4 days ago
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Gramps Morgan, the Grammy Award winning singer from the Royal Family of Reggae, is now a gingerbread man. To be more precise, Gramps is the voice on the children’s audio book titled Gingerbread Mon and he not only savoured every minute working on the project, he is hoping that this book will inspire kids to read more.
“The process of doing this book and recording the audio was incredible,” an enthusiastic Gramps told The Gleaner of the reggae-inspired project by TROPi-Kids, whose mission is to “educate, entertain, and engage young children … with a tropical twist”.
“In cartoons and animations you see actors bringing to life these characters that are printed on paper or on a computer screen and when the book came to me I was excited to bring the gingerbread man to life ... with the Jamaican influence. I had fun,” he said.
Gramps shared that it has long been a dream of his to do a children’s book and “eventually [he is] going to put out an album and more books”.
“Music is such an intricate part of our society ... and I believe it’s going to help a lot of kids culturally. A lot of kids from different parts of the world may never have heard about Jamaica and don’t know about the culture or what the Jamaican accent sounds like. My hope is that this book will inspire kids to have fun again ... make reading fun,” the Grammy Award-wining singer said.
Written by Kristin McFadden, the synopsis states: “ Run, run, run in di hot, hot sun! Can anyone catch the Gingerbread Mon? A freshly baked gingerbread man escapes from the oven and begins a spirited chase on the island of Jamaica! Will the Gingerbread Mon elude the native island animals and avoid becoming a tasty treat?”
POSITIVE VIBRATIONS
Gramps’ journey to The Gingerbread Mon has its roots in his fusion of reggae and country music, a genre that has flung wide open major doors for him. He ably crossed over into country music by securing a fan base of Parrot Heads from Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville audience. His album country reggae album, Positive Vibration, received a lot of support from Radio MargaritaVille.
“From I started the album, Positive Vibration, I just started to build an entire new audience ... that just shows the power of reggae music and how far it can go, and the elders of the music have shown that,” Gramps said.
He shared that the opportunity to do the book presented itself while he was on the Gulf shore of Alabama,which is a significant hub in the world of country music.
“It’s mostly a lot of country music artistes who go to that side of Alabama. I went there and did a show and met Christine Fadeden. She was working with an organisation that works with Jimmy Buffet and the Radiohead family and the whole trap rock music which is almost like a subsidiary of reggae music ... it’s their interpretation of reggae. It just came like a natural gel when they had the book and approached me and said ‘Hey Gramps we would love you to be a part of this programme’ and I agreed,” Gramps recalled.
Having completed his first book project, Gramps is look forward to doing more voice overs like this, possibly with companies such as Disney, Pixar or Nickelodeon.
Other reggae artistes who have entered the world of children books are Ziggy Marley, who has written three books, namely My Dog Romeo, Music is in Everything, and Little John Crow; and Ce’cile, whose book is titled My Hair Story.
English (US) ·