Cen’C Love On Her Father Bunny Wailer’s Estate, New Single ‘Habibi’ And Upcoming Album Release In October
Reggae singer Cen’C Love, daughter of the late music icon Bunny Wailer, is back after a nine-year recording hiatus. She’ll release her drum-and-bass-heavy EP, Elephant, on October 5, while continuing to navigate affairs related to her father’s estate.
The lead single, Habibi, from that project will arrive next week, and she is excited about the prospects. “I’m fully rested, ” the artist whose real name is Ngeri Livingston, joked with DancehallMag.
“The anticipation is really high for Habibi. It’s really about fantasy lovers, a longing for physical connection. It can be a virtual computer love connection, a long distance relationship, where we share a spiritual or mental connection, even a crush.”
The Elephant EP has been in gestation for several years as she worked to finetune the themes and sounds, and now she is ready to midwife the album into screaming, professional life.
“I’ve been working on the music for this project for a few years. Writing, but mostly producing tracks. I’m a producer before I’m an artiste. I’m a very passionate musician, so it’s important for me to make that statement with any future projects. It’s easy for that to get lost under the hype.”
The project will be released via Glasswork 32. Some of the tracks which will be on the project include Real Life (Habibi), My Room, and The Devil. Cen’C Love will be dropping the Habibi track next week.
Why is the album called ‘Elephant’?
“The elephant is a powerful figure in various traditional cultures, as it symbolizes strength, wisdom, and good luck. Further, the elephant has a serious memory and memory is my legacy, it is a culmination of my upbringing in the US, my legacy is the Wailers, my love is reggae music, and plus, mi heavy…” she said, laughing.
“I will not be moved.”
Elephant is her second EP, coming 17 years after A Little More Time, her first. Love Letter, Cen’C Love’s sole album, was released in 2011.
NINE YEAR HIATUS
Cen C’ Love took a long hiatus from the recording side of the music business, and immersed herself in the publishing world as she attempted to regulate the business affairs of her late father, Bunny Wailer, who died in 2021.
Her last commercial release was “Heart to Heart” produced by Billboard-charting Rohan ‘Snowcone’ Fuller in 2012.
“The album was done during COVID in 2020, and then my dad got sick. So I rallied around my father, that was my primary focus and then when he passed, I had to take some time, but I am ready now,” she said.
Ms. Livingston now resides in Miami, Florida, her home state. She wears several hats, moonlighting as a director of Solomonic Productions Limited, writing and producing music, and running her own limited liability company, all while homeschooling her two kids.
“Florida just happens to be my birthplace. This is the best move I’ve ever made,” she said.
It has been a challenging situation, navigating the circuitous world of music publishing and intellectual property while fighting to keep her father’s incredible music legacy alive.
“It’s been a difficult journey. It was hard on my conscience to deliver my own project while my dad’s business was in a state of disarray. Right now, we have been making great progress, but we’re still dealing with some issues and as a result of that, I often put my own projects on the back burner, but this project is a gift of love because I really owe it to my fans,” she said.
Ms. Livingston is extremely frustrated with ‘inconsistencies’ in the administration of her father’s estate by Abijah Livingston (her brother), the executor of the Bunny Wailer estate.
“There still hasn’t been a probate (of the will) and we are probably a year away from the probate of my fathers will. The first co-executor, Carlton Livingston, applied for probate in 2021, but Abijah stopped that process and he hasn’t completed the probate process so the estate is in limbo,” he said.
The estate’s co-executor Carlton Livingston, Bunny Wailer’s brother, eventually passed away in 2023, leaving Abijah as the sole executor. The music icon Bunny Wailer died in 2021.
“It’s been four years….four long years. Daddy worked so hard to own his intellectual property and my brother is doing everything to undo my father’s hard work, but it won’t happen on my watch. I am working within the law to address some of the issues with the company, Solomonic Production, but the estate business will resolve itself,” she said.
At the time of Bunny Wailer’s death, the directors of the Solomonic Productions Limited were Maxine Stowe, Carlton Livingston (deceased) , Jean Watt (presumed missing), Abijah Livingston and Ngeri Livingston. As it stands, Jean Watt who has been missing since 2020 and Abijah Livingston are the only directors of the company’s documents.
“Since the passing of my father, Bunny Wailer, any changes made to the structure of the company and the passing along of the IP and masters rights, were premature and illegal,” Cen C Love said.
She believes that her upcoming EP will help to honour her father’s legacy.
“It’s not that I’m putting my father’s business aside to focus on my music, it’s all part of the work we did. He always drilled into me that I need to have my own label. He was very serious about owning whatever we make and create. So this is album is all a part of honouring him. We have more opportunities coming up as it relates to Bunny Wailer’s IP and we have to present a clear and unified business structure if we are to take full advantage of these opportunities,” she said.
Cen C’Love is known for the radio hit single Casanova from the ‘Love Letter’ album, and her standalone single, Little More Time.