‘The Harder They Fall’ Director Jeymes Samuel Says It Was ‘Only Right’ He Got Barrington Levy For Soundtrack

The Harder They Fall film director Jeymes Samuel has said that he knew that it would only be befitting that he drafted Jamaican Reggae/Dancehall icon Barrington Levy to feature a soundtrack in the western film.  In fact, the respect that Samuel has for Levy dates back to his childhood days in London, with the hook of the song having been cemented in his mind from then.

“I used to hear Barrington Levy’s Here I Come as a kid: ‘I’m broad, I’m broad, I’m broader than Broadway.  Yes I’m broad, I’m broad, I’m broader than Broadway,’” the film director explained, in an interview with the esteemed men’s magazine GQ.

“I used to hear horses galloping. It’s only right when I make my movie that I can get Barrington Levy to come into the studio,” he told GQ.

Barrington Levy joins Koffee as Reggae/Dancehall stars whose voices will feature on soundtracks for the action/adventure all-black Western film which stars Jonathan Majors, Zazie Beetz, Idris Elba, Regina King, LaKeith Stanfield and Delroy Lindo, and others.

Although the interview was undertaken to discuss what GQ describes as the “incredibly stylized” film, with a “lot of swag”, Levy’s name and film score are mentioned by Samuel several times throughout.

“Here’s the thing: those characters in real life were swagged out. And I think black people, no matter where we are, we are really image conscious… so for me I just made the western that’s in my head, I make the movie that’s in my head like Barrington Levy’s cinematic score,” Samuel says at another point during the interview.

GQ also pointed out how the movie-maker was able to seamlessly able to “break into song, or break into song and sound effect, like when he does a rousing impression of the reggae singer Barrington Levy’s vocal runs while slamming a table to create the sensation of horses galloping, and explain how he matched the sound to the score”.

In its review of the film, the Chicago Sun Times gushed about the “soundtrack of the year, which features everything from a remix of Barrington Levy’s seminal reggae tune ‘Here I Come’ to ‘Let’s Start’ by Afrobeat icon Fela Kuti (with Ginger Baker) to a new tune called ‘Guns Go Bang’ from Jay-Z (who is also a producer on the film) and Kid Cudi”.

In highlighting the songs’ impact, Timeout.com noted that “the monster reverb on Barrington Levy’s heavily used ‘Here I Come’ alone may blow your cinema (or TV) speakers,” in the film which it described as “a western with a sound system hitched to the back”.

Produced by Paul “Jah Screw” Love, Here I Come has been sampled in 31 songs according to WhosSampled.com.   These included tracks from American superstars including The Coming by Black Eyed Peas in 2010, Angel by the Game featuring Common in 2008 and Ready or Not (Salaam’s Ready for the show Remix) by the Fugees featuring Steady Rider in 1996.

Here I Come, has also featured in Saints Row 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Levy, 57, is also best known for hits such as Prison Oval Rock, Black Roses, Too Experienced, Murderer, Living Dangerously—a collab with Bounty Killer, Collie Weed, Shine Eye Girl and Work.

He was among a group of elite artists, namely Bounty Killer, Buju Banton and Capleton, who were drafted by Palestinian-American producer DJ Khaled earlier this year for the collaboration Where You Come From, which featured on his Khaled Khaled album.

Born in 1964 in Clarendon, Jamaica, as a youngster, Barrington Levy formed the Mighty Multitude with his cousin Everton Dacres. The duo made their entry into music by working on sound systems and recorded their first single, My Black Girl in 1977.    At age 14, he recorded his debut solo single, A Long Time Since We Don’t Have No Love.

In 1984, Levy teamed up with producer Jah Screw to record the hit Under Mi Sensi before recording Here I Come, the title track for the album of the same name.   The song climbed to the UK  Top 50 charts and the album, which was comprised of 12 tracks including the Here I Come,  Under Mi Sensi, Vibes Is Right, Real Thing, Moonlight Lover and A Ya We Deh among others,  garnered for Levy the Best Vocalist Award at Britain’s Reggae Awards.