Tarrus Riley Drops Official Video For ‘Healing’: Watch

Tarrus Riley has shared the official video for Healing, the title track and lead single from his Healing album, coming July 10th via Zojak World Wide.

The video, directed by Ruption of RD Studios, presents a stunning survey of Jamaica during the time of Covid-19 — barren, bruised, and desolate as it emerges from lockdown to get back to business and begin its healing process. With footage shot across the island during quarantine blended with more recent scenes from the recent Black Lives Matter protests in Jamaica, and around the world, the video features cameos from fellow artists Konshens and Kemar Highcon and Jamaican producers Shane Brown and Kareem ‘Remus’ Burrell.

The track’s lyrics find Tarrus — known for blending cultural, message-oriented reggae with romance and love themes on tracks like his breakout hit She’s Royal and the Major Lazer/Ellie Goulding collaboration Powerful — asking the question: What will the new world be like without a simple hug?

“I’m not trying to be a prophet when I ask, ‘What will this new world be like?’” Riley says.

“I’m asking a question everybody wants to know. We need healing right now — the healing of our health, financial healing. My father is a singer and my mother is a nurse. I am them together and I make healing music.”

Produced by Shane Brown and Riley’s longtime Blak Soil Band leader Dean Fraser, along with Riley himself, Healing finds “Singy Singy” (as Tarrus is known to fans) collaborating with a who’s who of today’s top dancehall stars, including Shenseea (who adds backing harmonies on the title track in addition to her feature on the upcoming release, Lighter) Konshens, Dexta Daps, TeeJay, and Rvssian, on a timely and urgent soundtrack to these turbulent times.

The 12-track LP is the first Jamaican reggae album written and recorded entirely during the time of Covid-19. Direct and topical yet spiritual in tone, the project takes stock of the world at a time of unprecedented uncertainty, imagining a future for mankind in which we must move forward without the comforts of the past.

“I did a lot of self reflecting, like the world is doing,” Riley says of the inspirations behind the album, his first full-length project since 2014’s Love Situation. “What I had to do to not panic, and keep my sanity, is to express myself. This project is about life itself: A soundtrack for our lives now, and maybe what is to be our lives.”

Watch Healing below.