With a musical journey literally scripted from birth, Oje Ollivierre’s alter ego, ‘Protoje’ stands lost in thought. To the average eyes one would assume that his blank stare carries nothing more than a hypnotic trance fueled from his herb etiquettes. But the reality is that within his unspoken mind he is faced with a recalcitrant riot of a reactionary revolution. It’s often said that an artiste’s songs mirror an encrypted path through their innermost thoughts but it’s certainly not easy to pinpoint what makes Protoje’s thought-provoking lyricism so spellbinding. I’m sure there are particular lines in a few of his songs that leave you questioning his lyrical prowess. So who better to decode them than the man himself?
The song: In the Street (Interlude)
The lyric: “Use your knowledge as your weapon”
“If you really think of it, the more you learn the more you want to think independently and not everyone likes knowledgeable persons because they know that you can’t be easily manipulated. The thing is, knowledge is really freedom as it helps to open your mind to varying perspectives and perspective is key to analyzing everything.”
The song: Roll
The lyric: “I don’t want my wife making my bed”
“(smiles) I was watching ‘City of God’ when Bené was in bed smoking with his girl and I just got the image of just kicking it with my girl in bed and not having to worry about anything but just enjoying the moment while it lasts. It wasn’t exactly to portray an image that I literally don’t want a wife who’ll make our bed.”
The song: Growing up
The lyric: “Physical life is secondary/ inner peace is mandatory”
“The thing about nature is that it doesn’t recognize good and evil but balance and imbalance. What we experience on earth can’t be all to life; all we react to on a daily basis is really limited. The time between birth and death we find so many things to fill the void, then what? We leave it all behind. I simply believe that our minds are so powerful but we don’t use our minds to its full potential.”
The song: Arguments
The lyric: “Say dem all have an argument”
“The conversations that people have on a regular basis are very negative and arguments naturally arise all the time. So I wasn’t pinpointing that women are more prone to initiating or causing arguments. I honestly think women are really skillful in getting what they want and their ‘arguments’ – their slick lines – are just so unique that you don’t realize what’s happening until it has happened (chuckles).”
The song: The Seven Year Itch
The lyric: “Never been in love until now just lost it wondering how/mi woulda get through it, like customs with herb/ and no mi no accustom to hurt/ but I got accustomed to her”
“I wrote this song in 2009 and at that point I was with someone really special and the relationship was getting quite serious and she had moved away to the east and she wanted me to move with her but I really wanted to stay in Jamaica and focus on my music. During that time-span I started putting out my material and it came down to choosing music or her…and I chose music as you can see (laughs hysterically). At the end of the song there’s the line ‘Empress far and she calling me/ but now my music demanding me’ just to solidify what I really meant.”
“(smiles) I really love the movie ‘The Matrix’ not because of the fight scenes or the adrenaline rush you can get from it but more so the concept of it and how we are very much programmed within a society. It really opened my eyes to a point where you can see for yourself that people are afraid to step out of normality. And you’ll see where a lot of people end up in a job where they really don’t like what they’re doing but just doing it to survive. The ‘powers that be’ really don’t like when you think for yourself but rather want you to jump to their every command.”
The song: The Seven Year Itch
The lyric: “Everything you learn in a the past five years/ it naa go help you fi earn nuttin”
“I was talking more along the tertiary level where a lot of persons go to college/university and at the end of it there’s no job readily available for them and that happen to a lot of persons in Jamaica. You really have to be careful that you don’t undertake some ‘name- brand’ profession then you realize that you can’t get any work out of it. At the secondary level though I think we’re lacking knowledge about our roots. ‘Cause when I was taught history at school you’d think that the most significant aspect of our history started in 1492 when (Christopher) Columbus came to Jamaica (laughs). I think we definitely need to teach more practical/real-world lessons at schools. There are talks of introducing a Marcus Garvey syllabus which I think is really good.”
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With a musical journey literally scripted from birth, Oje Ollivierre’s alter ego, ‘Protoje’ stands lost in thought. To the average eyes one would assume that his blank stare carries nothing more than a hypnotic trance fueled from his herb etiquettes. But the reality is that within his unspoken mind he is faced with a recalcitrant riot of a reactionary revolution. It’s often said that an artiste’s songs mirror an encrypted path through their innermost thoughts but it’s certainly not easy to pinpoint what makes Protoje’s thought-provoking lyricism so spellbinding. I’m sure there are particular lines in a few of his songs that leave you questioning his lyrical prowess. So who better to decode them than the man himself?
The song: In the Street (Interlude)
The lyric: “Use your knowledge as your weapon”
“If you really think of it, the more you learn the more you want to think independently and not everyone likes knowledgeable persons because they know that you can’t be easily manipulated. The thing is, knowledge is really freedom as it helps to open your mind to varying perspectives and perspective is key to analyzing everything.”
The song: Roll
The lyric: “I don’t want my wife making my bed”
“(smiles) I was watching ‘City of God’ when Bené was in bed smoking with his girl and I just got the image of just kicking it with my girl in bed and not having to worry about anything but just enjoying the moment while it lasts. It wasn’t exactly to portray an image that I literally don’t want a wife who’ll make our bed.”
The song: Growing up
The lyric: “Physical life is secondary/ inner peace is mandatory”
“The thing about nature is that it doesn’t recognize good and evil but balance and imbalance. What we experience on earth can’t be all to life; all we react to on a daily basis is really limited. The time between birth and death we find so many things to fill the void, then what? We leave it all behind. I simply believe that our minds are so powerful but we don’t use our minds to its full potential.”
The song: Arguments
The lyric: “Say dem all have an argument”
“The conversations that people have on a regular basis are very negative and arguments naturally arise all the time. So I wasn’t pinpointing that women are more prone to initiating or causing arguments. I honestly think women are really skillful in getting what they want and their ‘arguments’ – their slick lines – are just so unique that you don’t realize what’s happening until it has happened (chuckles).”
The song: The Seven Year Itch
The lyric: “Never been in love until now just lost it wondering how/mi woulda get through it, like customs with herb/ and no mi no accustom to hurt/ but I got accustomed to her”
“I wrote this song in 2009 and at that point I was with someone really special and the relationship was getting quite serious and she had moved away to the east and she wanted me to move with her but I really wanted to stay in Jamaica and focus on my music. During that time-span I started putting out my material and it came down to choosing music or her…and I chose music as you can see (laughs hysterically). At the end of the song there’s the line ‘Empress far and she calling me/ but now my music demanding me’ just to solidify what I really meant.”
“(smiles) I really love the movie ‘The Matrix’ not because of the fight scenes or the adrenaline rush you can get from it but more so the concept of it and how we are very much programmed within a society. It really opened my eyes to a point where you can see for yourself that people are afraid to step out of normality. And you’ll see where a lot of people end up in a job where they really don’t like what they’re doing but just doing it to survive. The ‘powers that be’ really don’t like when you think for yourself but rather want you to jump to their every command.”
The song: The Seven Year Itch
The lyric: “Everything you learn in a the past five years/ it naa go help you fi earn nuttin”
“I was talking more along the tertiary level where a lot of persons go to college/university and at the end of it there’s no job readily available for them and that happen to a lot of persons in Jamaica. You really have to be careful that you don’t undertake some ‘name- brand’ profession then you realize that you can’t get any work out of it. At the secondary level though I think we’re lacking knowledge about our roots. ‘Cause when I was taught history at school you’d think that the most significant aspect of our history started in 1492 when (Christopher) Columbus came to Jamaica (laughs). I think we definitely need to teach more practical/real-world lessons at schools. There are talks of introducing a Marcus Garvey syllabus which I think is really good.”
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