Spragga Benz On His Rastafari Journey

Reggae and Dancehall artist Spragga Benz says his Rastafarian faith wasn’t a sudden conversion but rather a path he found himself on, with roots planted in his childhood.

“For me it was just part of the journey same way because that is part of the roots,” he told Kwasi Bonsu on the Lions Voice Network podcast. “My father was a Rasta man same way, rest in peace, so I didn’t know him as a rasta man still but from learning from mi brethren dem that, that concept did already instilled inna my house certain way so mi grow up inna that. Me used to see the rasta baby picture dem pon the wall and Marcus Garvey and the flags and all a that, not too much of it but it was there so I had that connection with Rastafari.”

Those early experiences were further solidified by his walks past a Bobo Shanti community near his school. “Mi see the livity and mi come up in music and get fi travel the world and seeing how things are outside kind of opened my mind,” he said.

“Then you get exposed to some inconsistencies then in life and in the world and in the government and religion and all types of things so to me the most natural type of levity weh mi gravitate to was natural Rastafari livity so from dehso mi just tek it for myself,” Spragga added.

Spragga Benz even pointed to a specific event that solidified his beliefs. The Y2K scare, with its predictions of an apocalypse, became a turning point.

“Some more vital points weh mi always did a try show the brethren dem coming up dem always a say the year 2000 and wha ago happen and mi always a tell dem say a world without end and now fi see it actually come and prove to them because it was a strong point to them at the time about millennium bugs , it was a great turning point fi dem fi see say yow a story you a hear…from that point mi jus become more to myself,” he said.

He reasoned that his conversion to Rastafari and his shift towards more conscious music haven’t affected his place in the Dancehall scene.

“Mi no think so, mi think me a me straight through, mi no think there is no difference if mi go either way,” he insisted. “Me a just me and a wah me a do so I don’t think it hurt me or build me from wah mi supposed to be.”

In fact, his interest in Rastafari began around 1995 or 1996, during the peak of his Dancehall success. “I started reading the pamplets and whatever and started scanning through them so around that time,” he said.

“What stood out is the titles at first, that stood out first then we match back the titles to Sunday school so that was the first interest. Going further coming up through school and remembering about Ethiopia and Italy and about Ethiopia never officially being conquered and making that connection.”