Davin Michael Stedman & Anthony Red Rose’s Free Your Mind is a refreshing reckoning with a distinctive dancehall vibe. It all began at One Pop Recording Studio in Kingston where the Seattle based artiste had a chance encounter with dancehall titan Red Rose which resulted in this impressive and equally creative piece of art.
The song which was released earlier this year is produced by Anthony Cameron aka Anthony Red Rose while Bluejay Hankins& Sick Donkey serve as executive producers. The track boasts the influence of the dancehall legends Sly & Robbie, Lenky Marsden and is mixed by Rohan Dwyer.
The message of the song is universal but the subject hits the hardest right here in Jamaica, a vibrant culture that strives to find solutions to an uptick of crime and escalating prices. “If you fuse a good song with a great message with a rhythm section as powerful as Sly & Robbie, you can almost see the ripples in time,” says Stedman.
Free Your Mind is accompanied by its newly released music video which was shot in Western Washington and Kingston. The visual was directed and edited by Garrett Gibbons in partnership with Kingston based, Cuban raised filmmaker Rodney Roys. The video features persons from all walks of life, laughing and enjoying themselves to the backdrop of a pop up Seattle art gallery.
The Kingston portion of video showcases the spirit of Fleet Street, an inspiring and surprising place known for its beautiful murals and a community based garden called, The Life Yard.
“This isn’t just another dancehall song! It is fresh, it is new and it is exactly what the music has been missing,” expressed Anthony Red Rose
Free Your Mind is the first single from Davin Stedman’s forthcoming debut album West Indian Rock., on the heels of four straight regionally acclaimed records with his band The Staxx Brothers.
West Indian Rock is a powerful collage of all of Stedman's adventures with Bluejay and working with Jamaican legends including Earl Chinna Smith, Stephen Marley’s famed rhythm section Chris Meredith & Squidly Cole, Jah T from The Jolly Boys, and more. The album will be released with a book of the same name in 2019.