Kabaka Pyramid Declares 2023 His “Year Of Touring”
Grammy winner Kabaka Pyramid has claimed 2023, as his own “year of touring,” this as he announced a 14-city tour of the United States set for October.
The Well Done artist, who had declared himself the “hardest touring man inna Jamaica,” matched by only Sean Paul, during his performance at Reggae Sumfest in July, took to Instagram on Saturday to share the listing for what he said was his full US Fall tour schedule, spanning three weeks, to the delight of his fans.
“This is the KP Year Of Touring!!!” the Kontraband singer captioned a post with a caricature of himself.
The Campion High School graduate has had a very busy tour schedule since the start of the year. He kick-started the year as a headliner at Rebel Salute, a feat which was followed by an extensive list of shows spanning North America and sections of Western and Central Europe.
As for his upcoming tour, it kicks off on October 3 and ends on October 20. His last six shows will be held in California. Prior to that, he will also have shows in cities such as Denver, Seattle, and Virginia Beach, among others.
Kabaka also had California weekend performances on September 8, 9 and 10, two of which were sold out.
He was also booked for Spain’s Rototom Sunsplash, Germany’s Summer Jam, Reggae Land in the United Kingdom and Rise and Vibe in the US in the summer months.
In March and April, he had a UK/European Union tour for his Grammy-winning album The Kalling, spanning the UK, Germany, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic.
This tour saw him performing at 27 shows in 27 cities, including Brussels, Amsterdam, Munich, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris, Vienna, Rome and London.
Of his much-talked-about performance at Reggae Sumfest, where he had taken his detractors to task for questioning his Grammy win, Kabaka had explained in a recent Reggae Interviews discussion that he had valid reasons to be militant.
“We have to burn the fire because that’s one of the things people been complaining about, that there’s not that fiery energy in the music anymore. But I’ve always felt like I’ve spoken about the right topics that matter. People want us to talk about; things that not only have jeopardized Reggae music but people’s ability to tour over the years…,” he said.
“My thing was I really want to address issues like you know poverty and corruption in government and things that have a real impact on society or things that’s really affecting people’s day-to-day lives in Jamaica. We know what’s happening in the world we’re seeing where an entire generation of artistes couldn’t tour because they bun fire up on certain things,” he had added.
According to Kabaka, he was looking at the bigger picture and was following the approach of Emperor Haile Selassie I, who was highly diplomatic in his approach to issues.
“I just don’t really understand what people expect. And then there’s this whole thing about not being a real Rasta if you’re not burning out certain things as if His Majesty was here right now his top agenda item will be talking about people sexuality and all of them kind of things,” he said.
“So my thing is, me just try to look on the bigger picture and adjust things in a mature way…That’s what I learned from His Majesty. He’s always diplomatic with everything he’s doing, so that’s kind of the vibe and where my head space is at. But at the end of the day Reggae music is so important to the world, and we can’t do things that jeopardize Reggae music because the message where we put in the music is important for the world,” he added.
He continued: “We’ve seen revolutions happening because of our music and the ideas and words and sound put in the music. So we can’t jeopardize it just for hype and just for street credibility and all of them kind of thing. It don’t make no sense”.