Reggae Singer Cali P’s vocals are the first thing that gets your attention. Then comes the effortless flow, boasting of powerful lyrics on social justice, awareness and spiritual enlightenment.
With roots in Switzerland and Guadeloupe, and heavy influences by the Jamaican culture, Cali P born Pierre Nanon is a dynamic singer whose music blends Reggae, Dancehall, Hip Hop and Afrobeats.
From the year 2008 when he released his debut album titled “Lyrical Faya” Cali who is one of the leading voices in modern Reggae, has been able to capture the fans’ attention with his music, energy and stage presence.
Cali’s musical journey begun early at a tender age when his father founded a black cultural movement called ‘Akiyo’ dealing with drumming and always carried him along to his concerts and rehearsals. Later, he got to know about Bob Marley whom he loved and drew more inspiration from as well as other Reggae singers like Sizzla Kalonji, Capleton, Morgan Heritage, Anthony B, Burning Spear and Lucky Dube among others.
He is one of the international artistes who performed at the recently concluded 9th edition of Nyege Nyege International Music Festival that was held at Golf Course Grounds in Jinja City in November.
Kampala Sqoop’s Habre had a reasoning with him where he revealed his true identity, Bob Marley influence, Nyege Nyege Festival performance, his experience in Uganda and insights from his rise to prominence.
KS: Your fans have listened to and loved your music for quite some long time, what do you think is the key thing that captures your fans’ ears?
My lyrics consist of always truth, love, motivation, understanding, passion, compassion, melody, riddim. All these things combined together will always keep the people alive because this feeds we and this kind of frequency will feed the people all four corners of the world always because it’s a positive energy, we deal with good vibes.
KS: Which part of Switzerland were you born and what type of child were you growing up?
I was born in Zürich city, I grew up I would stay in a very special household because my dad at that time came fresh to Switzerland from Guadeloupe and he is a very cultural person. He founded a black cultural movement called Akiyo dealing with drumming; thousands of people play drums together.
Growing up in this I always heard drums around me so I grew up with music. I also spent a lot of time in Guadeloupe with the people around there making music. My dad always carried me with him to his concerts and rehearsals, I remember being on shows seeing how they set up the place, how they do the lights, how they set up every instrument and as a child, this caught my attention and I always wanted to know everything about that so that’s how I grew up.
KS: Apart from your father, who or what else attracted you to music?
My father as you can see, he put me on a way, he never told me what to do or what to like, he just put me on the way so the first thing I picked up was Bob Marley. When I was a little boy I grew my dreadlocks. Before even going to school, I had my dreadlocks and everything Bob Marley I would love it so I think that’s my first inspiration in terms of music and then over the years I started to like Sizzla Kalonji, Capleton, Morgan Heritage, Anthony B, Burning Spear and Lucky Dube.
KS: Let’s talk about your debut album “Lyrical Faya” in 2008, how was it embraced locally and internationally?
This album did very well at the time on the Reggae market, I remember it going out and I was just surprised because I was very young seeing like on iTunes America it just go number one. I never really made music like checking the numbers or where is it going but I could feel something going on, people calling us from France, Germany, England, Jamaica, USA. Everywhere people started checking Lyrical Faya album. The impact was powerful. It was an album that I took a long time to put together with different producers from all over the world.
KS: Do you write all your lyrics or do you sometimes have song writers who write for you some songs?
I do write my lyrics myself to the fullness, it was always my thing and that is my strength, lyrical fire you know, very creative but also I want to say that in the past three years I evolved musically in a different way. I started working with much more people and I started embracing writing for each other so I write for people and I sit with people and we write together a song that I will may be sing alone so I don’t have no problem with people writing for me.
KS: What inspired the idea of blending Reggae, Dancehall, Hip Hop and Afro Beats?
It’s my foundation of music, how I learnt music. How I got to appreciate music is through Reggae music, Dancehall music, a lot of African music, so before modern Afrobeats was created I was really in tune with African music, Fella Kuti music I know it very well. I remember going to London in 2012 and I went to a club and heard what is now Afrobeats for the first time, I heard a WizKid song, got crazy and went to search for that song all over. What I heard in that song was like this is the future of Dancehall music. It’s not so dark and makes you want to dance and it has nice melody and it was turning up in the club and I felt a Dancehall grove to it and it reminded me of a Popcaan vibe and that’s how I started to tap in and blending the music, and for me I was waiting for this to happen. When I hear something I like I experiment with it, there is no limits.
KS: Before you got your Nyege booking, what did you know about Uganda?
I cannot lie to you, I didn’t know too much about Uganda. I am always in tune with the Mama Land Africa, I heard about Idi Amin as a leader who stood up for black people, then I also seeing this music video with French Montana with Swae Lee and the dancers that was made in Kampala and I always liked that video. Also, I have to rephrase, there is one big artiste I know from longtime too called Bobi Wine, I know his music, he also came to Jamaica.
