1 month ago
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Just a quick stroll through TikTok and it becomes obvious that the Shake It to the Max (Fly)(Remix) by Ghanaian-American singer Moliy, Shenseea, Skillibeng and Silent Addy is hugely popular. The track, however, took a twist when a remix which was part of a presentation by the speaker at the Bellefield High School graduation in Manchester last Thursday went viral on the weekend.
A post by TikToker Calvia, which, up to press time had accumulated more half a million views in two days, was first reposted by Moliy, who then posted it on TikTok with the caption “Study to the max” along with a prayer and a laughing emoji.
Study to the max, a song clearly outlining the value of hard work, was penned by Pastor Jermaine Johnson, senior pastor of the Moneague District of Seventh-day Adventist Churches in St. Ann and the CEO of his motivational brand, Johnson Motivates. The track goes in part: “ For you to mek it yuh have to study to the max/Come have a seat and let me tell you all the facts ... yuh want success but yuh don’t have a plan/Fi mek it inna life yuh haffi have ambition.”
A devoted man of God, as well as an in-demand motivational speaker, Johnson emphasises that he is a full-time preacher and has no interest in recording professionally as a deejay. Pastor JJ, as he is affectionately called, just concluded a five-week Proclamations of Hope evangelistic series at the MegaMart parking lot in Mandeville and it was an overwhelming success. Some 335 persons were baptised, which is a record for a crusade in Mandeville.
Johnson, who taught music for a decade, is an expert at using social parallels in his sermons “because of relevance”; and at the graduation he did the same.
“I know that it is unorthodox for some, but it is carefully thought out and executed. For you to be impactful you have to know your audience, you have to know your content, you have to know your objective, and you have to know yourself, too. It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 19, when Paul said, ‘ I become all things to all men that I may win the more.’ He knows that there is a boundary, a line that he must not proceed beyond ... but you cannot impact that which you are out of touch with. You use the known to lead people to the unknown,” Johnson told The Gleaner.
The remix is being hailed on social media as a song that could rival that of any top deejay, and others question just how he knew the song which has some bawdy content.
“As a musician, I don’t have to know the song to pattern it, I just have to know the tune. To be honest I don’t really know what the lady is singing about, the only part mi know is ‘shake it to the max’, because everywhere yuh go on social media yuh see di people dem a cover dem face. The thing is that I don’t go hunting .... this is what social relevance does in social media. Of course, many will not give you the benefit of the doubt, they will think that that’s what you are consuming. But anything that is trending in Jamaica; it finds you, it finds you on social media, it finds you on the boom box systems passing your house,” he explained.
He shared that last Thursday, while preparing to deliver the keynote to the 203 graduants of the Bellefield High School at the Kendall Conference Centre in Manchester, he told himself that he “had to put it in the language that these young people who believe seh dem reach now, can know seh dem nuh reach yet”. And with that, Johnson, who was on track to becoming a deejay before he surrendered to the Lord more than 20 years ago, went to the sound engineer and asked if he could play a track for him.
“I had the dub working out for a few months now for graduation season, but I have not used it wholesale. I seh, ‘I goin’ drop it down here.’ No fancy talk can reach so. You have to use the language of the people, which is why in my preaching I don’t go academic, I code-switch with the use of language and it has been exponentially impactful, because people are able to understand the messages with the greatest clarity. If I’m teaching and empowering the youth, I might get a little unconventional, but those who know me and know what I stand for, they will realise that a nuh big mi a big up dancehall and world music; a use mi a use it fi reach di yute dem,” said the pastor, who is the I Believe Initiative Ambassador for the Governor-General’s Programme for Excellence.
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