Reggae Singer Lila Iké on Staying True to Her Jamaican Roots

Women Who Travel | Condé Nast Traveler

Condé Nast Traveler

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.4 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 15 August 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As part of Condé Nast Traveler’s music and travel coverage this month, Lale sits down with reggae singer Lila Iké to find out about life in Kingston, the old school influences that still shape her music now, and what it was like performing live on stage for the first time. But even as she tours the world, she remains faithful to Jamaica’s reggae heritage. “I am a very Jamaican girl,” says Iké. “I grew up in the country, and it doesn't get any more Jamaican than that. I'm a very rootsy, and my music reflects a lot of that.” Eager for more once you’ve listened? Don’t miss Iké’s local’s guide to Kingston on cntraveler.com.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there, I'm Lale Arakoglu, and this is women who travel.
0:09.4	Earlier this year, I caught up with the talented reggae singer Lila Aike for Condonass Travelers Ask a Local column.
0:15.8	We talked all things Jamaica, but I also asked her it should be a guest on this show.
0:33.4	My mom really loved reggae music, so I grew up listening to a lot of reggae.
0:45.0	So we might listen to a Bob Marley album or a Burning Spear or a Peter Tash and whatever she was into musically, I would always pay like an extra attention to.
0:46.5	I wonder why she likes this song.
0:55.1	So from a very young age, I always just listened very closely to the lyrics of the music and listen to the instrumentation and everything.
1:01.3	And the music that I listened to the music that was played in my house is music that made me who I am. I don't think if my mom was listening to some other genre or some other type of
1:06.6	music, if I would be the same artist that I am today.
1:11.9	Leela's music fuses contemporary reggae with elements of soul, hip-hop and dancehall, but she's
1:17.3	faithful to Jamaica's reggae heritage.
1:19.6	I'd say my music definitely represents Jamaica because I definitely keep the roots involved.
1:29.6	I'm a very Jamaican girl, you know.
1:33.1	Like, I grew up in the country.
1:35.0	It really doesn't get any more Jamaican than that.
1:37.8	But I'm also, like, very much grounded in reggae music.
1:42.4	Like, I love reggae for real.
1:47.0	I'm a very rooty girl. So my music reflects a lot of that. And if you listen, you'd find that the elements in my music, the sounds, the bass line, the drums, it's very reggae.
1:56.0	I try to incorporate a lot of like the original old school Jamaica music that I grew up on because I realized that a lot of my peers, especially when I was in university, when everybody was listening to like when trap was becoming a thing and, you know, everybody's blowing up and it's like, wow, this is a cool
2:19.1	thing right now. I was still, like, skanking to, like, the slow one drop. And everybody
2:24.5	thought I was weird and I was like, yo, this music is so beautiful. I just don't understand
2:29.2	how you guys are not getting it. And I was like, this is the music I'm going to make. I'm going to do reggae music.
	...

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