STAR of the Month : Agent Sasco salutes his musical heroes

When Agent Sasco was known as Assassin, the then-aspiring dancehall deejay emulated the flows, styles and gaits of local contemporary musical icons like Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Spragga Benz and Professor Nuts.

The STAR of the Month confessed that he spent a lot of his time trying to learn as much as he could about Capleton. These men were once his musical heroes, until he stepped into the spotlight himself. 

“There became a time in my development when it was less about the individual and more about the music itself," Agent Sasco said.

Now, after gaining his own experience in the music industry, the father of three considers any and all positive influences and significant contributions 'heroic works'.

"In terms of heroes, musically, I would say (that is) anybody who ever contribute anything positive or anything noted to this industry, engineer and musician and everybody. Somebody like Dave Kelly — production-wise, Penthouse, King Jammy, and all of that heritage, Steely and Cleevie and all of these people who fortunately I got the chance to work with," he explained. 

On a personal note, the dancehall artiste highlighted his father as his hero.

"Mi father is my hero, pon a levels — for the kind of example he is as a man, in many respects. I appreciate that I had that sort of influence," he said.

He also mentioned several teachers throughout his primary and high school career, whose influence he notes as positively affectations. 

Following the regularly visited question, if local musical legend Bob Marley should be honoured with the National Hero title, Agent Sasco offered: "The emotional response would be yes, but mi nuh know what the prerequisites are, or the qualifications fi be a national hero. Based pon that, mi cyaa answer. Suppose yuh cyaa be a hero if you do X, Y, or Z?"

He said from an emotional standpoint, of course Bob Marley would be considered, for his contribution to the culture.

He noted that just by going around the world, you see the kind of impact that he had. But he cautioned: "Once again, the answer (to whether he should be a national hero) can’t go without the other part. Mi nuh know if because the whole world know yuh music, dat mean seh yah hero. Everybody know Michael Jackson music. Is he a hero? Who knows what the qualifications are."