Interview: How Dancehall Sensation 10Tik Walks ‘The Real Way’

The soul of the city never sleeps.

Just ask Dancehall sensation 10Tik, whose grimy and emotive delivery is so genuine in chronicling what he has seen and experienced that listeners from all walks of life identify with his narratives.

“I talk about the things that I’ve seen, heard – stories that I witnessed on my own and events that happened in my country,” 10Tik, the man behind the breakthrough 2021 hit Roll Deep, told DancehallMag.

10Tik has been trending on YouTube with his newest banger, The Real Way, and its stark depiction of murders and betrayals has tongues wagging.

Produced by Swardawg Records, the single is elevated by a grimy music video directed and shot by 9mileVisualz. Despite the macho street theatre and gunplay in the video, 10Tik believes it is an honest portrayal of the asphalt visions that dominate inner-city life.

“This video does not promote violence rather the prevention of it. This is a real look in the life of the inner city. Nuff wise man say ah only the nearest person to you can hurt yu. So nuff things you hear over the media about that man getting or this man getting killed, the reason why it is not affecting society as we see it is because it is between close friends and families and people closely affiliated closely to one another. So at the end of the day, we can’t say we ah link and we have these thoughts about each other,” he mused.

“Everybody have to just be real and be a warrior, and know say ah protection we ah pree. We anno the enemy and if one of we ah the enemy beside we, that is one of the most dangerous things ever,” he said.

10Tik told DancehallMag that real-life experiences color his musical output. “Right afoot we see people dead. And we know say ah people we know mek this happen but we just don’t know a who,” he said.

On The Real Way, he croons in his trademark voice dripping with the pain of centuries-old suffering: “Uno nah go come cry over my grave. Hypocrites stay out a mi way. Mi nuh have fi pretend and play from early out mi make uno know uno naa come smile in a face and as mi move yuh a program mi head.”

The former firefighter explained one of his signature phrases: ‘soul of the city never sleeps’.

“The soul of the city ah the part of the city that determines itself as never sleeping, which is the inner city, which is the ground-level people, people who rely on road to make a money, who rely on services, helpers, security officers, people who can’t sleep at night time.”

“No matter what time of the night, there is still a heart beat, if you want weed, there is a place to get weed, if you want gas, there is a spot to get gas, even when all gas stations locked, if you want pum pum,  you can get it, no matter how you see the road look, the soul of the city never sleeps,” 10Tik added.

The Real Way was released on June 3 and currently has over 520,000 views on YouTube.