Dancehall artiste Akino Dirtfree is generating a huge buzz with his latest single, ‘Feel Good’, a clever song with racy metaphors that has gained a listening ear with the teenage audience in Jamaica.
Released on the Program Ova Everything Music (P.O.E.M), the song has already racked up thousands of spins on streaming platform, YouTube. He admitted that it was surprising that a song he appeared to spend the least amount of time on is perhaps his most well known song.
“Mi put in the least amount of effort in this song yet still it is the song the people dem a tek on to cause it’s so different,” he said.
“I had gone to record another song, ‘Head and Shoulder’, and afterwards, mi say to the engineer, play the riddim, and mi under the high grade at the time, so mi start drop some pre-written line. Then mi just lock mi eyes and start flow and just a freestyle, and that’s why it come out with this free flow sound. Mi record it in one go and mi just keep it,” Akino Dirtfree, whose real name is Norman Akino Clarke, said.
He will be releasing a video for the song this week.
Recently signed to the US-based label, Program Ova Everything Music (P.O.E.M), Akino Dirtfree has carved out an impressive underground following in the Runaway Bay area of St. Ann. He put out an EP in 2018, and generated attention right away. He has performed at shows in Jamaica such as Sharkey’s in St. Ann, and over the past year, he has several shows in Atlanta nightclubs alongside artistes such as Mavado, Masicka and Alkaline.
“I actually got some great words of encouragement from Alkaline after I opened up for him on a show, so that was great,” he said.
He grew up in the rough neighbourbood of Pink Lane in Denham Town where he attended St. Anne’s Primary school and Tivoli Gardens High school. He migrated to the US in 2013.
“It was always in me to be an artiste, but I just never had the guts to pursue my dream. but the older I got, I started to take it serious, it just felt like my calling, and when I saw Chronixx and Alkaline ah push out, it inspired me to do the same,” he said.
Dirtfree lists his primary musical inspirations as I Wayne, Sasco, Junior Gong, Chronixx. He recorded and released his first official single, Sidestep, in 2016, on his own Dirtfree Music label.
Since that time, he has been finetuning his sound while listening to a wide range of genres, and now, he is ready to unleash that sound on an unsuspecting public.
“Mi plan to be the biggest artiste who ever live, that is my aim and goal,” the brash youngster said.
He is also promoting singles such as ‘Telescope’ on the Brick pon Brick rhythm, ‘Head and Shoulder’ on Numbers Don’t Lie rhythm, and ‘Mama Mi Queen’.
