“We nuh mek nothing get we down once we have life,” an upbeat entertainer, Ganggoolie, tells The Gleaner. The dancehall artiste is recovering from a car accident in March which claimed the life of a Jamaica Defence Force soldier and left him with a broken leg.

The accident occurred while Ganggoolie was driving from Old Harbour to Spanish Town, St Catherine, after leaving a studio session.

“A vehicle run inna my vehicle. So mi deh home a gwaan recoup because it was a deadly incident,” he shared. “Mi cyaan do no work, cyaan go nowhere, a just from me yard to the clinic. Mi still cyaan walk and everything. A from up inna mi leg, right a mi hip mi foot bruk so you know dat painful because a up deh so the power deh and the power nuh deh deh again.”

Despite his current state, the dancehall artiste said his psyche has not been negatively affected by his inability to operate as per usual.

“From a longer time we mentally strong so we always prepared fi anything inna life,” he said. “From you is a driver and you jump inna yuh vehicle and touch the road, give thanks when yuh reach back in safe because out there wicked and rough. We been through the worse and we already go through sufferation and wah coulda worse than sufferation?”

On the matter of survival, Ganggoolie shared that wise investments have allowed him to sustain himself throughout his recovery.

“Mi did do a whole heap a prerecording before the accident and shoot a lot of videos that I wanted to release before the accident, so a dem something deh mi tek mi time a gwaan post to keep the momentum going,” he said. “We nuh rich like some people but we can help we selves. Mi did already start making investments because mi did have a lot of vehicles weh mi rent but because of this bagga killing and tek weh yuh car thing and robbery, mi just step away from it for a minute. Otherwise, we always save for the rainy day, we nuh gallivant. Mi have songs weh can serve mi all five more years and mi nah fi record.”

The artiste, who has a knack for writing songs off viral situations, had teamed up with social media sensation Candy, for a song, predictably titled Wow. He is also popular with songs such as Donkey Kick, Muscle Wine, Boom It Up featuring Qualitee, and Nah Fe Like Me. In 2018, his popular Neymar Dance, was added to the BBC Radio list of songs eligible for radio play.

The artiste, who has in the past complained that he is underrated, emphasised in a previous interview that that his music is more powerful than people can ever imagine, as his songs document pieces of history.

“Couple of years from now, yuh can listen back my song dem and say a dis did a gwaan,” he said. “Look how much artiste do dat (sing bout hot topics). A couple of artiste well me see sing bout the ‘bake it’ situation; so weh me do a work, set trend. Yuh affi have likkle gimmicks inna di thing, everybody can’t just serious so. We have one bag a gun song already, one bag a gyal song. So who want continue da way deh, dweet. Me know my mission and me a put in my work.”

His current releases include his self-produced Mek A Step and Collar (Peaches Remix), as well as Mek a Million (featuring Vibes Machine) and which has a music video.

Until he’s able to make a complete return to music, Ganggoolie is enjoying this period with his loved ones.

“I’ve been spending my days with my family at home,” he said. “People come link me too and I still do the COVID-19 protocols because you know we nah trust nobody. We get whole heap a phone calls as wel,l so we just keep things going.” he said.

sade.gardner@gleanerjm.com