Words by Jesse Serwer—
It’s been three years since he dropped his last album Babylon Nightmare but Jahdan Blakkamoore has been keeping real busy. The frequent Major Lazer collaborator was one of the principal songwriters on Snoop Lion’s Reincarnated project, lending his vocals to tracks like “Lighters Up,” and also played a behind-the-scenes role in their new album Free the Universe.
He’s also recently worked on new projects with Midnite and Glen Washington. Now, the Brooklyn-via-Guyana singjay is ready to drop a new project of his own, called Upward Spiral, with production from Paper Stars, his new production/songwriting team with Andrew “Moon” Bain, as well as Dre Skull, Matt Shadetek and Zion I Kings.
The first track to emerge from the project, “Queen of the Forest” is a collaboration with Chicago-based hip hop group Illuminati Congo (vocalist Jahn The Baptist and producer Nic The Graduate), produced by Lustre Kings Productions (Andrew “Moon” Bain and Godstar). Sharing almost nothing in common with right-wing rocker Ted Nugent’s song of the same name, this “Queen of the Forest” is a “Ganja Farmer”-style weed anthem, recorded at Tuff Gong Studio with Shane Brown of Busy Signal fame.
Stream/download below, and leave your thoughts in the comments.