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MYSTICAL: Intence and IWaata, also pictured below, have taken the summer by storm

IT WAS just a few weeks ago that I heard a statement that stuck in my head. “We never took the elevator for our career, we had to take the stairs.”

How true can this be for so many artistic people? What does it take to stick it out to see the greener grass on the other side? Nearly three years ago, I was introduced to two new artists – Intence and IWaata.

UNIQUE
Initially, it was Intence that caught my attention, as he had a very unique style and tone to his voice. At the time, I did think it reminded me of Alkaline, but with his own twist.

Fast forward another 18 months. I visited the Frenz For Real Studio tucked away in a side lane in the Tower Hill community of Kingston.

This studio is one of the leading recording houses for songs and dub plates.

This is the spot where one of dancehall’s top mixing engineers, Red Boom, works from and is also responsible for what is currently the number one riddim on road, Lifestyle

Lifestyle riddim is what has shot Intence and IWaata to the forefront of dancehall this summer and gaining them lots of attention.

Cut Off Jeans and Go Hard have been two of the season’s shellas! Attention is not what they had when I made that visit to Frenz For Real.

It was the first time meeting them and they was the most quiet out of all the artists trying to make noise to get the international attention.

IWaata recalled: “We was just waiting our turn, a million man was out there.”

Intence kicked in at this point and states: “And look which part we deh now.”

TEAM: IWaata and Intence

I suppose to answer my question at the beginning, it is self-belief, patience and a great team that help you on that journey to greener grass.

These artists hailing from communities that are only separated by a bridge have the attributes mentioned. Intence from Papine and IWaata from the same community as Agent Sasco – Kintyre – tell me about their team.

“Our thing is Jet Life, Our management Boysie and Father Aux told us we will be living the jet life. They have been instrumental in pushing us and our careers. Just to know that we have that support and believe encourages us every day.”

Jet Life was the first song that I heard from Intence and he explained that is was initially a big song in his community until Boysie re-recorded it with a fresh energy, and it was this song that started the ball rolling.

I started to see more movement in their careers last year when they featured on the riddim of Aidonia’s Big Baller. When Aidonia’s team of 4thGenna/JOP drop projects, it’s not often that you would see outsiders on their riddims. Usually those spots are reserved for Govana, Jayds, Showkryme and other Gennas.

The mere mention of this brought smiles to both faces. IWaata told me the Genna Jet Life connection was down to their management again. “You wanna see when that happened, more people start tek on to the ting man, the views started to go up,” Intence added.

Sometimes as a DJ in the UK, I feel that I’m the only one that sees the rise of these young generals, so it always comes as a surprise when I hear my colleagues mention these names a few years later or play them in the juggling.

ACCOLADES
When the Frenz For Real Lifestyle riddim dropped at the beginning of the summer, I thought the bigger names would get the accolades of ‘taking’ the riddim, but no. Cut Off Jeans and Go Hard have been to two standout songs.

Cut Off Jeans is undeniably a catchy summer fashion song which Iwaata tells me is seven years old. “When I heard the riddim with that tat, tat, tat sound I said, ‘Boom this sound like trouble’.

“I just flipped the chorus and the rest was history. This wasn’t even the song I went to record the day.” What I like about this team is that IWaata was proud to tell me that Intence’s song Go Hard started trending 11 hours after release. When I quiz Intence about his song, that familiar cheeky kiddish grin appears again.

Go Hard has become a favourite amongst the scammers. Scamming in Jamaica has become a huge problem and I wondered what he thought about this.

“Yea we have whole heap a backlash as people believe say mi ah scammer. But mi say, no. I said I have couple of my friends! I have couple of my clients them overseas, my clients are my bad girls abroad that look after me. From me pick up mi phone… Western Union! No need for me to scam,” Intence explained.

What I love about this duo is that they have stuck together through the hard and difficult times to reach to this position.

But for them to both arrive at the same time is mystical to say the least.

Go and check out their freestyle for this thisisbrukout.com