Special | 10m 25s | Video has closed captioning.
Filmmaker Alicia G. Edwards provides an intimate look into the life and work of Walshy Fire, a Grammy Award-nominated music producer and DJ. Discover why audiences pull up whenever and wherever Walshy Fire takes the stage, from his Caribbean-tinged childhood—when he first experienced the dancehall and reggae music scenes—to his current work as an electrifying producer and performer.
Aired: 04/11/23
(no audio) (low intense music fading in) (audience roaring happily) - All the way from Kingston, Jamaica, give it up for Walshy Fire!
(low intense music continues) (audience cheering happily) - [Warren "Willy Chin" Hoo] Walshy's one of the greatest emcees that I know.
- Energetic, flowetic, and just simply amazing.
The guy is a talent at its true form, and he just does it with such a bravado, no fear.
You wanna do exactly what he asks you to do on that microphone.
(low intense music continues) - [Walshy Fire] I mean, I've been doing this for 28 years now.
I just know that, yo I'm happy.
So it's kinda hard for me to not put out happiness.
(low intense music continues) But I reap happiness because of that, and I see how it just turns over.
I'm consumed by music, man.
(audience cheering happily) I'm really consumed by music.
(audience cheering loudly) Everybody a chance for somebody that's gonna love you.
(audience cheering loudly continues) (gentle feel-good music) - The DJing as a kid, you know, he always took to when my dad would DJ our family parties.
Some of his early like understanding of DJing was just watching my dad or listening to my dad play music.
- I often wondered, I said, "Did you go to school to entertain everybody, or did you go to school to learn?"
And he did both.
He did very well in school, but he was also the entertainer.
♪ One for the money ♪ ♪ Two for the dough ♪ ♪ Come on, y'all ♪ Can y'all drop a beat for me, can y'all drop a beat for me?
♪ I said my name is Leighton ♪ ♪ I'm never, ever fakin' ♪ (everyone chanting happily) - He started emceeing about 18, 19.
When he started in Black Chiney.
Everything kinda like connected, and connected, and took off for him.
We started traveling worldwide, DJing and emceeing.
His musical history has always included him being on the microphone and everybody listening to his voice.
- Walshy, met him on Black Chiney sound.
Me and him used to tour in the early days, and we had to work hard.
- Make some noise!
(deep bouncy music) (crowd cheering energetically) - Growing up in Miami, you're getting the influence of different genres of music.
The hip hop, the freestyle, the house music, you know?
And we grew up with reggae and dancehall, and we just fused all of them together, you know?
So putting it together was natural for us.
So we weren't trying to create something different, we're just like, "This is what we do, let's just do it."
- What I do is an influence of half Jamaican sound system culture and half Miami based culture, it's the two.
The approach can be a little different.
And so on the Jamaican culture side, it's very news of the streets kinda thing, you know, very, "This is how we rebel."
(deep bouncy music) And the Miami side, it's much more party, party, party, it's like fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.
And so there's both of that, right?
It's one, you wanna have something that's conscious and meaningful.
Then on the other side, you want people to dance and have a good time.
And so being able to blend both of those, I think is what influences pretty much everything.
♪ Jump, jump ♪ (intense rhythmic music) ♪ Watch out for this ♪ (air horns blaring loudly) Jamaican sound system culture, I think is the catalyst for like a global movement.
You have all of these sound systems that were becoming extremely popular.
The legend of those things started to go outside of Kingston.
There's been tons of other countries that look to Jamaica as the godfather of this thing.
No matter which island you come from, (speaking indistinctly) for your island!
(deep rhythmic music) I grew up in the golden era of dancehall, so the late 80s.
You know, Shabba, Papa San, Beenie and Bounty just starting, Super Cat.
That's what I would consider the golden era of dancehall.
I grew up in the middle of Kingston, I was able to see these artists perform because all these clubs and venues in Half Way Tree just shook where I lived.
It was extremely sculpting, you know?
I understood energy and vibration, and I learned that very young.
It lives with you for life.
That impact for sure brought me into music.
Everybody from out of town, put your hands in the air.
Well, it only right that everybody in here that's actually from Florida show you how to dance right now.
Let's go!
Ooh!
Ooh!
Let's go!
♪ Jump, jump ♪ - There is a conversation that's taking place between the DJ and the audience, creating a kind of opportunity for consecrating this space and seeing the dancehall space as a spiritual space.
(deep rhythmic music) (deep rhythmic music continues) Music was still connecting us.
Music was our bridge to the places we had left.
(upbeat rhythmic music) - In Miami, you get Jamaican culture, Central/South American culture, Caribbean culture.
Then you get Black American culture, white American culture, all mixed into this pot.
And so you end up finding that you have a very unique perspective on the world.
(TV playing in background) (rapid rhythmic music) We are in Brazil, we're in Sao Paulo.
We're working on my album, called "Walshinho."
I didn't have to fly here, we can work remotely, but there's nothing like being in the studio with somebody, and actually having your input, and actually creating together, and actually becoming friends as well.
(distorted vocals) ♪ Baby, baby ♪ ♪ Alright, say ah ♪ - Yeah, I'm not... Man, telling you man, I'm shocked, man.
Man, I never hear this (beep) before, not from Brazil.
- Not from Brazil.
- Yeah, not from Brazil, man.
This (beep) is kinda fire, man.
- Yeah, yeah.
- I'm really shocked.
- We learned a lot, definitely.
- Yo, I'm really shocked, man.
- With you guys.
- When I make songs, there really is no set formula or plan.
It could start with a melody, it could start with a beat, it could start with the words, it happens in every single way.
But for the most part, you make a beat first.
Maybe you just keep going up.
(high-pitched singing) (everyone laughing amusingly) - Come on, let's try it.
- Let's try.
(artist singing heartfully) It's not bad, you know?
You know what, maybe could you not crack the note, and just give it one long one- - [Studio Assistant] A straight one.
- Yeah, a straight one, without (high-pitched singing) without the fluxing.
- Okay.
- Yeah, just see if you can go straight for as long as you can.
(artist singing heartfully) That sounded good.
(replaying heartfelt vocals) Bomboclaat!
Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop!
(gentle oscillating music) (gentle oscillating music continues) - He just knows when to say the right things, do the right things to whole crowds of 100,000 people on a stage.
I didn't mean to get so emotional.
(laughing gently) (gentle oscillating music continues) He's just a worldwide figure, in my opinion, beyond the Caribbean title.
(gentle oscillating music continues) - I'll never stop doing what I love and making sure that I do it to the best of my ability every single day.
It's never gonna stop.
(crowd cheering loudly) Somebody say puro!
(air horn blaring loudly) (crowd cheering loudly) ♪ Blessed ♪ ♪ Blessed ♪ (deep rhythmic music) (deep rhythmic music continues) (deep rhythmic music continues) (clapperboard clicking loudly) (soothing ethereal music) (soothing ethereal music continues)
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