Everton Dennis Williams, popularly known as Everton Blender, says he had to migrate from Jamaica because “the system” was fighting him. The roots reggae singer whose “Ghetto People Song” was recently used by French Montana and Harry Fraud’s “Higher”, says news of the international sample made him overjoyed but he has mixed feelings about the Jamaican music industry.
Blender told World Music Views from his Florida residence in the company of his wife that, “I feel good, I say to myself this is a good look cause Everton get so much fight over the years and now this come, it is a Joy, it is a good look.”
The single “Higher” appears on French’s collaborative album with Fraud “Montega” and has since been used as a promotion on French Montana’s social media. The Unforgettable singer posted on instagram a YouTube Billboard promoting the album with the song playing. He captioned it “@youtubemusic MONTEGA out now 🎶”
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Everton Blender who was just in Grenada for two sold out shows says he was only made aware of the sample today when World Music Views broke the news.
He recalls the intricate details of the song’s creation process, “to tell you the truth, it’s me, Tony Rebel and a youth them call Peter, real name Steve Lindo.”
His sentiments were echoed by the producer Tony Rebel, who told World Music Views that he generally likes it when Hip Hop samples reggae, but he also wasn’t aware of Montana and Fraud’s use of Ghetto People Song for their single on the No. 1 iTunes Hip Hop/Rap album.
Blender says the song was a hit and he has enjoyed the spoils gained from it’s popularity in terms of his bookings for stage shows, “Ye man it was a hit, it go good, everywhere me go and performing it people react to it.”
That is the extent of his reaping from the song as the Lift Up Your Head singer states that he has never collected any royalties or publishing from the success of the song since he recorded it in 1996.
“A dat me a seh now, I don’t know who cleared it,” he says contemplatively. “I have never collected any royalties from the song since the song put out 1996, we still have lawyer on the case to collect back royalties,” he says.
The Clarendon born singer says all options are open regarding any infringement regarding the use of his voice on “Higher”.
“We don’t have any idea of what we can do but we just show it to the lawyers to make him do what him fi do,” he asserts.
He says to keep himself afloat as an artist he does dub-plates and shows, he also loosely recalls being signed to BMI publishing, somewhere “from about 1991 or 1992,” he estimates.
Blender was one of the most prominent reggae singers in the 1990s return to ‘cultural’ music, along with the likes of Garnett Silk, Tony Rebel and Luciano. He has several albums on Heartbeat Records and also his own Blend Dem Productions label. He says he does not think Jamaican DJs treated him fairly over the years.
“I don’t think reggae musicians get treated good over the years cause they don’t recognize good songs. My songs needed to play more. Right now I have some songs singing about what’s going on in this time.”
In spite of his perceived “unfair” treatment he says he still stays close to his island home.
“I live in Florida but I go and come. I left Jamaica because of the system, because I was getting a lotta fight. Some man seh them nah go pon nuh show with me.”
With 13 studio albums already to his credit the 67 year old says he is currently in studio with a yet to be named project due for release in September 2022. He says “Me have a album me look about right now I want to drop it September.”
