Progress brings back the big tree and the small axe of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ “Small Axe” halfway through “Freedom”, the axe now going “chip chip chip chip” against a district that files its people as statistics. The chorus around it works as call and response with Progress on both sides, each demand answered by the same four words: “Free it up now”, repeated until they sound like an instruction. Under the vocal, an afrobeat drum pattern carries reggae phrasing, sung and chatted in Bajan patois.

Progress was born in Barbados and moved to Canada in his late teens, reaching the finals of the Canadian Reggae Star competition soon after, then releasing the debut LP Making Progress and its single “Sunshine”, which picked up rotation on MuchMusic, Tempo and MTV Africa.

His verses inventory what freedom gets weighed against: a glass ceiling, a box with a lock on it, work that never turns into prosperity, “Plastic food ah make you favour the doctor.” Written by J. Donawa and produced by Bobby Boyd, the single arrived on 19 June from a singer who also runs Freedom Fridays, the monthly reggae and afrobeats showcase in Toronto that grew out of his invite-only Roast Breadfruit Sessions.

“Freedom” follows Progress’s 2025 double album Mood & Vibe, which included a collaboration with Peter Morgan of Morgan Heritage.

Stream and listen to “Freedom” HERE