{"id":2446769,"date":"2019-07-25T11:39:23","date_gmt":"2019-07-25T17:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=863064"},"modified":"2019-07-25T11:39:23","modified_gmt":"2019-07-25T17:39:23","slug":"the-first-time-protoje","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/the-first-time-protoje\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Time: Protoje"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Proteje.00_00_45_00.Still008.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>Jamaican singer-songwriter Protoje attributes his unique sound \u2014 a hip-hop\/<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/reggae\/\" id=\"auto-tag_reggae\" data-tag=\"reggae\">reggae<\/a> fusion \u2014 to hip-hop\u2019s \u201cflow and patterns,\u201d which influenced his music taste at a young age. In the latest installment of <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2019s \u201cThe First Time,\u201d he cites Kanye West and producer Just Blaze as inspirations for his distinct style after hearing them sample R&amp;B and soul records in hip-hop songs. \u201cI was like, \u2018Maybe I could sample old reggae or [Los] Rakas type of songs and give them an updated bop to it\u2019 \u2026that was about 2005.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the topic of inspirations, he highlights Damian Marley\u2019s 2005 album <em>Welcome to Jamrock<\/em> for providing the confidence he needed to realize that he was \u201con the right path\u201d as a musician. \u201cI heard that bass line and I was like, \u2018This is <em>crazy.\u2019<\/em> It was a unique sound at the time, and it was just the start of a new era, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Protoje wrote his first song at 13 years old while participating in \u201csound clashes\u201d in Jamaica. He developed his songwriting skills through these experiences. \u201cI started to rewrite popular artists\u2019 songs to counteract what other people were singing.\u201d He defines sound clashes: \u201c[They\u2019re] more energetic than rap battles in America, it\u2019s more like you\u2019re performing against somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While he had practice performing in sound clashes, his first time officially performing onstage didn\u2019t go as planned due to technical difficulties. \u201cWhen I started to sing, the mic cut off.\u201d He stood onstage for over two minutes \u2014 an eternity, as he recalls \u2014 waiting for the music to come back on before he started over. \u201cTwo minutes just standing up there, like, watching people watch me was \u2026 something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Protoje is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.protoje.com\/tour\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">currently on tour<\/a> this summer. He\u2019ll kick off a North American leg on July 31st in Philadelphia, wrapping up in New Jersey\u2019s Asbury Park on August 4th. He\u2019ll play a four-date stint in Europe before returning to the States.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/protoje-reggae-jamaica-video-863064\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jamaican singer-songwriter Protoje attributes his unique sound \u2014 a hip-hop\/reggae fusion \u2014 to hip-hop\u2019s \u201cflow and patterns,\u201d which influenced his music taste at a young age. In the latest installment of Rolling Stone\u2019s \u201cThe First Time,\u201d he cites Kanye West and producer Just Blaze as inspirations for his distinct style after hearing them sample R&amp;B [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 06:01:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}