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  • CONGO NATTYJungle Revolution

  • 1. Jungle Souljah (M.Tafari, M.Kean Just Isnt Music/copyright control)Vocals: Rebel MC & La La & The Boo YaNyabinghi drums: Ras AsheberHorns: Dunc The TrumpLead guitar: Steve Finnerty

    2. UK Allstars (Congo Natty meets Benny Page mix)(M.Tafari, J.Sutter, A.Codrington, P.Levy, A.Henry, D.Bent, F.Nelson Just Isnt Music/copyright control)Vocals: Rebel MC, Tenor Fly, Top Cat, General Levy, Tippa Irie, Sweetie Irie, Daddy Freddy

    3. Revolution(M.Tafari, O.Chinangwa Just Isnt Music/copyright control)Vocals: Rebel MC, Nanci Correia, Phoebe Iron Dread Hibbert, Ras BuggsyLive drums: QuakeLead guitar: Skip McDonald / Steve FinnertyHorns: Crispy HornsMelodica: Skip McDonald

    4. Get Ready(M.Tafari, N.Weir, T.Cowan Just Isnt Music/BMG Chrysalis)Featuring a sample of Baba Boom performed by The Jamaicans and produced by Duke Reid, licensed courtesy of Sanctuary Records Group LimitedVocals: Rebel MC, Tenor Fly, Daddy Freddy, Nanci CorreiaAdditional production: Serial Killerz

    5. Jah Warriors (Congo Natty meets Vital Elements mix)(M.Tafari, M.Hull Just Isnt Music/copyright control)Vocals: Rebel MC, Nanci Correia, YT & Junior Congo Yosief TafariLive bass: Raziel AmlakRhythm guitar: Yared Colour Code

    6. Nu Beginingz(M.Tafari, M.Lamont Just Isnt Music/copyright control)Vocals: Rebel MC & Sista MaryGuitar: Skip McDonald

    7. Jungle is I and I (Congo Natty meets Vital Elements mix)(M.Tafari, C.Williams, G.Warnock Just Isnt Music/copyright control)Vocals: Rebel MC & Lady ChannAdditional vocals: Nanci Correia & Junior Congo (Princess Lydia & Princess Trinity)Rhythm guitar: Skip McDonald

    8. London Dungeons (Congo Natty meets Boyson and Crooks mix)(M.Tafari, M.Kean, J.Boyson, S.Crooks Just Isnt Music/copyright control)Vocals: Rebel MC & Martha KeanAdditional vocals: Nanci CorreiaLive bass: FishLead guitar: Steve Finnerty

    9. Rebel(M.Tafari, L.J.Blair Just Isnt Music/copyright control)Vocals: Rebel MC, 2NiceGuitar: Skip McDonald

    10. Micro Chip (Say No)(M.Tafari, P.Hibbert, K.Tafari Just Isnt Music/Copyright control)Vocals: Rebel MC, Kaya Fyah, Phoebe Iron Dread HibbertAdditional vocals: Princess Trinity Tafari & Princess Lydia Tafari aka The Jungle Sisterz and Nanci CorreiaNyabinghi drums: Congo NattyLive bass: FishAcoustic guitar: Congo NattyLead guitar: Redz / RobinFlute: Biscuit

    Additional programing and engineering: Greg Wizard, Graham Warnock, Jahkey Murder & Mathew Smyth

    All tracks produced by Congo Natty (Through the divine inspiration of Haile Selassie I and Queen Menen)

    Tracks recorded @ Congo Natty Studios, Brixton Jamm Studios & Sound House Studios

    Mixed by Adrian Sherwood and Congo Natty @ On U Sound Studios Engineered by Dave Braveheart McEwen

    Management: Jim Gottlieb @ Tuned Entertainment

    Mastering & Cut: Kevin Metcalfe @ The SoundmastersPhotography: Spencer Murphy Design: Oscar & Ewan

    BDDNL227 LC12885 & Big Dada Recordings 2013www.bigdada.com@bigdadarecords

  • This LP is livicated to I beautiful sister and friend... Empress YOLANDE aka DJ IYAMEDE... A real LIONESS... ANGELS ARE REAL... I love you sister.We are prisoners of war (pows)... Born into captivity and programmed to be what they want us to be.I am the son of a Welsh mum and Jamaican dad grown up in Tottenham North London with four sisters.We are the sons and daughters of slaves. By the power of jungle music I am now a FREEMAN.1LoveNeed to send a very special thank you to I father Haile Selassie I for your guidance protection and inspiration

