Blvk H3ro emerging as a ‘different’ voice in the Jamaican reggae scene

Photo courtesy of Blvk H3ro.

Dailyreggae.com spoke with Blvk H3ro to learn about his journey from working at a bank to diving full speed ahead into a career as a musician. The productive H3ro has another album in the works and multiple collaborations including ones with UB40 and other major international artists he can’t yet disclose.

We first started listening to your music when we heard your song with Suckarie called Everything Blessed. How did you meet Suckarie and start collaborating on that song?

That collaboration spun from a fresh friendship. I went on a promo run with Bunny Wailer in November 2019. I went there and met a lot of beautiful people and he was one of them. He was there at this show with his band, New Kingston and I think it was a Rebelution show. It was in New York and they invited me down. It was a good show. Half Pint was there. It was this nice energy. Suckarie and I hit it off.

From there, I came back to Jamaica, kept putting out music, and he reached out about his album. I was like, “A New Kingston album” and he said, “No, a personal album.” I thought this is interesting. He sent me everything and I said this is it. His style for me is very reggae soul, which fits with me perfectly. You add the different elements of black music and soul to this reggae expression. He already laid the foundation. He did the Alley-oop, so I’m just like Jordan. It was singing and a little bit of my style, which is putting those fast flows in there.

You’ve put out a lot of music. In 2019, you released The Immortal Steppa album and in 2020 you released New Millennium EP. Tell us about the music and your process as a musician.

Yeah, The Immortal Steppa is an album and New Millennium is a collaborative EP between a friend of mine Wayne J, and me. They are firsts for me. My first album and my first time collaborating on an entire project. The process was different.

The Immortal Steppa was a pet project. It was my baby. My first thought of saying I’m going to do an album, a body of work, that you want the world to hear and should represent you at the highest level. That album took us on a whole different journey. We met people, lost people. Made sounds that were weird and trippy. Pushed the genre. And also made songs that were very nostalgic to the foundation.

Immortal by itself means never-ending. Endless. That forever thing. Steppa in Jamaican culture is someone that is very serious about life (laughs). These two things: one has to do with a time span, and one has to do with movement. The project, even just how it flows, it doesn’t stop. Each song flows into the other. That’s purposeful. It’s continuous energy. The project was supposed to make people understand the race is a long game. We never die really and truly. We never die. Let’s take it one step at a time. Let’s respect our mothers. The different songs will tell you what each thing is about. The album is about the never-ending energy that we won’t die. The journey continues.

Fast forward to New Millennium. It’s a whole different process, where it’s not just you. It’s not just your project. It’s not just your idea. You and the next artist have to find ways to compromise within each song. The album perspective is you have full control. You can expand any idea. You can create freely. You can flow because it’s you. The EP experience and process was more of a team player. You learn how to remove yourself and do what’s best for the project. That was the process behind them.

Tell us about your journey as an artist. How did you get into music?

Well, it’s weird when people say, “journey as an artist”. I’m just a human. I’m a person. I’m going through everyday life and I just choose to express using art. Everything you hear in these songs is mimicking my real life. When I sing a song like Mama, it’s about me growing up with my Mama and having issues as a creative expressing to hear that, “Nah, I don’t want to lawyer and a doctor. I want to be me.” You get me. Then you have a song like Feet Don’t Fail, where we express me almost at the end of my rope. Just asking for more strength. Asking for more endurance. For me as an artist, the journey so far has been one of finding purpose, finding understanding, and finding who I am. I’m a Jamaican artist. I’m young. I’m in my 20’s. I’m from a place that has been popularized by artists that have set up big footprints like Vybz Kartel and other people like that. But I’m also new, fresh, and eclectic. I’m just weird. I’m a weirdo. I don’t know how to explain it. I process things differently. How I wanted to answer this question is not how I wanted to, but this is how it’s coming out. This is just me. I’m trying to make this human experience as beautiful and artful as possible. And I want the world to see that. I want the world to have a conversation about that. That’s been my journey so far.

You started by playing drums at the age of eight. How does that affect the way you listen to and write music? Is it extra rhythmic?

That’s like the chemical x and the ingredient. You didn’t even know it was so important. Drums have made me the master of timing. I can hear the beat once and the timing is in my brain. I don’t even have to hear it. The timing is in my brain all the time. That’s why I feel like my flows are always so different because I find the different pockets. The drumming accelerates that, where other people take a longer time to find the groove within the music. That’s my thing. It takes me longer to find the lyrics than to find the groove. Drumming opened that for me.

You grew up around a lot of Gospel music. How do you think has affected your artistry?

Yeah, it has to have had an impact, because some of the greatest singers within music come from gospel like Fred Hammond. These big belly singers. These emotions. These runs and thrills that anybody will tell you as a musician, gospel singers sing differently in general. I feel like it had to do with the Christian household in general. My father was a part of the paster assembly and my Mom was an evangelist. It was Christian fully on. That plus the Gospel music really influenced me. If you listen to my music, you don’t hear derogatory words or bad words. I feel like that’s coming from that up brining and those kinds of songs. I realized that everybody can listen to a Gospel song. It’s not really about what they’re preaching. It’s just that it’s clean. That upbringing molded, let’s just say, a different kind of musician.

I love your Superstition cover. I thought that was a really cool rendition. Can you tell us what inspired you to do your version of this classic song?

