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NEWSFLASH 08-03-2019

Right now its possible to book Million Stylez live on Jah Sound. For booking info contact us.
 

 

Million Stylez biography:

Kenshin Iryo more known as Million Stylez was born june first 1981 in Stockholm, Sweden. He grew up in a working class part of town called Sollentuna. He was raised by a french mother and a japanese father but had friends from all over the world due to the very immigrant-dense neighborhood. He started experimenting with Hip Hop at the young age of nine, recording rap tunes in swedish on his cassette deck player. After a couple of years he started to write lyrics in english but it was not until he turned 18 that he moved on to dancehall and reggae. It was only a natural step for him due to the fact that reggae always been there as he was growing up. He is one out of few out there that can master so many different styles such as singing, deejaying and rapping. He was self-taught and never had any schooling but he still doesn’t see any musical boundaries.

In the summer of 2005 he went to the “Big Break” finals arranged by Irie FM (Jamaicas nr 1 radiostation). It is an annual talent competition for upcoming artists in Jamaica with more than 1200 talented applicants. After live performances in St. Elizabeth, Montego Bay and Kingston, TV and radio-interviews he ended up in a honoreble fourth place. He was also the first non-jamaican that ever had participated in the competition.

2006 march first, saw the release of his breakthrough smash hit “Miss Fatty”. It was distributed by german Soundquake and was their number one selling song for weeks. It was also recieved very well by radio stations like Hot97, Shade 45, BBC1Xtra, Kiss FM, NRJ, Voice, P3 etc. It has also been the number one track/video on Trace TV/radio that covers over 50 countries around the world. Dj’s of all genres from all around the world start playing it in the clubs and they still do frequently up to this day. It was the biggest dancehall song worldwide for 2006 and you can actually say that its a timeless classic today. The video was shot in Cuba and has become a youtube phenomenon with over seventeen million views so far and counting.

Million Stylez released his debut album “From A Far” 2007 with KBC music and it included everything from roots, dancehall and Hip Hop to even a more soulful sound. Just to mention a couple of songs that made this launcher was of course “Miss Fatty”, “Brighter Day”, “Give me the strength” and “Fade away” that also became number one on the german reggae-charts 2006.
 
Million Stylez – Me and You

 
It wasn’t until three years after in may 2010 that he released his second album entitled “Everyday” and this time through his own label Adonai Music. This musical masterpiece feature hits like “Everyday, “Love we deal with” and the cross-over smash hit “Supastar”. This time around he decided to have a couple of guest appearances, but not just any artists. He linked up with none other than Gentleman and recorded a song called “Help Is On The Way”. He says that it was an hounor for him to do “World crisis” with the living legend Don Carlos for this album. From the old to the new, “As mi forward” is a massive street anthem alongside the dancehall superstar Busy Signal. “Everyday” is more of a compilation of the latest and greatest songs he recorded at the time. He says that there is no thought behind his music making, just feeling and emotions. Overall its a more mature and evolved album than his first one.

His recently released his first EP “Songs about you” worldwide through the french independent label Special Delivery. This smooth compilation consists of strictly love songs about different relationships he had in the past. He says that these are all true stories otherwise he could never record them with the same authentic feeling. He always want to show versitile he is so you will here everything from smooth lovers rock to dancehall and a more cross over hip hop vibe.

Just to mention a couple of artists that he has worked with over the years there are big stars like Beyoncé, Gentleman, Peetah Morgan (Morgan Heritage), Don Carlos, Loon (Bad Boy), Smif N Wessun, Mr Vegas, Busy Signal, Bunji Garlin and the list goes on and on. In the beginning of his career he also got to be opening act for Sean Paul, Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Ne-Yo, Fabolous, Ryan Leslie among others.

Million Stylez has now been performing in every continent of the world indipendently and the touring continues frequently. He is constantly working on new material and his third album is planned to come out late 2014. What more is there to say? Million has a million things going on.
 

NEWSFLASH 01-03-2019

Jah Sound will be performing on Several festivals this summer. check out the website later on for more info.
 

NEWSFLASH 19-02-2019

Jah Sound International will be performing with JO MERSA MARLEY on the 31-03-2019 at club Het Bolwerk, Sneek, The Netherlands.
 

 

Jo Mersa Marley biography:

As the eldest son of Stephen Marley and grandson of Bob Marley, Joseph “Jo Mersa” Marley grew up surrounded by music. By the time he was four years old, Jo was appearing onstage alongside his father, his uncle Ziggy and aunts Cedella and Sharon (a.k.a. Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers) and their children as part of the group’s rousing concert finales with Jo often taking the mic and chanting the lyrics to the Melody Makers’ biggest songs, much to the delight of their audiences. Born in Kingston, Jamaica on March 12, 1991, Jo moved to Miami at age 11 where he keenly observed his father and his uncle Damian as they created music in Stephen’s Lion’s Den studio. Back then school was the priority for Jo; traveling with Ziggy and the Melody Makers was reserved for school breaks and summer vacations, yet those experiences provided first hand opportunities for Jo to expand his musical aspirations beyond the performance stage.
“I started making beats with MPCs (MIDI Production Center or Music Production Controller, a popular electronic musical instrument series) when I was about 11 but I wouldn’t save them properly,” Jo recalled in an interview in his father’s Miami studio. “Then when I was around 12 my cousins and I went on the Melody Makers’ Roots Rock tour. Uncle Ziggy bought my cousins an Apple laptop and we used the Garage Band software and made our beats on it; we recorded from the microphone, put on our headphones and that became our studio for a good three years. That is when my song writing started to get more focused and it even made my writing in school better because I started to take my words more seriously.”
The seriousness of Jo’s words is affirmed by the five tracks featured on his debut EP “Comfortable” due in Spring 2014 on the Marley family’s imprint Ghetto Youths International (GYI). Spanning pop, hip hop, EDM and dancehall influences, the “Comfortable” EP showcases deft lyrical skills, ranging from Jo’s speed deejaying recounting of experiences with insincere women on “Bogus” (gimme the real woman who nah bogus through the last name they run down Joseph) produced by his uncle Damian Marley, to his cleverly-rhymed detailing of a budding relationship contrasted by his sweetly sung hook on the title track.
Originally released in February 2013 on the GYI compilation “Set Up Shop Volume 1”, which topped the Billboard Reggae Album chart, the sleek electro-dancehall hybrid “Comfortable” and its accompanying video generated a strong response among music fans so it was chosen as the title track for Jo’s EP. Comfortable is also an apt description of Jo’s approach to music making. “We talked about it as a team, me, my father and my uncle Damian and “Comfortable” was just the most fitting name; the word works on many levels: I am just getting comfortable enough to give you a peace of my mind, comfortable enough so that I can open up and share my views, my thoughts and my heart,” Jo explained.
 
