Sea B promotes St Thomas on new album

Former Roots Uprising member Sea B is upset that his home parish of St Thomas is largely a 'forgotten parish', given what he considers the scant resources allocated to better the lives of its residents.

"St Thomas doesn't have any stoplights. There are several communities where it is not safe to drink the water or where people have to walk miles to catch drinking water. There is a brain drain from the parish as our best and brightest have to leave for greener pastures in the Corporate Area out of sheer desperation. St Thomas is indeed a forgotten parish," he said.

The parish has certainly endured a number of reversals in recent years, including the closure of the Goodyear tyre factory in 1997, along with the downsizing of sugar and banana production locally.

Sea B believes that the Government should try to develop more on the great heritage of the parish.

"St Thomas is culture-rich as it is the home of kumina, and the parish that boasts national heritage sites and monuments such as the Morant Bay Courthouse and Fort, Morant Point Lighthouse, Stony Gut, Stokes Hall Great House, Fort Lindsay, Fort William, among others. More must be done to celebrate these things and elevate the people," he said.

He uses his latest album, Journey Through Space and Time to tackle some of these hot-button cultural issues, and to bridge the generation gap between young and seasoned music lovers.

"I have some really strong social commentary material on this album paying attention to St Thomas and other issues affecting poor people. I just want to reach out to the bigger heads, like Bob Marley did, and hopefully this album can bring about some changes. We are tired of excuses from people; so if dem nah hear, the music will have to start giving them a whipping again," he said.

Sea B has already released one track from the album, titled Walk With You.

"The feedback has been so incredible, and I hope it pushes people to explore my other singles and, more than anything else, be aware of what is going on in my parish," he said.