jesse Royal has been one of the genre’s leading lights. DancehallMag got to touch base with him for an interview, where he shed some light on the new album, Royal, and what inspires him musically.

What is the main inspiration behind the album Royal?

The main inspiration behind this album was my perspective as well as where I am in life. To me, it’s important to recall chapters as you go along and this is no different.

Did you feel any pressure to outdo Lily of Da Valley?

No, I absolutely do not feel any pressure. For me, each body of work is its own body of work. You do your best at everything that you do and you keep it moving. We really don’t look back and hope or wish that we did anything different because every step on the ladder is necessary.

Which song is your favorite on the album?

Well, it’s very hard to pick a favorite but I think the favorite for me is Home because it’s such an honest conversation to my daughters. I think it’s something a lot of fathers around the world will identify with.

Which feature on the album are you most proud of?

Well, that’s a very hard question, you nah mean? Every single feature was deliberate. We wanted to go for individuals that would help us to paint the picture in the best way possible to make it palatable to as many people as possible. So every one of the features important; from Runkus to Kumar to Stonebwoy to we bredda Vybz Kartel – every single collaboration was deliberate.

What was your biggest obstacle in making this album?

I think the biggest obstacle for this time period or creating the album was just the inability to really connect with other individuals that were helping me around the whole album process. Corona came and kinda shift up everything and forced us to start finding new ways of communicating and normalizing communicating in other ways.

How has covid affected your movement in music?

Covid hasn’t really affected my music’s movement seeing that my music isn’t affected by the disease (laughs). The music keeps traveling and it took on even more wings seeing that people needed inspiration, people needed hope, people needed a way out, you know. So we glad seh our music could be of service to people inna dem time ya.

If you were to enlist this album for a purpose, what would it be?

I think it would just have to be honest, that’s the best way to describe this project.

What inspires Jesse Royal?

Well, Jesse Royal is inspired by life itself. A big part of my inspiration is my family, you know, my daughters, queen, and as mi seh life in itself. We live. learn, accept, acknowledge but we also try to understand and we try to help and we try to be the change that we want to see.

It’s not always as easy as it sounds but this takes a lot of courage to branch out and entertain new ideas and directly try to develop the holistic idea of what you and your brand is. So there is times where tings rough but life itself is the greatest inspiration, it’s not something we take for granted.

What’s next for Jesse Royal?

I think the next thing for Jesse Royal is really just taking over the world (laughs). That is the next move.

Royal will be available on June 11, 2021, via Easy Star Records.