Richie Innocent goes back to his roots

Dub poet Richie Innocent is an upbeat mood as he promotes his new single, Careful Who You Defending.

The song, which was produced by Ralston Barrett on the 'Jail House' rhythm, was released on the Symphony B Label on September 2. Since then it has been enjoying strong rotation both locally and internationally.

"My new single is doing well. It's getting a lot of support from DJs in Jamaica, the States, Canada and other parts of the world. I'm grateful to everyone who's playing it," he said.

The easygoing entertainer said many of his fans were surprised because he is deejaying on this single instead of delivering the lyrics in his usual slow, hypnotic style.

"My fans know me as a dub poet, but long before I started doing dub poetry, I was a deejay. So, I'm both a poet and deejay and from time to time, I will use either medium to get the message out to the people," said Richie Innocent.

He also revealed that he plans to release his first full-length project.

"A few years ago I recorded a body of work that I wanted to release as an EP, but I never put it out. After that I continued recording with the intention to release an album, but because of everything I experienced during the pandemic, I was not able to do so. So my team and I have gone back to the drawing board and we're working on a new project that we plan to release early next year," he said.