    Special special thank you to I family I Queen Maria Queen of Queens and all I beloved children, Prince Warren aka Gadman aka Congo Dubz, Princess Kaya Fyah, Prince Yosief (Champion Youth), Princess Lydia and Princess Trinity (Tafari Sisterz) without you I would be a lost soul. Thank you mum always sending I love to you and Steve, to I sisters Empress Melanie and Empress Yolette more love peace and harmony, to Prince Craig and Prince Kelly, Prince Imahni and Princess Asher, Princess Ama and Prince Kemuel, Princess Diamond and Prince Carlito Mikail, Princess Kizzi and Prince Craig I send all I love and to all the youths and elders in I family I send 1love.Very special thank you to Ian Gough, Tony Engineer, Greg (Wizard), Ras Asheber, JC Lionbeat, Jim Gottlieb, Jonathan Garcia, Adrian Sherwood, Graham Vital Elements/

    Serial Killerz, Tobie, Phil @ Nu-Urban, Jahkey Murda and Chopsticks Crew, Dave McEwan, Mathew Smyth, Benny Page, Boyson and Simon (Crooks), Global Faction and Shane, Steve Finnerty, Fish Brown, Quake, Irish Jonny (Jamm), La La & The Boo Ya and all Bradford and Leeds Crew, Hassan Salaam, Ital Horns, True Tiger Fam, Phillip Oldfield, Soothsayers, DJ Steppa, Audio Warfare Crew, Unity Crew, Kosine and Dialect and all Brighton massive, John the Baptiste and Miss I-Formation and Cherry, Serum, Top Cat, Sweetie Irie, Daddy Freddy, Tippa Irie, Lady Chann, General Levy, Daddy Colonel, Rob and Sam (All Alabama 3 Crew), Biscuit, Colour Code, Raziel Amlak, Ras Buggsy and all Bristol Army, Klashnekoff aka Son of Niya, Duncan Horns Man, Reds Guits, Otis Keys, Up 2 The Beat Productions, Robin Guits File, Brian Higgins and all Manchester family, Levi, Wulu and Potent, We Are Dubist, Ryan (Congo Natty Films), Joel Drums, RSD, Rob Smith, Mala and DMZ Souljahs, Skip McDonald, Craig Blundel, Tobie and all @ Soundhouse Studios in Ramsgate.. All mentioned are a part of this works directly or indirectly... Anyone who I have forgotten Haile I Selassie I and Queen Menen will remember and bless you.1LoveI give all the glory to Jah and I do not take any credit for this music. I and I are just instruments makin a joyful noise. Bless upSpecial thank you to all musicians and artistes on this workz... Big up... More love and lifeMusic is a journey... Its destination is freedom.One love to all I brothers and sisters in Shashemene Ethiopia... Priest Isaiah, Jahison and Sister Judah. Ras Quinteseb, Ras Spence @ Chaka Studios, all @ Ziontrain, Sahara,

    Brother Dyers family: Jonathan, Menelik,Shaka, Zanabwa, Meme, Joseph and the Youths, Teddy Dan, Ras Ibie, Sister Terahas and the family, Sister Timena and the family, Sister Joanne and the family, Ras Judah, Bro Wisdom, Sister Leah, Ras Clint, the Flippins family, Ras Marcus and family... And all the houses of Rastafari... BlessCongo Natty family: One love and thank you for your time and energy. Congo Dubz (keep up the good workz), Kaya Fyah (on a mission bigup), Tenor Fly (Jungle Brother), Nanci and Phoebe (on the road 2 Zion - Keep da fyah burnin Jungle sisters), Martha (real lioness), Sista Mary (Empress from Zion), Lady Chann (lightning & thunder), 2Nice (rebel wid ah cause), Junior Baptiste (real Rasta youth), DJ Snuff (peoples army) and big up Ollie rising starBig up Will and Peter for seeing the vizion, and all @ Big Dada and @ Ninjah Tune massive. Thank you for your support.Big up and maximum thank you and raspect to you the people who have supported I music from time and all the new comers to this revolution. Peace and loveThis works took 21 years to be born... And the last 3 years recording and fighting the devil so this LP could be mixed, finished and released... Blood sweat and tears... One loveSay no to the Microchip.Jungle Exodus 2014..... Jah bless all crew

    www.facebook.com/congonattyofficial@congonattyrebelwww.congonatty.comwww.jungleexodus.co

