Junior Reid Bats For Female First Offenders In US With New Foundation

International reggae star Junior Reid has made an appeal to the general public to support his new charitable organisation, the One Blood Freedom is a Must foundation, which is geared towards defending the rights of incarcerated women in the United States, who are first offenders.

“Some serious things ah reach women incarcerated in the USA, you have woman out there who get 33 years on a first offence and do 16 years and dem nah let them out. We need someone to stand up on the frontline, everybody need a chance in life, if you mek a mistake, it’s not the end of the world,” the One Blood singer told broadcaster Andrew Clunis during an interview on the Cultural Explosion show on The Bridge 99.9 FM on Tuesday night.

Reid revealed that he was inspired to take this course of action when his daughter, Tanya, was incarcerated in Aliceville after being sentenced on a drug charge alongside her boyfriend.

She has served five years of a nine-year sentence.

“There are some serious human rights abuses happening in Aliceville, Alabama… this is about defending the women…these women lock down for 72 hours, with only 7 minutes to look about themselves…limited access to medical care. I want to draw attention to what is going on in this Alabama prison. The woman is the backbone of the family, I have relatives in there, I have spoken to other inmates, they give them bread and water, bread with peanut butter, sardines and rice…,” he said passionately during the interview.

“If you don’t have food to feed the people dem, or water to give them, you should let them go, freedom is a must,” he said.

The Federal Correctional Institution, Aliceville is a medium-security United States federal prison for female inmates in Alabama. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice.

Mr. Reid is calling on the Jamaican government to do more to help Jamaican nationals incarcerated in the United States.

“People from other countries have their representatives who go and defend the welfare of their people who are incarcerated, at the end of the day, we need our Ministry of Foreign Affairs to intervene and defend the rights of Jamaican citizens. We need better conditions for inmates, even in our own institutions here in Jamaica,” he told DancehallMag.

On the music scene, Reid, who is known for the hit One Blood, revealed that he would be releasing a ‘collaboration album’ dubbed Collab Alert in June this year.

The album will feature collaborations with a slew of international artists such as Lil Wayne, Ghostface Killah and Busta Rhymes (It’s About to Go Down), Swizz Beatz, and Fetty Wap.

The single with Fetty is called ‘Milan’.

“We have a lot of big names, we have my daughter Kimio Reid on it, we have Juju Blood. I have a song called Freedom is a Must featuring me, Dave East and Juju Blood, this song about the movement, defending the rights of female first offenders,” he said.

A iconic reggae figure, Reid was the lead vocalist for Black Uhuru on three albums Brutal, Positive and Black Uhuru Live in New York. He is best known for the 1989’s One Blood which became an anthem for unity in the US and around the world.

West Coast hip hop artist The Game sampled Reid’ single for It’s Okay (One Blood) and the song peaked at #16 on the US rap singles chart. Reid also appeared on the Blackout remix of Mims’ This is Why I’m Hot from the rapper’s debut album becoming one of the most popular remixes made in 2007.

He also paired up with Lil’ Wayne in 2011 for Ghetto Youths Rock and Pom Pom, a remake of Reid’s own 1991 Dancehall hit Rappa Pam Pam.

He has also worked with rappers: Fabolous on the track Gangsta Don’t Play (2007), Fat Joe on More Money (2007), and Bun B on If It Was Up II Me (2008).

The Wu-Tang Clan recruited Reid for One Blood Under W and Jah World from the group’s The W album which was released in November 2000.