Seven years ago today, on August 17, 2017, JR Watkis released the live album “Lion Reggae Playlist” under the imprint label Think Media LLC featuring the soulful vocals of Slashe, who later went on to win the 2023 Jamaica Festival Song Competition.
Recorded live at the iconic Tuff Gong studios with a live band, the album captures the raw, authentic energy of a one-take performance in front of a studio audience. The album’s recording was sponsored by Red Bull with musicians Kawane on Bass, Nicholas Grascov and Damian on guitars, Rohan and Otmar on keys, Makiri on drums. Leon had rehearsed as a drummer but never made it to the final recording.
The 12 track album’s intro was the moment where Donald Anderson, who was at the time a well-known comedian, reintroduced himself as Slashe. Shedding his comedic persona, he embraced his multifaceted career as a singer, songwriter, comedian, and actor. The name Slashe perfectly reflects his diverse talents.
Instrumentals for “Bounce It,” track 11 on the album was featured in the Bank Of Jamaica Inflation Targeting commercial with Slashe as the lead talent in 2019. The advertisement dubbed “Reggae Music Is The Heartbeat Of Jamaica” won a Silver Award at the 2020 Caribbean American Advertising Award (ADDY).
The campaign which also featured other reggae artists like Tarrus Riley and Denyque was covered by more than 25 international news outlets, including CNBC, MSNBC, Bloomberg, Billboard, Bloomberg TV, AP, NPR, Yahoo Finance, Quartz, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal, plus several economic trade publications, in the US, UK and Canada, Australia, South Africa, Russia and the Ukraine.
Jamaica’s Prime Minster Andrew Holness, Finance Minister Nigel Clarke as well as two International Monetary Fund Presidents hailed the use of reggae music in the reggae Inflation advertisements as “never been done before.”
“Lion Reggae Playlist” is still Slashe’s only musical album to date. Watkis told WMV that the album will be mastered and re-released this year. He shared, “It was such an unconventional project—we rehearsed for six weeks. Despite its imperfections, the final product has done well, inspiring numerous projects and careers. I’m especially proud of what it has achieved and excited to see what it will do when we remaster it for release later this year.”
Listen to Lion Reggae Playlist below.