  • CONGO NATTY

    Mikail Tafari aka Congo Natty aka Conquering Lion aka X Project aka Rebel MC has lived a fascinating life but, he says, his story isnt really his story, isnt about him. Its the journey of my ancestors the journey of the children of slaves.

    Mikail, then just plain Michael West, grew up in Tottenham. His father came from Kingston, Jamaica, his mother from Wales. He didnt even know that this was unusual until he started at school and someone commented that his mother was white. Looking back, before that he didnt really know what race was or was meant to represent.

    Music was an ever-present, not just from his parents, but all around him. He first DJed at a party aged ten, when the DJ got lean up and he had to take over. He got a pound for his troubles and felt puffed up with the praise. The local youth club, Trojan, invited soundsystems in every Friday for a dance and every Friday he was there. Before he was twenty he and some friends started their own soundsystem, Beat Freak, playing hip hop, reggae and the house records that were just starting to penetrate the streets of London from Chicago and New York. Love of music ran alongside a need to take care of business and a healthy disrespect for the law. We didnt have anywhere to play so we had to break into places, then set up a dance and charge at the door.

    Playing out with the sound led Rebel to record. He had a crazy mix he did with a beat and the Eastenders theme tune, so he found a studio where he could make a version and put a rap over the top. Having done one, his appetite for the process grew. He wanted to get back in and do more, develop his ideas a bit more, work it out. It was this urge to spend more time in a studio that led him to Double Trouble. He was flicking through a music magazine looking for somewhere cheap to record and he came across a place in New Cross that was only 5 an hour. It was Double Troubles studio. He started working out of there and, at some point, they all decided to collaborate. The results were Just Keep Rockin and Street Tuff.

    Its easy to hear them now as pop music (although the blueprint for grimes chart ascent 15 years later was in there, too). That wasnt how they were envisaged. They were still kinda hard tunes. They were

    breakbeats with reggae samples and everything. They werent started off as being pop tunes. We done the tunes in New Cross and then they were floating around for about a year. Wed started recording other stuff, still growing and moving. Then all of a sudden there was a label that was interested.

    Tafari sums up the experience of being fed into and then spat out of the mainstream music business. At first its all good. At first. Its a bit like Hansel and Gretel when they get to the house and theyre hungry and theres all sweets and so on. But then you start to feel a little bit sick and then we all know what happens next. The machine that loved you decides it hates you.

    Rebel MC had already moved on, too fast for the backlash to harm him. With the albums Black Meaning Good and Word Sound And Power, and the single (and label) Tribal Base he was already marking out the roots of what would become Jungle. He started and ran a series of labels, Tribal Bass, then X Project, then eventually Con-go Natty, from which came some of the defining releases of the day. There was a revolution of self. Artists realised they could do it better than the labels. Because the labels were blind right then. Every ten or fifteen years you get to that point with the labels where theyre out of touch. I started my label X Project without no name cos I didnt want people knowing it was me. Because once they know its you, Oh, its Rebel MC, its Street Tuff innit? Without that its free. Youre free.

    From 92 to 94 he and others developed Jungle into the defining sound of the era, one which musicians are still coming to terms with to this day. Jungle took the bass of roots and dub reggae and reinvented it. Jungle carries a sonic that is so mystical that if you entered a dance in 1994 you went through a portal. And you were there, in the zone. B-line, unadulterated b-line. Jungle came with this frequency that shocked everything in British music.

