Interview: Bling Dawg On His Debut Album ‘Elev8’, Setting Goals, Prayer And Growth

After nearly twenty years in music, Dancehall star Bling Dawg, born Marlon Ricardo Williams, finally released his debut album Elev8 last Friday, February 4.

The 19-track set was executive-produced by Bling Dawg himself, who hand-picked some of Reggae’s most respected names for the project including his former Alliance mentor Bounty Killer, Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley and Popcaan.  The Portland-grown deejay, who has also strategically partnered with management and publishing company Creative Titans, credits the completion of the project to a disciplined and focused goal-setting regime, constant prayer, and growth.

His interview with DancehallMag, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, is below.

Bling Dawg, we are proud you have a new album and happy that it is one drop Reggae. You’ve emerged into this positive role model, but we haven’t heard from you in a while. Tell us about your journey.

Yes, thank you. I had to take a hiatus and work on myself because sometimes you have to make people miss you.

How long was that hiatus?

Well, my last two songs were Aji Bounce and Kreech, from about 2014 and 2015. I had some releases up to 2020 and 2021, then I did an interview with Winford [Williams] and told him I am not going to deejay anymore gun songs or derogatory songs, suh mi just guh inna mi highly, mi spiritually, mi mentally, and physically. Because music is a spiritual thing and these things don’t come by chance. You have to work on yourself to feel the synergy of the music and the spirituality of it and life on a whole, its growth. So I decided to do that on my own.

Was there a specific moment that inspired this change or did something happen?

It’s just growth. Even when I was at a tender age, I was the type of person to set goals for my life that I want to accomplish, I have never let go of them.

I don’t know if you remember when I was over 300 pounds, and I worked on myself and I lost a lot of weight. So it is growth. In life, some people grow and some don’t. Even though they are at a mature stage, they are like a stop sign, they don’t grow. For me it is all about evolving, I always want to be a better version of myself.

I saw you working out a few years ago at the gym, and you seemed very focused, yet you had a pleasant mannerism about you to those who were there. Are you always like that or is it because of the transformation you went through?

I have always had a passion for people, humanity, and women. I grew up with my grandmother and father with very positive vibes in Portland, then migrated to my mother in Miami at age 11.

I never got into any trouble in school or anything like that while growing up there no matter what the environment was like. I also never wanted to upset my mother and bring out a side of her that I knew was not into that so I stayed out of trouble at all times.

Elev8 is your debut Reggae album after two decades of making Dancehall hits and carving a name for yourself in the industry. Bounty Killer spoke in your documentary about how you honed your skills in the background from the Scare Dem Crew days. Did they have an influence on the type of music you did?

For me, it is a journey and a college. At one point I was living with Louie Culture at his house in Portmore, he is from Portland like myself. He was like an elder person to me and I have always looked up to him from my school days. But leaving Miami and coming back to Jamaica, and being around Louie Culture, and during the time when Sizzla jus a buss, mi did inna dem journey deh to. So my deejay style, a really Louie Culture teach me how fi deejay, so from back inna di days I was surrounded by dem one drop music deh. I had almost ras my hair from those times but I ended up around Shocking Vibes and me and Bounty Killer was always friends, suh we weren’t even thinking about that, we jus did wah buss, so whatever it took and what we needed to say to get that recognition we did it, but if you really check my history, I never have lyrics that can’t be played. Mi neva really guh overboard. My past lyrics and my past songs are not too far from what I am doing now.

Even the Anger Management [riddim], my song Mi Nuh Care dem seh is a bad man song, but I don’t say anything about killing nobody in there, mi seh “when mi shoot mi nuh miss like John Stalks,” so it’s all metaphors. Sometimes you have to let people grow to see things for themself, the people gravitate to derogatory lyrics but they will grow.

Are you now a Rastafarian man or do you have locs because of the spiritual journey you’re on?

I am a Rastaman and that is the only real thing I see that can comfort me.

What kind of lifestyle do you live as a Rastaman?

