Thanks & Praise: Gappy Ranks’ ‘Coulda Runaway’ Video + Japan Travelogue

Words by Jesse Serwer

Thanks & Praise is not just the title of Gappy Ranks‘ upcoming LP for VP/Greensleeves: It’s what the U.K. singjay is giving after experiencing the calamitous earthquake that has left large portions of Japan devastated and on the brink of nuclear fallout. According to his Twitter and Facebook, and an e-mail rundown Gappy just CC’ed us on, England’s current top ranking reggae ambassador arrived in Yokohama, Japan, for the start of a Japanese tour just two hours before the earthquake hit. Amazingly, Ranks’ show in Osaka the following night went on as planned (“It was a very emotional show,” Ranks says), though later dates in Tokyo and Northern Japan, site of the greatest damage, were canceled.

With Gappy set to make his way back home to the UK after one more show in Japan tomorrow, he’s unveiled the second video from Thanks & Praise, “Coulda Runaway.” Also featuring on the track is Jamaica’s Delly Ranx, who joins Gappy in what appears to be the parking lot of a Pizza Hut, tactfully acknowledging fellow top Ranks-ings Shabba, Cutty and Robbo.

Check the video below, then read Gappy’s own version of the events in Japan after the jump.

“We are in Japan now, we arrived two hours before the earthquake, we went through this experience as soon as we check in at our hotel in Yokohama on March 11th. The next day we went to Osaka to perform, it was a very emotional show along [with] Unity Sound. We are back in Yokohama, some of the shows have been canceled, we’ve got one more tomorrow in Shizuka then we will go back to the UK. Due to the menace of nuclear explosion we canceled the dates in the north of the country and in Tokyo ’cause most of the place have been damaged and the people need to recover from the earthquake and tsunami. We are feeling the pain of the Japanese people. I will always remember my first day in Japan.”

–Gappy Ranks