    For Tafari, Jungle was a revolution. Jungle was the first time wed got our own music, our own way of talking, our own way of dressing. Everything. And its from this fusion of British, African, Indian, Jamai-can, Chinese this melting pot. And thats Jungle music. But, like all revolutions, the powers that be wanted it shut down. Its high water mark was, in Rebels own judgement, the Notting Hill Carnival of 1994. I saw what Jungle did at Carnival. The vibration got so hyped

  • until it just went crazy. The frequency got so powerful. And thats why Jungle got the fight it did. How did we go from that to drum and bass? Jungle is like a mirror that was broken into many, many pieces.This reaction coincided with a profound change in Tafaris spiritual life, as this was the year he embraced Ras Tafari. I saw Ras Tafari, Haile Selassie I and that changed my life. I took on the realms of Ras Tafari as a Rastaman. But the journey of Ras Tafari is not just about saying Im a Ras Tafari and wearing the colours and the natty and everything. Its more about the life. The journey. Were all imperfect. Everyone has sinned and will sin. As a Rastaman were trying to eradicate negative traits hate, anger, aggression. All these things are based on fear. Ras Tafari in one word is love. And its living love. True love is the hardest thing to live by. You have to love your enemy. You have to bless someone whos cursing you. Im not on that level. Id love to be on that level. To be like Gandhi. He dont get angry. I get angry!

    From his father, Rebel bought the house in Tottenham hed grown up in and ran his operations from there, surrounded by his family, his old bedroom now his studio, his living room full of the 12s he was pressing and selling. My yard was full of tune like a warehouse! Wed broken away from the whole machine. We were running our own mechanism, our own threads. He combined his Tottenham operations with making trips to Jamaica to reconnect Jungle with the culture from which it had taken its most important influences. Here he made contact with Rasta communities as well as playing Jungle in the heart of the Kingston slums, the experience of which led to the release of the album, Tribute To Emperor Haile Selassie I.

    But the business of selling music became less important as Rebels spirituality grew. As a Rastman you have to ask what youre aiming for. My aim was always to get to Ethiopia and get out of Babylon. Getting out of Babylon meant gathering the family, getting rid of all the things that tie us down. And that was the point of my journey. So when I was making the music now, this music was going to set me free. But also was a message, an important message for this time. So it got to the point where it wasnt about the music business for me.

    In 2007, he and his family finally left and moved to Shashamane, the land Emperor Haile Selassie I left to the Rasta and other Caribbean

    citizens who wanted to return to Africa. It was a whole other world daily power outages, no running water, whatever you wanted being built by your own hands, as well as the single largest Rasta community in the world. But something was tugging Rebel back. The importance of the visionary of literally seeing and hearing guidance from Jah is a central but misunderstood part of Rastafari. Mikail Tafari is a visionary twice over. Jah told him to return to the UK and make music. He tried to ignore it, but when things began to go wrong with the business hed left in London which was supposed to pay him the income his extended family were relying on he knew it was time to go back to Babylon. He arrived in the UK in late 2008 with thirteen quid. I got three little ones and two bigger ones and my wife. And thirteen pound. Thats not a good look. So at that point I started again.

    That new start reaches its culmination, its zenith, with Jungle Revolution. Ten tracks long, featuring all of the extended Congo Natty family (plus, in the form of Skip McDonald and Adrian Sherwood, a healthy link to On-U Sound as well), it clearly lays out the way in which Rebel sees Jungle as a re-boot of roots reggae for a new century. Full of blood and fire, the sternum-buzz of sub-bass, rapid fire drum breaks, sweet hooks, righteous anger and professions of love, its the kind of passionate, committed, raw and spiritual, beautiful record that doesnt come along that often. The message of reggae is Ras Tafari and Ras Tafari is love. They sang about love your brother but they was also prophesying and talking about the system, talking about things that were going on in the world. I saw Jungle as being that same music, where we were going to spread a message.

    Jungle is a part of all musics. Its not just this new music. Blues man are junglist. Jazz man are junglist. Hear their story its jungles story. You see this journey over and over again. The journey is the journey of the African slave. If you look at music, what these people have given to the world Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, John Coltrane, whoever it all comes from suffering. From poverty, from racism. And this music keeps coming out of their soul. And I see Jungle as our soul in the 21st century. But this time its got no colour. Its not the black mans story no more. Its our story. Were all in a kind of slavery now. Modern day slavery, mental slavery. He stops and takes another pull of ganja. I got my army greens on for a reason Im running a revolution.