Jah Dale’s Career Soaring after Recording with Top M Records

Fast-rising recording artiste, Jah Dale, says his career is finally taking off since he landed in the studios with the newly established record label, Top M Records. Dale revealed these statements in an exclusive interview with Mckoy’s News recently.

 Jah Dale, whose given name is Vincent Hill, hails from the beautiful parish of Hanover, where he resided in a community called Hopewell. At age 16, Dale said he relocated from Hopewell to Montego Bay and shortly after, at age 19, he started his career in music. However, he did not start recording professionally until 2 years ago.  As a proud past student from the Merlene Ottey High School, the artiste told Mckoy’s News that his first involvement in the arts initiated from a tender age while he was attending Bethel primary and Junior High School. However, upon leaving his alma mater, Merlene Ottey High, it blossomed into a greater passion for music.

“At Bethel Primary and Junior High, I was a nerd but I always liked doing drama, I liked entertainment from dem time. When I left Bethel and started attending Merlene Ottey, I started singing for my school’s choir… I wrote my first song for a competition at Merlene Ottey…it was for a JCDC [Jamaica Cultural Development Commission] competition and that’s where my first exposure came from;” Dale recalled as he burst into laughter on the onset of reminiscing on his past.

He further revealed that despite his school not winning the competition with his song entry, his determined spirit and ambitious nature were what propelled him into still pursuing a musical career.

“My school didn’t win though but I never give up! About five (5) years ago, I re-entered on my own for JCDC…and I came second…thereafter, Digicel called me to perform at a show…I’ve been doing music over 20 years now and it’s been a rough road fa me but each time I fail, I try again” the artiste sternly stated.

However, the “Up Now” recording artiste said that due to his ambition to always try after being hit down with obstacles, he finally started seeing an upward movement in his career after being introduced to Top M Records, two (2) years ago.

“I have my ups and downs but since the past two (2) years since I’ve met Top M Records, I started seeing progress. I have worked with a lot of popular producers and it wasn’t working out so I decided to stop doing music until someone introduced Top M to me and mi start back mi journey from dehso again. It’s a joy working with Top M! He [Antonio Mckoy] is a good producer and he is travelling with me on my journey right now and he’s doing a lot for me and I really appreciate the time that he is spending with my career;” expressed Jah Dale, with great humility.

Breaking the ice and nostalgia Dale went into while reminiscing on the struggling journey, bumps and bruises of his past life throughout his career, our reporter revived the atmosphere with the artiste bursting into laughter after being asked the story behind coining the name ‘Jah Dale’ from his birth name ‘Vincent Hill.’

“Vincent is my birth name but it sounds like a old man name! Since I started music, I’ve changed three (3) names; the first name I started using was ‘Chipmunk’ because mi cudda actually speak like dem [Alvin and the Chipmunks]. A guy who did music also, buss out big with the same name so I had to change it to another name.”

“I used to link with the recording artiste, Gyptian, and he gave me the name ‘3 Bills.’ How this name come about now…they sent me to shop and I bring back his change and the change that left out of the money is ‘3 bills…’ I was also looking to change the name ‘Chipmunks’ so they said that’s the name I should use and ‘3 Bills’ just stuck on me but I wasn’t comfortable with the name so I had to change it.”

“I changed it from ‘3 Bills’ to ‘Jah Dale’ because mi couldn’t find no hit song with the name ‘3 Bills’ because mi neva comfortable with the name, it sound cheap. So, ‘Dale’ is my given pet name and I was singing cultural songs suh mi seh let mi just add ‘Jah’ to it and that’s how the name ‘Jah Dale’ come about… Jah Dale is a good artiste yuh nuh, all the ladies love Jah Dale!” He confidently boasts as he is now creating a wave of new positive and uplifting music which speaks to life, societal issues and also his personal life situations, under the staged name ‘Jah Dale.

On that note, the versatile artiste went further into highlighting the genres of music that he has been undertaking with his freshly branded name and overall mission under the Top M label.

“I do a wide range of songs of several genres; I do Gospel, Reggae, Dancehall, I go as far as to do EDM type of music. Mi love sing fi di ladies and mi love singing mi cultural songs but I can do every genre! I’m very versatile when it comes on to music;” he humbly bragged.

