BLM remixes Toots’ ‘Got To Be Tough’

Got To Be Tough, the title track from Toots and the Maytals’ first album in 10 years, has been remixed by the protest organisation Black Lives Matter (BLM )for their campaign. The album is the Grammy Award-winning reggae singer’s debut project on the Trojan Jamaica imprint, to which he signed last October.

The song, which states, “Your days are getting shorter/Our youths are getting slaughtered/Things maybe hard, so hard/But we have to overcome it” resounded with the ideals of BLM, described as a “decentralised political and social movement advocating for non-violent civil disobedience in protest against incidents of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against black people”. And although Toots has made it crystal clear that he, personally, doesn’t relate to any movement “except a music movement,” he is always happy when somebody does over his songs.

“Toots is an artiste who takes pleasure in people doing over his material. He once said to me that if you have a restaurant and is you alone eating there, then something is wrong,” Toots’ manager Cabel ‘Jeffrey’ Stephenson told The Gleaner. “The Black Lives Matter campaign have also done a very good video for the single, which speaks to the fact that as black people we got to be tough.”

Stephenson is convinced that this album, which was released globally via Trojan Jamaica/BMG Records on August 28, is special, almost bordering on a premonition, as it relates to the current situation worldwide with the pandemic and social unrest, and also personally for Toots.

‘Toots Is Music’

“Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert is music. He is constantly in the studio recording and he has a trove of unreleased music. For this project, he had to go through and select the songs he wanted to put together for the album. With the title track, he asked Sly [Dunbar] to come in and play over the drums to get a different interpretation, because Toots had played all the instruments himself. He also called in Zac Starky and a percussionist,” Stephenson said.

“Toots must have been deep in thought for him to go in and select these songs for the album and then to have Got To Be Tough as the lead, at a time when he is fighting for his life. It cannot be a coincidence,” Toots’ long-time friend surmised.

Stephens shared with The Gleaner that the veteran reggae singer, although still in the medically induced coma, has seen his condition marked with steady and encouraging progress. Toots was admitted to the University Hospital of the West Indies last week Tuesday after being transferred there from another facility in Kingston.

“The thing is that Toots is very strong. His diet is excellent and he works out at the gym every day. Nyah [Toots] is a man who will tell me, ‘Jeffrey, yuh belly a get too big, man. Yuh need to get in the gym; and as a matter of fact, I will pay the first month.’ And you better believe that 5 o’clock the next morning him calling you to meet him at the gym. And the funny thing about it is that we cannot keep up with this man,” Stephenson said of the 77-year-old reggae legend, who is credited with naming the genre.

Grateful For Prayers

Stephenson is grateful for all the prayers that have been petitioned on the singer’s behalf, and he said that Toots was very aware of all the happenings leading up to him being sedated. “He told me how much he appreciated all that I have done for him, and I told him that all he needs to do is focus on getting better.”

“Nyah,” he added, “is not a normal man. If you ever hear Nyah pray, you will know what I am talking about,” Stephenson explained of the singer, whose parents were devoted members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Confident that Toots will make a full recovery, Stephenson is happy that the album Got To Be Strong is doing well, and the songs have popped up on several playlists across the world.

Of Got To Be Tough, Toots himself said, “The single, Got to Be Tough, is the lead single and it is telling everyone that they have to be tough and resilient. Don’t give up, believe in yourself, believe in God and what you are doing and it will all work out in the end.”

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com