Samory I doesn’t want youth to share his scars - Singer decries violence among Jamaican youngsters

"I don't want any youth to have my experience," said Samory I, as he revealed several scars by removing his shirt to cool down after a 30-minute performance at the Lost In Time Festival.

Speaking to THE STAR, he explained that each scar told a story of a life that "I was saved from". He expressed optimism that his music is capable of saving other youths from similar fates.

Samory I said, "I was one of those youths who was most driven by hardcore dancehall music ... see the scars on my body... mine are from age 15. My experience in the world is very different but it brought me to where I am today."

The reggae artiste decried the increase in reports of crime and violence involving juveniles, and the rise of said behaviour among Jamaican students. He also made a public plea with the Government to intervene to find a solution, right before his performance of the 2022 single Blood in the Streets. Samory I said that he has been distressed recently, hearing news headlines of high school students harming each other and of youth being murdered across the island.

A past student of the Norman Manley High School, Samory I was raised in the Kencot area in the inner-city of St Andrew. He shared that he had witnessed a few fights among his peers.

"I attended a government school in Maxfield Park but I never seen no one stab anybody to death on a school compound, which we are hearing about these days. Everybody moving too fast, people just need to slow down, and the youths them don't want to look up to a doctor or lawyer. They find satisfaction out of looking up to scammer or a don, and that is not the way," he said. "Why not look up to a baller instead bredda? It is because some artistes are leading the youths down a [negative] path, and I can say that because of how the music had an impact on me as a youth."

He said that the life-changing experience which made him consider reggae music to deliver positive messages and raise awareness of the issues plaguing the inner-city communities, left him nursing several gunshot wounds.

"Me get shot up. This wasn't even in the community I was raised, because my bredrin dem from school never come from where I did [so] me leave from my area and go strengthen fi dem block," he said.

Samory I's breakout single Rasta Nuh Gangsta, which was released in 2017, currently has more than nine million views on YouTube. He is featured on two Grammy-nominated albums, Jesse Royal's Royalin 2021 on the single High Tide or Low, and Protoje's Third Time's The Charm on Heavy Load.

"Not many survive or live from the experience I had to be able to do something positive, and I'm hoping the people are listening to the message in the music," Samory I said.