With around 18 years of career in Reggae Dancehall, Jah Fabio takes joyous accounts these days after his most recent singles with great music stars, days from their respective premieres, they will immediately add millions of reproductions on digital platforms. In conversation with Reggae Chalice, the Mexican artist advances projects and recounts his joys and difficulties in this long musical journey.
Originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, Favio Velasco - better known as Jah Fabio- prepares to meet 40 years of life with great projects for this 2021. As a child, his dream was to be a professional footballer, between the 6 and even the 17 years he concentrated his efforts to achieve it without much success. This is how music knocked on his door in his early years as a college student and from then on he hasn't stopped..
This is how his most recent singles reveal it. “Elegant”, with the famous Jamaican artist Tommy Lee Sparta Y Cashan, island artist on the rise, reached number one 2 from the ITunes Reggae Charts on the same day of its release, being the first Mexican to achieve this merit; while "I am a star”, remix version of “Elegant” that has the participation of English Ed Sheeran, Only in its first week of release did it exceed one million views on digital music giant Spotify.
“It is more than a dream to be able to make songs with artists that I heard at the time and now being able to have a song with and have that relevance that the song is achieving is very important for dancehall in general and for dancehall in Spanish. (…) many times the press is not very focused on dancehall and reggae, being that it is one of the most important musical genres around the world and that they have contributed a lot to today's popular music ", express.
Almost two decades after his foray into music, after 10 years in the band Natty Congo and later as a soloist, Jah Fabio has positioned himself as the Mexican Reggae Dancehall artist with the greatest international recognition and with the greatest incursion in Jamaica, a market difficult to conquer from the Latin world mainly due to the language barrier, and also because of the cultural barrier. Even so, Jah Fabio managed to enter the market by signing with the Danger Zone Music Group label and also working with Contractor Music. He is also the first and only Latin artist to perform at the most important festival on the island., reggae Sumfest in 2018.
"Entering the musical circle of Jamaica is completely difficult. I have worked easy 7 years trying to get in and a couple of years ago I started stronger. I think it is very important that Reggae and Latin Dancehall artists are interested in going to Jamaica, in trying to get in and understand how music is made, try to keep updating to be able to make the genre grow in Latin America because sadly the genre is backward at least 20 years", he claimed.
The Mexican added that on the island “people respect me and that is something that cannot be paid for with money.. You have to walk through its streets, meet the people, soak up the culture that is the most beautiful thing, soak up the culture and try to defend it on your side beyond exploiting it, beyond appropriating something that is not yours, Unlike, what I want is to spread that culture and for people to get to know it not because they know Jah Fabio but so that they know where everything comes from ”.
With 5 studio records, in the last 3 Jah Fabio has traveled to Jamaica intermittently for years and has recruited collaborations with great artists from the world scene such as Fidel Nadal., Spice, Gyptian, Nando Boom, among others. He anticipates that this year he should release a new combination with nothing more and nothing less than Vybz Kartel, so he also has upcoming works with Bounty Killer in the portfolio, Charly Black y Teejay.
Months after recording his part for the song with Vybz Kartel, the artist confesses that he still cannot believe it and plans its premiere for December of this year.
"With Vybz Kartel and Ed Sheeran the same thing happened, They told me do you want to record with him? what if, I recorded it and it was a very good thing. Now that I see the results (of what happened with Sheeran) They are blessings of God that are there and that you have to take advantage of them, life is only one and God knows why he does things ", commented.
All of the above is just the beginning of what this has been 2021 for Jah Fabio. The Mexican artist is already fully working on his next album scheduled for the second semester, a strictly Reggae Roots EP by 7 tracks that will feature the collaborations of Norris Man, Lutan Fayah, Fantan Mojah, y Sizzla.
While planning to return to the island in July to continue with his projects, anticipates that he is making a documentary about his life and his foray into Jamaica. JAH Fabio's goal is “to continue working, keep growing, continue making Dancehall and Reggae music ”that has given him so much joy.