Roots Natty is a Rastafarian from Kampala, Uganda. As a teenager, Natty left home and lived in the city’s ghettos, learning to hustle for business from a young age and building skills in the art of weaving. He is a manager of JustaHub’s shop in Kampala, and makes moves at markets around the city selling his wares and those of the other arts & crafts designers of JustaHub.
Poros (Aka Eddie Brennan) is a sound producer from Scotland and one of the heads of JustaHub Recordings. He first met Natty when he came to Kampala in 2019 for a residency. In 2017, Eddie lost a friend and went through a difficult time (Read: his life turned into a shitshow), he turned to music production as a form of meditation and catharsis and began the journey to become Poros, a word from Ancient Greek meaning opening , or doorway - something which music has been to him, and which he aspires to be for others.
BarryTones is Poros’ dad and Natty’s number one fan. He’s also a wizard on the sax. With no formal training, he’s an improviser in the truest sense, able to pick up whatever is played to him. Living in the middle of nowhere in Scotland has its advantages, but a lively jazz or reggae scene is not one of them, so jamming out on electronic music with artists from around the world suits him perfectly.
Listen to more of Poros and BarryTones collaborations here: Don’t Leave Me (Poros remix), Amen Funk (Maybe).
Also on the cut, we have Majestic Legend, AKA Yedidia Katende, a Congolese producer, MC, educator and director of the Hip-Hop Education Movement (H.E.M.) an organisation which gives training and workshops in music to refugees and people living in the ghettos of Kampala. Yedidia has been also been running the JustaWord Workshops for JustaHub over the past year in collaboration with French author Marine Vassort.
Featured on the EP we have Princess Zaeh and Spinny Badyin. Zaeh is a vocalist and collaborator of Natty’s from Kampala and Spinny is a friend of Poros’, a guitarist and member of various alt-rock bands in Glasgow.
The 4 tracks cast a wide stylistic net, paying homage to Eddie and Natty’s musical upbringings and inspirations - reggae, dub(step), jungle, zouk and more.
Roots Natty is currently working on more tracks with Poros, an EP with Majestik Legend and Blessed Son, and acoustic versions of these songs.
Poros will be releasing an EP of Drum and Bass later in the year along with collaborations with Scottish MCs.
Majestik Legend is working on an EP titled "Amnesia" and continuing the JustaWord and HEM workshops.
You can catch all the team from Uganda on JustaWhatRadio (
JustaWhatRadio.org/listen) at various times through the month for live jams and mixes going from Reggae and Hip-hop to traditional Congolese and Ugandan music and techno (
justawhatradio.org/schedule to check the times.)
Special shoutouts to Johnmary Mukisa for work on the vocals for Can’t Stop, Rwamafa Louis for help on the ground and musical direction, Ja Saebel Arts for visuals along the way, and Sophia Burns for visual work, inspiration and being a relentless ball of energy.
Socials:
instagram.com/justahub_recordings
www.facebook.com/RootsNattyMusic
www.facebook.com/PorosDJ
www.facebook.com/BarryTones.Music
www.facebook.com/JasSaebelArts
www.facebook.com/sophialburns
Justahub.org
instagram.com/justahubcreation
www.facebook.com/justahub
www.facebook.com/justajahsound
www.facebook.com/HipHopEducationMouvement
released September 3, 2021