Artist: Jalifa

[Khamisi]

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Jalifa

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Jalifa is a Trinidadian-Raggae artist, born on December 26th, 1990 with the given name Kalifa Nataki Alexis to Mr. Roy Theobalds and Claire Alexis, known to many as Priest Ekechi and Empress Adama. Jalifa along with her 8 siblings was brought up under the Rastafarian livity that is portrayed by Jalifa outward and inwardly. Jalifa being the 7th child out of 9 siblings took to the interest in doing music at the tender age of seven. Growing up Jalifa's first musical influences came by seeing her father and two elder brothers singing, their father would DJ on the mic and mix down on the set whilst they chant and sing. All together Jalifa and her sisters would get involve by dancing and singing along to whatever music was being played at the moment.

Despite growing up within the Rastafarian lifestyle and strong beliefs within the faith, Jalifa and her siblings would listen to all styles of music, genres ranging from Reggae, Dancehall, Hip-hop, R&B from the old school to new school was the kind of music you would here be blasting out in the Gonzales area.

Jalifa's other influences came from artists like 'Sister Nancy. One of Jalifa's favourite songs was "Bam Bam" by Sister Nancy, she would always choose to sing that particular song whenever she had the mic. Other musical influence also came from artists like Lauryn Hill, Eminem and a whole lot of other music that influence her to be the versatile artist she expresses herself to be through her artistry. As Jalifa got older she began to take to music on a serious level, she started out freestyling hip hop, her elder brother "Adiel Alexis" also has a major part to play in Jalifa becoming the artist we know today. He thought her the musical fundamentals she needed to know in becoming the best she could be and that's a better recording and performing artist. Jalifa's brother has written songs for her like When I Chant, "Unite" by Jalifa featuring Reddy, along with a couple of other songs he has co-written with her.

Jalifa started as a performing artist before she started recording music officially, she has performed alongside most of the reggae artistes like Mr Royal, Buzz Rock, Prophet Benjamin, Isasha, Queen Omega, Ziggy Ranking and much more. Jalifa also shared the stage with some of Jamaica's biggest international reggae stars, icons, and veteran and legends of reggae at various reggae. Artistes like Culture Brown, Chezidek, Jah Bouks, Terry Ganzie, Junior Kelly, Fanton Mojah.

Jalifa's first recorded single she did was "Summer Getaway", she got featured on a track alongside reggae/dancehall artiste from Italy, High Degree. The recording was done at D-LINC production studio back in Trinidad, he was done at First Class Muzik Studio in the U.S. The whole production was done by Marco Spatula of Pedeweede productions from Italy. Jalifa second recording opportunity came when Bobby Digital of (Digital-B Records) saw her performed at an event he attended in Trinidad. Intrigued by the artiste performance, the next day he asked to get her vocals on a riddim he had built for an upcoming EP he was in the middle of producing featuring Tarrus Rily, Collis Duranty from Trinidad and Assassin aka Agent Sasco. But unfortunately, the track was canned and never made it on the EP. To Jalifa as an upcoming artiste, she took the situation as a learning experience, and to this day she still appreciates the opportunity of being able to sit in the studio with one of Jamaica's greatest producers. Jalifa landed another recording opportunity by Trinidadian producer Richard "Charlice' Marine of House Of Music Enterprize Recording label, and that's when the Single "When I Chant" was created.

Jalifa's musical mission is to spread the words of righteousness and unite the people true music from all walks of life Because music unites the people together no matter color or race, I see my music as inspiration to many, my music is a message carrying music to uplift the minds of the people, no matter the genre I'm doing. I do Hip-hop, Dancehall and quite a couple of others. and although we use the music for recreating, we should also take it as spiritual healing there should always be something to learn from within its contents.

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• Submitter
  Khamisi
• Category
  Reggae