Even before locs, my life has been pure so it is not too far from what I am doing now, so it is not complicated for me, it is the everyday life that I live, pure with lots of fasting and praying to get where I am now.

What type of music did you listen to while fasting and praying during your transformation?

Lots of culture music and music with lots of singing like Mikey Spice, Dennis Brown, and Freddie McGregor. I always try to sing them, so where I have now reached in my career, I try to improve on that and I have lots of improvement to do. I don’t stop where I am and music doesn’t have any level where you stop here, I will always be learning once I am in music. Even working with Junior Gong on the two songs [Yo! and Married To Music] he produced on the album has given me a whole new vision of music from how I did it back then compared to now.

In your documentary, Damian Marley said you gave him a big compliment by asking him to be a producer on your album.

Junior Gong is someone I have high ratings and respect for, he is a bredrin and he shows me love and I show him back love and respect. It is a nice feeling to know that someone of that caliber respects me as a lyricist and publicly, as sometimes people in Jamaica don’t give you the glory like that. We need to embrace that more in music.

Walshy Fire bragged about your songwriting skills in the documentary. Did you write all the tracks or did you have a team of writers come in and work together for the album?

I wrote all the tracks including the full song Feelings with Morgan Heritage and the full song Buss A Road with Bounty Killer, for all the other features the artists wrote their part and I wrote mine.

Are you the executive producer of the album?

Yes, it is my album and I have four tracks on it that I produced as well. Feelings with Morgan Heritage, Prayer We Use with Popcaan, Gaze, and Walk This Way, I produced them.

What’s the relationship with Creative Titans?

Yes, that is my team and we are actually business partners. I never really had management during the twenty years after leaving Shocking Vibes, so anything you heard after that was really me just pushing out by myself.

Creative Titans love what I am doing and they respect my work. Everything that is happening now is what I really prayed for over the years and I am seeing everything happen right now as a manifestation. I have been patient, you can’t pray today and expect things to just happen, you have to be patient. That’s why the song with Popcaan, Prayer We Use, is a fact, cause a prayer wi use and right now I am overwhelmed with the love that I am getting for the release of this album from all over the world, I am very grateful. Mi jus siddung inna di passenger seat and watch the Most High a drive and mi nuh have no seat belt.

What are your hopes for your debut album?

Firstly, I love the support and I love the energy and the vibes that I am getting for the album worldwide. It has been amazing, it came out last Friday and two days later it was number 3 on the iTunes charts. I really appreciate that people were waiting for this album, and right now for the next 3 to 4 weeks, I have an interview every day with people all over the world. So I expect good; I can’t put a finger on it. I am leaving it to the most high and may the chips fall where they fall. I just want to know I am putting out positive work and putting my all into it.

What else are you doing musically?

After this is the next chapter, right now I am learning to play my guitar.

Do you have any thoughts or comments on the state of the music industry in Jamaica and artists’ approach and knowledge of the business aspect to their music; lots of them don’t have managers or PR representatives handling them.

Our industry needs to get better business-wise. We have a lot of talented producers and artists, but sometimes the business part is not right. Even before I could put out this album, my management team and I had to work out things on the back end. Things have to be structured properly. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in voicing tracks back to back during studio sessions and neglect the business aspect of things; that’s why now I work out my split sheets and everything, so everyone gets what they are to get. Things are done properly, but I can say now, that back then, I never did it the right way all the time. Right now I have more work to do to try and go back and find some songs and get things registered, but it is all worth it. And so for the new artists coming now, learn the business side of the art first.

Some producers are registering songs behind artists’ back.

I believe from everybody do dem work they are to get paid, musicians and everybody.

Do you have a favorite track from the album?

All the songs I love them because it is time spent, but God Is Amazing is significant in the journey because it came at a time when I was trying to be frustrated and then God gave me energy.

Thanks for talking with DancehallMag, Bling Dawg and all the best with your album.

Enjoy your day and thanks for having me, you are welcome.