In 2018, you have to come out strong to stand out from the crowd – and Alicai Harley is definitely a new artist who knows how to do just that! Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Alicai moved to the UK in 2002, but has clearly still retained the spice of the homeland and sprinkled it all throughout her music.
Her latest single, Naah Done, is one of summer’s hottest releases and the video has her strutting the streets of Jamaica, wearing some incredible colourful looks and making us all wish we were having fun, right there with her.
As she prepares to play on the Rampage Stage at Notting Hill Carnival (August Bank Holiday weekend), Alicai spoke to Pride about retaining her Jamaican identity, her inspirations, and her hidden talents.
Hi Alicai! So, Naah Done – tell us about how the track came to be?
Alicai: So, Naah Done, I did in the studio with Music Man Ty, and he’s one of Swiss Beatz’s producers. When we did that song, we were literally just vibing in the studio. We’ll always have little vibes, we’ll just be dancing around the studio. We’re really like a family, so we will just dance around, but with this one, I started freestyling. It was so different from anything that I’ve ever done or from the music that we hear over here – like, it was all the way different. I loved it, but I was a bit unsure… but I just freestyled on the mic, and the song just flowed, and when I came back in, we was like – woah.
Your songs explore the beautiful elements of dancehall music – as an artist from Jamaica, is it important for you to keep that strong bond with your Caribbean roots throughout your music career?
Alicai: Definitely – something that I really strongly believe in is giving credit where it’s due as well, as a lot of my influences may be different from people who do live in the UK. I’m a big Lady Saw fan; for me she’s a big inspiration, you can even hear it in my music, especially in ‘Naah Done’ as well. Buju Banton is in quite a lot of my music, so my thing is mainly almost evolving dancehall – so like, we’re still blending it with what your ears like hearing now. But keeping that real nineties dancehall feeling in the music without it being forced as well. I was very passionate about that, because when I came here I didn’t go back to Jamaica until the 8th of June – this year.
Oh really?
Alicai: Yeah, I only went back for the first time in fifteen years in June. So all those times I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t being lost in the music, you know what I mean? Just so you can hear. As much as I love being a UK artist and everything, I am very much a Jamaican artist as well, do you know what I mean? And I have to kind of really highlight that.
Alicai Harley: ‘As much as I’m a UK artist, I’m a Jamaican artist too.’ (Photo by Netti Hurley)
Who are some more of your musical inspirations?
Alicai: Beyoncé has always been a really big inspiration for me. And that’s simply because of her work; I remember when I was growing up, I really watched Beyoncé’s career very very closely and it kind of put a lot of drive in me to never limit myself and never feel like there’s nothing I cannot do.I remember I used to say, for everything I used to do, I used to say: ‘We all have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce does.’ And I mean if she can get it done, then why can’t I? I saw an interview where she was shooting a video and she was saying she’s not gonna eat yet – because if she eats, everyone else is gonna feel like they have to stop and she needs to make it clear that they gotta keep going, so she has to starve herself, even if she hasn’t eaten since yesterday, so that everyone else knows, ‘Yeah, we’re not having a break’ sorta ting, so she’s always been a very very big inspiration. I just felt like she just never limited herself and she just really acts almost superhuman.
Also, Nicki [Minaj] – when Nicki came out it was a long time since we had that female that was like really just bossing it up like boom boom, and she was hard as well. She was a big inspiration at that time. Not even musically always, but just inspirational. Do you know what I mean? She’s going hard, and she’s really doing her ting. And then the more I grew, and the more music went on, she was still doing her ting. I like that as well. She really stood with her crown.
Of course, you sing as well as rap — which was your first love?
Alicai: Initially, it was singing – I was singing from before I came to London, so from when I was really young, it’s just been something that I loved. I loved singing, I loved dancing, and the rapping started when I got to secondary school and I was doing poetry. I still like doing my little poems and being dramatic and all that stuff and one of my friends, she was much older than me, she said ‘Why don’t you rap?’ I was like ‘noooo’, but I rapped to the poem. And then I kept on rapping poems and I started writing stuff and I was so young, and a lot of the people that I was around, the guys were much older, and the girls were much older. And they just kind of saw me as their little baby that was just like the hardest. They just wanted to show me off everywhere, like: “Listen she raps!” There was a lot of people industry-wise that was rapping, like we had our Lady Leshurr, but we didn’t have no one from actual south London at that time that was rapping and yeah, they just really loved it. I went by the name Page, and as much as when I look back at the stuff now, I’m like, ‘Eww yuck! Noooo I’m so much better!’ But it’s just my journey, so I still kind of appreciate it.
Apart from like singing and rapping, are there any other like secret talents that you might have?
Alicai: I edit; I’m really good at editing and digital stuff. So a lot of my digital stuff, I do it – and like, artwork, for example, the ‘Killa’ artwork, I done that. Those sort of stuff I like doing. At one stage I didn’t have the team around me to get those things done – I had the support, but not necessarily the people that could do these stuff so I had to learn how to do them myself.
So what’s next for you? Are there any projects that you’re currently working on right now?
Alicai: Currently I’m working towards a project. It could be an EP, or I could just skip straight to the album. I’m kinda tryna leave a little bit a mystery here. But it could be an album. I’ll just say: Hashtag #RedRoom.
Listen to Naah Done at alicai-harley.lnk.to/naahdone, and follow Alicai Harley on Twitter and Instagram.
Interview by Shannon Saddler
