What made you select Reggae as 'The' genre you want to work within the context of your radio show?
Reggae chose me! As a youth growing up in London in the 1970s there was an allure to Reggae because it had a worldview and said so much about what was going on in society at the time. It’s not the kind of music you get into as a fashion thing, and it’s not a trend that comes and goes with ‘being a teenager.’ Reggae stays with you for life. I started playing Reggae on radio in 1980 on University Radio Essex (URE). It was a great time to get into radio as a medium and the music was flourishing, so during those first five years, I learned a lot, so the music stayed with me since then.
Who [and/or what] are your main inspirations from Reggae?
Too many to list; there’s so much in Reggae from dancehall, roots, lovers rock, ska, and rocksteady. Jamaica has a tradition of producing talent, and there’s no place in the world like it. If I have to say one person though, it would be Bob Marley.
Why Bob Marley?
A combination of things. As a songwriter, he was exceptional, and he grafted so hard to get to where he got to in his short life span. Who could ever surpass ‘Redemption Song,’ which feels like all his songs are distilled into one solitary acoustic reasoning?
Did you do something else before radio shows in your music career?
No, I started radio and DJing around the same time, 1980, and began making it later in the same decade. The only thing I did before that was write poetry, starting at about the age of 14. I only took that more seriously beyond the late 1980s, when I had my first taste of performing poetry live, and that felt like fire; it was challenging in a very creative way. It’s an unusual route, I guess, but everything started from there, from poetry and then DJing.
Tell us about your experience being a music journalist.
That period of my development started in the mid-1980s and was very intensive for around a decade, with freelancing mainly about Reggae music for magazines in the UK and USA, such as Hip-Hop Connection, Straight No Chaser, On, Reggae Report USA and a few others. I enjoyed doing that because it felt more like doing ethnography with musicians. The key for me was to give people space to tell their stories, so reasoning with people like Jah Shaka, Burning Spear, Chakademus & Pliers, Cutty Ranks, Macka B, and Shaggy was an inspiration. I don’t do as much nowadays, and usually, it's online, but still, it's enjoyable - as long as the time zones can sync.
How did you make the kink with Riddim 1 Radio in Jamaica?
I have been on internet radio now for a while, starting out originally with pre-recorded shows on BigUp Radio in the USA from the mid-2000s. I then got more into the live net thing, which was a whole new ball game, which started from streaming at home, and then I made my own studio which developed in its own way. I met Dennis Howard at a conference some years back, and he knew about my radio shows, so after Riddim 1 was set up, he invited me to join. I was humbled by this; joining a station based in Jamaica had always been a goal to achieve because Jamaica is the foundation, the birthplace of Reggae heritage, and being a small part of that, contributing to it with a weekly radio show is crucial to me.
What would you say are the major shifts in Reggae you have witnessed in your time on air?
Too many to list. We have shifted formats from Vinyl to CD and digital/MP3, so equipment and studios have changed. It’s a lot tougher today for any musician in any genre to make a living out of selling music. The market has contracted, but in a way, it is all so virtual, digital and globally connected. Internet radio is one of the best things that ever happened to music because it has freed up the medium; things are more pluralistic, and there are thousands of choices, whereas, in the past, we had a handful. Musically, Reggae remains rooted and that’s great but at the same time, it’s kind of lost its way. Sometimes tunes, we get sent to play on air as new releases don’t have it for me, so they don’t get played.
Do you think Reggae is under-appreciated in this twenty-first century? And If yes, is it limited to specific places in the world?
The key thing has always been about underrepresentation and how mainstream radio and media in general, tend to feature either the same songs as Reggae or the most watered-down stuff. Reggae is a global force, its everywhere, hybridized into many cultures and languages and sub-genres. It always surprises me how it flows around the world, and I feel that impact is not respected fully.
Any thoughts about the youth's perception toward this genre of music?
There will always be Reggae because every generation of youth will in some way or other, connect to the music and its messages. It’s like an eternal flame that gets passed on from one generation to another, from place to place.
If you had to, which genre would you choose apart from Reggae?
Too many to list because I appreciate all kinds of music except the manufactured pop junk played on pop radio stations. I love Blues, Rebetika, Jazz, HipHop, Soul and some Ambient stuff to chillout to late at night.
Tell us about your book 'Bob Marley and Media Representations and Audiences'.
Released in 2023, the book took about 5 years to complete. The subject was on my mind for ages. There are many biographies on Bob Marley but very few academic or scholarly books, so I set out to write something initially about Radio and Marley that developed to analyze other media such as printed press and television.
It’s certainly taken me around the world to talk about the book. In February 2023, the Institute of Caribbean Studies invited me to deliver the 26th Annual Bob Marley lecture at The University of West Indies in Jamaica; this was a big honour for me. Additional book presentations happened in Cyprus, Sweden, and Lithuania, so yes, it’s been a busy year.
Haji Mike plays every Monday on Riddim 1 Radio 12pm (EST). ‘Bob Marley and Media Representation and Audiences’ is published by Rowman & Littlefield. For more info visit www.hajimike.com