“Dem Nuh Ready” is roots reggae for anyone who has been written off, built on live piano, organ, guitars, bass and heavy reggae drums. The title is patois for “they’re not ready”, a warning to the people who doubted him. Tilibop produced the track himself and released it on his own label, Freeworll Ent. Tilibop sings about holding your ground and running your own race, a marathon rather than a sprint, with Sizzla Kalonji, the Rastafarian veteran and one of the leading voices of Jamaica’s 1990s roots revival, alongside him driving home the same message of patience and faith in Jah. The two came at the song from different angles, Tilibop says, but “the message and the energy met naturally”. The pairing goes back to the same corner of Kingston: Tilibop grew up in August Town, where Sizzla keeps his Judgement Yard compound.

Born Marvin Amos in the parish of St Mary, Tilibop moved to August Town as a boy and first got noticed for his voice at nearby Mona High School. After he moved to the United States, a stranger overheard him singing and took him into a studio, the start of a recording career he now runs from Brooklyn.

“Dem Nuh Ready”, released in late September, is the first single from an 11-song project shaped by both his Jamaican upbringing and his life in New York.

Stream “Dem Nuh Ready” HERE