Throughout his career, Runkus has shared the mic with a number of artistes — from Jesse Royal to Jah9 and King Cruff. In April, he travelled to Germany for his most unconventional collaboration, with Bahamian creative artist Tavares Strachan.

The roots-reggae artiste performed at the opening of Strachan’s highly-anticipated ‘SUPERNOVAS’ exhibition which runs from April 11-August 24 at the Kunsthalle Mannheim. Runkus performed with a 100-member choir and provided ‘sound score’ to some of Strachan’s pieces.

It is Runkus’ latest appearance with Strachan who he first met five years ago when the latter visited Jamaica. The lanky singjay previously performed at exhibitions in Los Angeles and the United Kingdom.

He welcomes the change of pace.

“Art interests me, just as music interests me because they are one and the same. I feel like, everything we do is art, especially we as Jamaicans and I an’ I as a Rastaman,” said Runkus. “The way we cook, walk, talk, dress, is an artistic expression towards the Almighty.”

His Germany sojourn came almost two months after the death of his father, Determine, the talented chanter best known for ‘Kette Drum’, his 1995 collaboration with Beenie Man. He succumbed to stomach cancer at age 53 in February in the United States. Staying creative has helped ease the pain of losing Determine, who was also his mentor.

“The last six months, it’s been a whirlwind. In the midst of working and getting these accolades, it’s been a tumultuous year, a hard year, with the loss of my Dad. I do this for my family, yuh nuh, for my mother, father, brother and sister,” said a somber Runkus. “It’s been a hard road to travel…a hard six months, but Jah neva give man more than him can bear.”

Those accolades include being part of ‘Being Poor is Expensive’ by British rapper Bashy that won Album Of The Year at the MOBO Awards on February 18 in Newcastle, England, just three days after Determine’s passing. Runkus appears on the song, ‘Made In Britain’, which salutes Britain’s Windrush Generation.

‘Fallback’, his song with King Cruff, was also nominated in the Reggae Recording Of The Year category at Canada’s JUNO Awards in March. It lost to ‘Born To Be Free’ by Exco Levi.

Born Romario Bennett, Runkus followed his father into music. To date, he has released three albums — ‘Move In’ in 2016, ‘IN:SIDE’, which came out five years later and ‘OUT:SIDE’ which was released in 2022.

(Photo contributed)