Rygin King Says He Paved The Way For Upcoming Artists By Closing Reggae Sumfest
Rygin King believes he paved the way for upcoming artists to be considered to close Reggae Sumfest, following his breakout performance at the festival in 2018.
At the time, the St. James native was one to watch as a face of trap dancehall, and closed the event in tandem with Tommy Lee Sparta and then-newcomer, Teejay.
“If mi never buss the gate fi mek other ghetto youth get the opportunity, or fi dem look pon a other ghetto youth and believe seh, yow, dem can close, like how Soulja Boy seh ‘me first’, a so mi a di first one do some things fi mek other people can seh, ‘You know wah, before we nav no involvement inna this, mek we mek sure seh before one other one rise up pon we, mek we mek sure we look and pay attention this time’.”
Seemingly speaking from personal experience, he continued, “‘We waan mek money outta dat, we nuh want the other one rise up pon we and we nav nothing fi do wid it and see dem can fly all over and go all bout and we cya mek a dollar offa dem cause we nav nothing fi do with it. We never help dem. We never give dem no strength’.”
The How We Grow artist was speaking to comedian Swiss Lee on a TikTok livestream on Wednesday.
King’s history with Reggae Sumfest is winding. Though the platform is behind his big break, he hasn’t returned to that stage. In 2019, he claimed he was offered a contract to perform, but felt disrespected by the organisers’ approach. Nonetheless, King feels good to have made history, and even likened it to meteoric star Koffee being the youngest Jamaican artist and first female to win the Best Reggae Album Grammy in 2020.
“Same like how Koffee go collect the award, she do it and mek it known seh, alright, it’s possible fi one a we do it sedway right now…”
On that note, he is eyeing a Grammy for his upcoming album Recovery, inspired by his rehabilitation journey since being paralysed from a 2020 gun attack.
“A di Grammy mi ready fi collect right now mi youth,” he said. “Recovery album a go come mash up dem head top cause mi a wuk enuh.”
His 2022 debut album Therapy is an intro to life after the ordeal, met with 750 sold units in its first week of release. He had previously expressed Grammy goals for that album.