In support of the above statement, three of the artiste’s latest singles, ‘Up Now,’ ‘Cold World,’ and ‘Power of Prayers’ all showed a different side, vocal ranges and versatility throughout their lyrics, melody and tone. Dale narrowed in on the reasons and inspirations as to why these 3 singles were penned as such.

“Popular artiste, Brysco and I are friends and he came to support me at one of my staged shows; [during this time,] him and [the artiste] Valiant were in some friction and I decided to step in and support Brysco and answer Valiant for him and that’s how ‘Up Now’ came about.”

“Cold World is a song weh mi write when I was going through some depression. At the time I wrote this song, I was living back in Hopewell with my mother, some things started to go bad and she got upset, put mi out, put out mi clothes and everybody turn their backs on me; so, I wrote that song. ‘Cold World’ is a very deep song and it took me only one day to write this song…normally when mi inna dem state deh, [depression], it gives me mi best songs.”

“‘Powers of Prayer’ was also written when I was having some depressing moments, I never have nobody to turn to and I was in my bed listening to a song on YouTube and mi start write the song and a seh ‘who else mi fi turn to if it’s not Father God?’ Because when I’m down, he’s the only one I can turn to and pray to…not even five (5) minutes it took me to write this song and that’s one of my BIGGESST songs right now!” Jah Dale revealed, as he also emphasized that songs such as ‘Powers of Prayer’ is receiving the most feedbacks and is what most of his fans are currently gravitating towards because many people are seeking sources of encouragement and upliftment in times like these and he stated that he has a lot more songs like ‘Powers of Prayers’ in store that’s coming soon.

Dale further stated that based on these positive feedbacks, inspirations and progress he has been seeing since recording under the label, Top M Records, he is destined for greatness and does not see himself parting ways with this label any time soon.

“I want to work with Top M for the rest of my life because I’m a very loyal person and when no one else wanted to work with Jah Dale, Top M came and work with me. I’ve recorded songs for a lot of ‘big name’ producers, one in particular, I did 15 songs with and only one (1) of those songs was released…perhaps they are waiting until I get the big break then they drop the rest of songs I recorded but Top M naah ‘itch. He’s doing things for me that no other producer did for me…Top M did great things for me;” Dale said in a tone of great appreciation.

Despite the up-and-coming artiste still in the early days of his career, he strongly believed that this path on his musical journey was destined to be a part of his fate as he revealed to Mckoy’s News that he is from a musical family. He said his father was also a musician and his mom also sings for her church’s choir; therefore, he believed he was ‘born for this.’

 

The ambitious and outgoing Dale said that despite the genre of music he rather to specialize in, he has been rubbing shoulders with quite a few established artistes such as ‘Major Mackerel,’ ‘Teejay’ and ‘Brysco’ for whom Dale expressed he has written some songs that are yet to be released. He also said he is not bias against any artiste and is open to work on a collaboration with any artiste who is willing to work with him at this time.

Music speaks to people’s emotions and mood in various ways and settings but Jah Dale thinks the majority of his current and most popular songs speaks deeply and is mainly impacting people who are depressed and seeking a way out.

“Its creating a great impact, especially for persons in a state of depression as it reminds them to always believe in themselves and motivate them…Everywhere I go to perform, my songs are so powerful. I’m a good writer, a good entertainer suh mi get good feedback all the time; other promoters often book me for another event after seeing how I perform at one event,” the artiste added.

Jah Dale is also appealing to his fans to look out for his new EP (Extended Play), named after his popular single, ‘Powers of Prayer’ that is set to be release soon with a medley of mix, featuring various artistes such as, ‘Brysco’ and ‘Ashley B.’ He promised that this EP will uplift and entertain everyone, including “his ladies.”

With a few words of encouragement in wrapping his interview, the positive artiste said he wants to empower more people through his music and be the result to prove to others that hard work and believing in one’s self can help individuals to achieve.

“Especially to the young youths dem right now, have love, faith, work hard and believe in yourself because anything weh dem want, if dem work hard dem can achieve it! People, just look out fi Jah Dale because Jah Dale is coming with a lot of hit songs and also look out for Top M; spread the love!” he concluded.

If you wish to listen to Jah Dale’s music and keep up to date with his musical journey, he can be found on YouTube at ‘Jah Dale Official,’ on Instagram as, ‘Official Jah Dale,’ and on TikTok as ‘1 Jah Dale.’

 

Mckoy’s Staff Writer | Natasha Willia