DJKaas.com Dancehall and Reggae Music and News
Singer King Mas is ready to strike gold with his latest single Walk Like a Champion. The song samples the Buju Banton recording of the same name, which was a massive hit in the mid 1990’s.
Walk Like a Champion is accompanied by several mixes. King Mas explained why he decided to update the Banton recording.
‘I was born in Boston and growing up in the 1990’s Buju Banton was one of the first voices I remember hearing out of Jamaica and being drawn to as a small child being raised in the states. I’ve always enjoyed fusing the Hip-Hop/R&B/Soul culture I grew up around with the culture of the Caribbean community that I was raised in’, said King Mas.
Listen King Mas ft Anto Neosoul – Walk Like A Champion
He added’ I decided to revamp the classic “Champion” concept and wrote/compose the tune in Boston on the acoustic guitar originally. I recorded the guitar parts in “The Trap” studio out in Los Angeles with my brother “Mitymaose” where he laid down the rest of the riddim track barring the keyboard which was played by Raymond “Ray Keys” Komba (who is of Nigerian descent). Supporting vocals are contributed by an amazing R&B vocalist/songwriter/producer/arranger, and extended family member Varren Wade out of the UK who is also of a Jamaican background. The goal is to give every empress with dignity a tune to “walk out” to in the dance without feeling in any way degraded which is hard to come by in modern dancehall music’.
The version of Walk Like a Champion that the artiste has thrown his muscle behind is the one which features Anto Neosoul.
‘Kanyi Felix made the link with Anto Neosoul. Felix was born and raised out in Nairobi and is the producer behind the official remix. Upon hearing that I was putting together a remix project, he informed me that he had a singer that he wanted to bring in on the project. Anto Neosoul really blew me away. His tone of voice is very unique and many will assume that it’s a female’s voice which is reminiscent of “Jesse Powell” and other male vocalists who sing in a higher vocal register than the average male’ King Mas explained.
King Mas is from musical leanings. Born Glenford Prospere, his mother is from Clarendon, Jamaica while his father, Supreme the former Calypso Monarch winner from Montserrat.
He described his musical journey.
‘It has often been a solitary and winding road being so far from the epicenter of reggae music, which will always be Jamaica. Through the strength of the message, and the depth of the ancestral connection, I have still managed to link with many other musical warriors along the way in spite of my physical isolation. This is what the “Bantu Nation Movement”, my label, is about. The mission is reconnecting the African family across the globe so that we are no longer defined by a limited, parochial perspective’, he said.
King Mas made his recording debut over a decade ago but began to take the art seriously when he dropped his first mix tape New Millennium Rasta in 2010.
‘The mix tape was almost entirely recorded and mixed in the home studio my brother and I shared in Boston at the time. It was a learning experience and neither the resources nor the team were there at that time to have things as “polished” as they could have been. However, it was a start. One must lift stones today in order to move mountains tomorrow’, he shared.
A dancehall version of Walk like a Champion was produced by DJ 3D, son of veteran sound system selector, Delano Thomas of the Renaissance Disco.
King Mas whose uncle Everton ‘Reality’ Weekes wrote the massive hit Hot, Hot, Hot for Calypso singer Arrow in the 1980’s, says he intends to use his voice as a tool for the voiceless to uplift and edify people from all walks of life, through sound and vibration.
