Stay true to yourselves - Artistes advise students at music conference

February 14, 2020
Skorcha
Skorcha

The importance of staying true to oneself was perhaps one of the biggest lessons taught at the seventh annual staging of the Jamaica Music Conference.

Held at the Courteligh Auditorium in New Kingston on Thursday, the symposium saw young music professionals offering up advice to high school students who are desirous of entering the music business.

Young reggae artistes Lila Ike and Skorcha were part of the five-member panel who discussed challenges facing music professionals today.

Skorcha, son of reggae icon Sizzla, expressed that as the son of a musical icon, people often expect him to be a 'replica' but he always had his own style, flow and image.

"Being his son comes with a lot of expectations. People expect you to be just like him. We are one and the same but two different persons. My biggest challenge in music is to comfortably be myself and for people to accept me as I am. I want people to understand that I'm different from my father. I live on his music but I am not him," he said, explaining his 'Rasta Rockstar' moniker.

He said that he came up with that moniker by "just trying to describe myself".

"The name symbolises freedom and difference. It symbolises the importance of expressing one's true self while still remaining conscious," he said. "We, as youth, we kinda do things a little bit different and a lot of the old traditional type of thinking would bash that. But it's important that we stay true to who we are."

Not swayed by the crowd

When asked about her image, Lila Ike said that she was never tempted to 'follow the crowd'.

"I've never thought of doing what anybody else is doing because I always knew I had to invest inna wah me know I'm capable of and that's me doing exactly what I'm doing right now," she said. "I'm just a creative person by nature, so what I wear, how me talk, is just really and truly who I am. I understand that being a part of the entertainment industry, there needs to be some level of creativity and edge weh people a go take notice of. But in trying to establish that, yuh affi remember who you are."

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