Jo Mersa – Comfortable (official video)

 
Like his father and grandfather, Joseph Marley is an avid football (soccer) player; he received his nickname Jo Mersa from famed Jamaican footballer Alan “Skill” Cole, a close friend of his grandfather. Joseph’s competitive football playing technique suggested to Skill the determination of a boxer in a ring so he started calling him Joe Mercer, referring to the UK boxer, and the nickname stuck.
Jo also inherited his father and grandfather’s abundant musical talent and he has been greatly influenced by their accomplishments but the decision to pursue a career as an artist was completely his own. “My father left it up to me; when I grew up it was my choice which way I wanted to go. And from there he said ok, if that’s what you want to do, let’s see how motivated you are.”
A month prior to his 19th birthday, Jo’s first single “My Girl”, which he wrote when he was 14, was released on GYI featuring his cousin Daniel “Bambaata” Marley, Ziggy’s eldest son. Jo’s first solo effort “Bad So”, followed in November 2011. A dancehall/club jam, “Bad So” demonstrated his skillful deejay delivery coupled with humorous lyrical detail reminiscent of the iconic dancehall artists who have also had a profound impact on Jo’s artistic development, which can be heard throughout the “Comfortable” EP. “Shabba Ranks, Professor Nuts, Ninja Man, Admiral Bailey, Papa San, Super Cat, Spragga Benz, Cocoa Tea, Sizzla Kalongi, and so many other artists who came from the time when I was born, I used to sing back their music not knowing what they were talking about. I heard the melody, the word play, the rhymes before I started preeing (understanding) the lyrics deep and what they were saying,” Jo revealed. “So there is a lot of my personal experience in these love songs on “Comfortable”, how I view a lot of things with young women, telling stories, just like how dancehall was back in the day.” On the club friendly track “Perfect 10” featuring Jemere Morgan (son of Gramps Morgan of the Jamaican-American reggae band Morgan Heritage), which Jo describes as a love story with a rude boy twist, his irresistibly witty flow presents the cure for his love interest’s broken heart: “the baldhead boy that likes to shine his head with Amaral made you sick of love so let me be your Panadol”. In the pursuit of exclusivity with a young lady on “All To Me”, Jo turns up the dancehall heat, offering a rapid-fire succession of compliments reminiscent of the comedic brilliance of the legendary Jamaican deejay Professor Nuts: “What is your secret? Mi know you no thief it, what a piece a body gal, me love how you keep it/wonder what your mother regularly a feed it?”
Jo came up with the melodic hook to “Sunshine” while singing to his baby sister Mia in an attempt to stop her crying. A detailed statement of intention towards the woman who continually brightens his life, Jo describes the song as the EP’s most intimate, as he nimbly rhymes over a bubbling dancehall rhythm embellished by gentle guitar strands: “you make me sing how you well comfortable, we go together like the bass and the treble/our lifestyle nah miserable so what’s next, the baby and the cradle?”
Each of the EP’s riddims (except for “Bogus”) were created by Jo, working alongside his father’s keyboard player Llamar “Riff Raff” Brown, with Stephen Marley handling the final productions. “From day one I have been hands on with my music but more of my hand is in my projects now because I have come a far way from where I started,” Jo reflected. “Riff Raff and I have a chemistry; if I hear something in my head, I tell him and he can play it back and add a little spice to it. We built the riddims but my father produced and finalized everything, he has magic ears, he knows if a track has too much of this or not enough of that or if it needs something else.”
Jo will perform the entire “Comfortable” EP as the opening act on Stephen Marley’s Revelation Part II “The Fruit of Life” tour, which commences in April in St. Petersburg, Florida. As Jo career progresses, he looks forward to making his mark as an individual artist while continuing the Marley musical legacy. “My father calls my grandfather a magician because he was the only man who could bring peace to his country (during Jamaica’s deadly political skirmishes of the 1970s) and that’s a lot of power, influence, it’s magic, but I don’t let it get to my head,” Jo declares. “He made a big step for Jamaican music and it is time for me to add my works to it, to build on it. I am just getting started; I am just getting Comfortable.”
 

NEWSFLASH 18-01-2019

This year we are 30 years in the International scene. We wanna say thank you and respect to all the Sound Systems – Artists and (festival) Promotors in Europe, Jamaica and UK who have been backing us over the years. Respect to all !!!