Thanks for that by the way. With everything it’s God. It’s organic. It’s like the source just sends people and sounds to us that he thinks fits us. Do you know what I mean? I don’t know how it works, but that was from a friend of ours called Alexandre Hostein from 45 Vong Records based in France, who goes by the stage name of Tonton Alex. We met Alex backstage at a Protoje show in Kingston. He had heard of me, wanted to work together, and sent a bag of beats for me to choose from. He even flew back to Jamaica to film the video for the track. He’s a great producer and editor. He was remaking Motown classics. Classic Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and stuff like that. Superstition felt like not only is it a big song, not only is it recognizable, but the messaging behind the song is very eclectic and weird. It’s very much like me. As soon as I heard it, it was a no brainer. And then when we did it, it took a life of its own. Some people say it sounds really good. I want to hear what Stevie Wonder thinks! I love it! It proves a point that music doesn’t die. That is kind of impossible. Music is there for the next generation to absorb and comes back again.

You had a career as a banking professional and realized that it wasn’t for you. Can you talk about that decision to become a musician and realization that this is what I want to do with my time on this earth?

For others, I feel like that decision was a choice. For me, it’s a mixture of a last-ditch effort, blessings, and destiny in a sense. The bank was my mom’s ultimate aim. She dreamed of seeing me in the outfit and the uniform. That’s kind of like a family goal. Pass school, go to college, get to a decent job that can pay and you can get a house and a car. I’m there as a 16- and 17-year-old doing this, breaking records, loving this job because you’re getting money and benefits. Three years went by and you’re just there. It’s stagnant. You’re just stuck doing the same things every day. Nothing is changing in your surroundings. It’s just you get a little more money (laughs). I’m just there. The purpose wasn’t there, the vibes weren’t there, and I started slacking off at work. I wasn’t driven going in later and later.

While that was happening, I met this young producer called Capone. He too was searching for his purpose. A young producer that didn’t know what the hell he was doing. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t even know I was going to be a musician. We linked up one day. He was playing beats and I freestyled for like two hours for the first time in my life. He was like, “Yo, that’s crazy! You sure you don’t do music?” I was like, “Nah, it’s not my thing.” I didn’t believe it then. 

Being at home in Kingston, Jamaica, everything started to change. You don’t have the same income. You can’t afford the same things you used to. People don’t look at you the same. I’m at this point all alone. Crying. All this shit. And then that’s when the transition happened. A voice just kind of spoke to me. “Yo, what about this freestyle thing? You’re a hero.” The voice was just saying shit and out of that I got, I’m a Black Hero. I’ve had to put a lot on the line. A lot of people have put a lot on the line to do this. It’s been a mad journey. From the bank to a musician without it being planned. You cannot write that. That’s destiny. You go through life and when the passion hits, it just hits. That’s the journey.

When did you release the New Millennium EP and are you associated with a label? 

New Millennium was released on October 9, 2020. Life kind of changed after that. It was released independently but as a partnership with Delicious Vinyl. They help us with the distribution and helping us make sure the look, sound, and narrative of things are in our control and best interest. Big up Delicious Vinyl. They are based in LA. They’ve been working with us since February 2020 and we are still working with them. Originally, they just wanted a project from me, but I’m a team player. I like working with other artists like Wayne J. They really believed in my vision and were in tune working together.

Tell us about the new music you’re working on.

This year, everybody has to be on the lookout for Blvk H3ro. We are ready.

Everything that we’ve learned over the last few years, we are going to put that to use this year. Lots of collaborations. We have a few songs lined up with UB40 and a lot of other features I can’t even talk about yet, but they’re gonna be major.

I feel like as a young artist, I need to be able to show the world that we can write great songs with our favorites too. With our legends. With our idols. That’s really what I wanted to do this year. Look out for more collaborations and a solo project from me this year. A lot of moves. My dream is not even just Grammys. I want reggae to be everywhere. I have a different dream. I feel like I can sell one hundred million records. I feel like I can be Michael Jackson. That’s my dream. I want to take things to a different level this year. My dreams are big, and my ambition is even bigger. The passion is real, and the works are coming. That’s 2021.

What is your process like when recording music and what can fans expect when they see your live shows?

Vocals are my instrument. I don’t play any live instruments yet. That’s the next skill, we are building right now. I don’t program the beats, but I do instrument the direction I want a song to go. I’m more of an executive producer. That’s me in general. I’m just a think tank. When it comes to making my music, I know what I want, how I want it to sound, so every aspect of it I’m there from the beat to the mater, the treatment of a video, the shooting of the video, the promoting of the song. I’m there at every level. That’s my skill outside of singing. Putting the right people in the room and make them execute.

At live shows, that’s really where you see me. It’s about being a balanced musician – performing, recording, interviews, everything. To be that full package, but really and truly live performance is where I come alive, especially the more intimate it is. Those smaller shows where you can get personal and share, it really comes out.

How can fans and new listeners support your music?

Usually, I’ll be like, go ahead and follow Blvk H3ro on social media at blvkh3ro, but I feel like this year I’m not really going to try and force anybody. It’s going to be in your face. Even how I spell my name is to weave out who is just here for the hype, or who really searched. Someone who went in their phone, typed out that weird-ass name, and found me. That’s a real fan and I’m going to cherish that person forever. You get me? If someone wants to find me, it’s the internet age. I know you’re going to type it anyway. You know what I mean? We’re in the matrix right now. It’s there. Just type the name anywhere you’re comfortable. If it’s Spotify, iTunes. I’m there. We are everywhere music is. Everywhere visuals are. We are everywhere where good people are. Good, spirited people.