Reggae musicians join forces for song about racial injustice
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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Musicians in the Twin Cities reggae community have come together to make a music video calling for social justice.
During the chorus of his song, “Enough,” Ryan Liestman sings, “It’s gonna get rough, it’s gonna be tough, we all agree we’ve had enough.”
Liestman, who goes by the stage name Rion, wrote the song with Michael Bland, a longtime drummer for Prince.
Liestman wanted to make a statement about racial injustice. It was a message that spoke to Lynval Jackson, another reggae artist who sings in the video.
“Peter Tosh and Bob Marley, they were singing about these kind of injustices and now they’re happening, so I kind of grew up to see this kind of stuff,” Jackson said.
The song took a week to write and another couple months to shoot and edit the music video, which features several Twin Cities locations.
George Floyd Square and the cemetery there are the focus of most of the second half of the video, as Liestman sings some of the names, including Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor and Floyd.
Including Liestman and Jackson, seven reggae artists in the area sing in the video and are spotlighted.
“Music, to me, is one of the greatest healers we have, especially in a situation like we’re dealing with now,” Liestman said. “This is our way of communicating. We communicate by music.”
Liestman is planning a free, outdoor reggae concert this summer to benefit social justice causes.
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