KS: Where would you say is your biggest fan base?
You know the good thing is I go all over the four corners of the world so everywhere I go, I see people in tune to the music but then if I check statistics, it always says my biggest fan base in USA, Costa Rica, places like France, Germany, England but always standing out is USA and Costa Rica according to my music streams.
KS: Let’s talk about your song “Herbalist” and your love for ganja and what would you advise on the usage of ganja as a herb?
Well, what I said in the song “Herbalist” is ganja is not for every man. Some can take it some cannot take it. I don’t advise anyone what to do. Smoking is for enjoyment, that is not healing. Healing is tea and vaping but a herb is sacrament and it’s something that needs to be used the right way. If you are sad and you use the herbs it will make you more sad, if you are happy and use the herbs you will be more happy so it’s a conscious decision to take and know when to use the herbs because then you have the right meditation with it.
KS: We are seeing a different image of Cali P, when did you cut off your long dreadlocks?
It’s not a different Cali P you are seeing, it’s the same Cali P but a different image, the image changed, dreadlocks gone but not the heart, not the spirit, not the fire. I had my dreadlocks for a long time, more than 23 years and it’s not something I had a lot of time to think about, it was just one evening I held a meditation and was like yow it’s time to leave something behind me, just like make a fresh start, a reset but not that deep to say why whole life restarted. It was just 23 years I carried this hair everywhere.
KS: You have some collaborations with some of the greats in the Reggae space like Capleton, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespear (RIP), tell us about your experience working with these greats?
Precisely when you ask about Capleton, he is an artiste I respected from my school time before I even started singing. Growing up and becoming a singer, Capleton was always someone that gave me a lot of strength, he was actually the first big artiste to call me on stage to sing when I was 16 and this endorsement was really a motivation and also working in studio with men like Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare is really greatness for me because they are literally superstars I have grown up seeing on covers of magazines in my house and being in studio with them, putting a song together and them telling me “yow Cali you are wicked, let me put some harmonies on it”, and like we are working on one level confirmed for me that I was doing the right thing because the people that I look up to are with me on one level.
KS: Nyege Nyege Festival 2024. You really had fun with it especially with your energetic stage performance, how was the experience?
For me, it was the very first time coming to Nyege Nyege, it was my first time coming to Uganda, it was my second day, I slept one night, woke up, we drove to Nyege Nyege and it was a long travel, my voice was completely gone before the show, I didn’t have no more voice because I was in the plane for 48 hours, so much AC and cold and I was like how am I going to do this but somehow the vibe came through and I was just so happy to be home in the mama land.
I was happy and also for me it was history connect because this is the sauce of the Nile, not a joke thing, these are the things I studied as a teenager so coming here for me was powerful and that’s why right away when they said we are going I said yes, I am in, there is no second question because this is powerful, this is where I charge up my energy from, this where my ancestors are from so we have to reach these places.
KS: Was this your first time in Africa? If no, which other African countries have you performed in before Uganda?
I have performed in a lot of African countries before. I have performed in Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, and Ivory Coast.
KS: Which other festivals have you performed at internationally?
Rebel Salute I don’t know if people know about this one in Jamaica, it’s a Rasta festival and like in Europe we have Summer Jam Festival in Germany, Rototom Festival in Spain, Reggae Jam in Canada, X Games in USA, I have played at a lot of festivals. Nyege Nyege was really very nice, I enjoyed that very much.
KS: Share with us about your experience in Uganda, we saw you busy on the streets of Kampala, were you shooting some music videos?
When I reach in a place like this I need to go to every corner, I need to see what’s going on out there, link with the ghetto youths on the ground so it was nice with Joshua Baraka and Elijah Kitaka, we went to the ghettos get some rolex (a street snack in Uganda) and had good vibes on the streets but also, for the past three weeks I have been here, we were mostly at the residency, there is two studios in the house running 24/7 and there is a lot of good talented artistes coming by, a lot of big producers, engineers, and creative people all day long and we are making the best songs, working together writing, recording, we made a lot of songs and few albums.
KS: Are there any local artistes you are planning to collaborate with in Uganda and why?
Yes man, there are a lot of collaborations coming with Cali P and local artistes from Uganda. We have been here with Joshua Baraka, Elijah Kitaka, A Pass, Jokwiz Kleen, Ceee, Tie Dye and producers from Switzerland and so much more.
KS: Have you learnt any Ugandan language for the few weeks you have been here?
I have to be honest I didn’t get a lot of things from the language, I am hearing people talking saying “kale kale kale” I always think it’s my name but they say it means Ok, that is the thing I got from the language. My name is Cali so is like when they say Kale they calling me.
Cali P says he loves Uganda and the people in Uganda are very cool and he would love to come to Uganda any minute he gets a chance to.
