On 'Welcome', produced by OneMan Beats, Five Steez introduces the uninitiated to his city – Kingston, the capital of Jamaica. The song, which begins the EP, features an uptempo head-nodding instrumental and a multi-layered hook with scratches on a Jamaican vocal sample done by the producer.
"'Welcome’ is very friendly," says Five Steez. "It's one of the lighter tracks on the EP, sort of like ‘Deadly’ in that sense, but it gives people an idea of what they’re going to hear about Kingston on this project."
OneMan Beats, the song’s Bronx-based producer, says, “Five Steez wrote the perfect concept for this song, which explains where he is from, with a Jamaican MC's point of view. Kinda feels like the Bronx, New York, but in Jamaica.”
The single’s music video will be released next month.
'These Kingston Times' is said to be the modern tale of the Jamaican capital. “I wanted to paint my city the way I see it, and in a way I've never heard the story told before in music,” says Five Steez. “Since Hip Hop’s genesis with DJ Kool Herc, there has always been a Jamaican influence and involvement in the genre, but you've never heard about actual life here in ‘yard’, as we affectionately call it. It's a new perspective in Hip Hop, but parallel to that of urban environments worldwide.”
‘These Kingston Times’ will be released on October 14 via Bandcamp, iTunes and other outlets.