Anthony Cruz finds comfort in his own songs

For reggae singer Anthony Cruz, the news of the death of his daughter in 2017 was devastating.

The horror of his only daughter being shot and killed, allegedly by her stepfather, was worse than his worst nightmare. But, Rastafarian Cruz endured, and he credits music as the bulwark that helped to keep him grounded, balanced and focused. And, in a twist of fate, it was his own music which sometimes comforted him in times of trouble, making him stop in his tracks and ask the unthinkable.

"Can you believe it? It was my own music that come back to inspire me. When you hear it, is like a boomerang. I did affi ask myself, 'Just imagine if yuh was putting out some gun songs and then lose yuh daughter by gun violence?'" he quizzed.

DISAPPOINTED

"I would be so disappointed in myself," he mused. Cruz added that he heard his own songs - Only The Father, Watch Over Me and Shanice - playing on the radio when he was at his lowest, and it was a moment for him to reflect.

The singer said that Shanice was a song he had written for his daughter on the day she was born, but it wasn't until her passing, 15 years after, that it started receiving quite a bit of airplay.

In February 2017, Shanice and her then newlywed mother were allegedly killed by her mother's husband. He is accused of shooting them and confessing the crime to a 911 dispatcher in Sunrise, Florida, police said. The case is still before the court.

The Rastafarian artiste, who is now working on his seventh album, to be released by Tads International Records, said that he has been focusing totally on music since then. However, there are still some days, when things just seem surreal.

"I'm good, but it still lingers in my mind," Cruz told The STAR. "Sometimes me two foot dem numb up. The shock. All me head top, is like me head did out fi buss. But mi just look to the Most High and sing, sing, and mek that be my therapy," he said.