While he considers himself “a writer by default”, Kenne Blessin goes all out to record original songs. For ‘Caught My Attention’, his second album, the singer covered a song he has long cherished.

The Atlanta-based Jamaican put his spin on ‘Vice Versa Love’, done in 1993 by Barrington Levy.

Unlike the somber original, Kenne Blessin went for a ‘rockers’ feel to get fans on the dancefloor.

“Maybe one or two words were changed, and it wasn’t done on a reggae beat before. It wasn’t something that was even planned, I just heard the rhythm and that was the song that came to me. I don’t know why,” he said.

‘Caught My Attention’ was released in February by Dacosta Muzic, seven years after ‘Get Up & Go’, Kenne Blessin’s first album which was produced by Cris Goldmind, who is based in Kingston.

For his latest project, he worked with Paul Frederick, a United States Virgin Islands native who also lives in Atlanta, and Dominic Gall out of the United Kingdom.

‘Vice Versa Love’ is the lone cover on the 14-song set which is strong on ballads like ‘Falling For You’, ‘Be With You’ and ‘My Love Will Never Die’. There is also ‘My Love Will Never Die’, a reggae version of a soca track Kenne Blessin recorded while living in Antigua many years ago.

“For Caught My Attention everything just flowed, there was no writer’s block or any hiccups getting the words together. It was natural, most of the words were not even written down,” he said.

Kenne Blessin was born in Kingston but raised in St. Thomas, a coastal parish in eastern Jamaica known for its thriving banana industry. It also produced acts like The Slickers, Bushman and Natty King.

Like many Jamaicans, he was fed a steady diet of Bob Marley and Toots And The Maytals in his youth, but also admired the militant sounds of Sizzla, pop-dancehall artistes like Beenie Man and rapper Snoop Dogg.

In addition to ‘Get Up & Go’, Kenne Blessin also released ‘Millions’, an EP that came out in 2020.

(Photo contributed)