Award-winning reggae artist Gerry Dread recently released his third full-length studio album, ‘Ghetto Survival’.
On this offering, the musician explores various themes including the hardships of living in informal settlements, family, love and money.
He keeps the features to a minimum with the appearance of only two artists – Ras Petu on ‘Stay’ and Masiro on ‘Riverside’. All in all, the album is a good culmination of his history as he stays true to his soulful reggae signature.
While Gerry Dread could do with some training when it comes to delivery and flow, he will make you pay attention with his lyrical content. Infusing his passion for social welfare into his music, he holds nothing back when he speaks about the difficult circumstances of Namibian people.
The album is his mouthpiece, particularly on songs like the title track and ‘Not An Easy Road’. Although he taps into various subject matters, the album is centered around his people rising above their harsh realities.
Speaking to The Weekender, Gerry Dread said he hopes that this album reaches the masses and urges the youth to not ignore the message. “The youth of Namibia are going through so many hardships at the moment, some are being retrenched while other simply can’t find jobs. These are some of the things that inspired me to make this album,” he said.
He added that so far he is content with the way people have received the offering and is adamant that it will also achieve milestone success.
“I won the best reggae award with my debut album, ‘Tjava Nawa’, at the 2012 Namibia Annual Music Awards and my sophomore album was nominated in 2014. So I hope this third album keeps up with its predecessors,” he said.
Even though ‘Ghetto Survival’ is conceptually strong, the drawback to this album is that it lacks diversity in terms of production. Quite a number of songs on the album have similar sounding instrumentals which makes it sound like one long song. The 13-track album could also have benefitted from being more concise, which would have given more power to the really special songs.
But overall, ‘Ghetto Survival’ is a solid and thoughtful piece that should not be slept on regarding the message it carries.
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