Endeavours Reloaded

They say third time’s the charm, but for internationally renowned dancehall icon Spragga Benz, two shots were all it took to perfect the musical vision he had been carrying with him. And on Wednesday night, at Jammin’ On The Oasis, that vision came alive in more ways than one. The launch of Endeavors Reloaded felt more like a homecoming of artistes, producers, industry players, and friends to celebrate one of their own. “Mi feel like mi deh inna mi house wid mi bredda and sister dem,” Spragga said, reflecting on the evening. When he first released Endeavors last year the project did not quite resemble the album he had originally envisioned. Time, schedules, and the demands of an industry that rarely waits for anyone meant that some of the collaborations he wanted simply did not materialise. Echo Minott, the late Cocoa Tea, Tarrus Riley, Agent Sasco, I Wayne, Sizzla, Bugle, and a host of other respected names were brought into the fold, giving Spragga the opportunity to finally make the album he had imagined. “Everybody found a way to get dem verse to me or come to the studio and we did it. Nothing happen before the time; this was the right time,” he said. Sizzla put the significance of the gathering into perspective. “This is not just an album release, this is history,” he declared, pointing particularly to the presence of one of Cocoa Tea’s final recordings on the project. In the final days of Cocoa Tea’s life, Spragga Benz was at the hospital with him when a television report about flying saucers sparked a conversation between the two. Cocoa Tea, ever ready to turn life into music, suggested they make a song about the unusual event. They never made it to the studio together. But the song still came. Cocoa Tea sent voice notes with his vocals, urging Spragga to honour his promise with with the single That Drone on Endeavors Reloaded. I Wayne, meanwhile, chose not to explain his collaboration; instead, he embodied it, reaching for the words of the song titled Teach Dem, performing an a capella rendition. But it was Tarrus Riley who perhaps offered the clearest explanation of why Endeavors Reloaded feels so deliberate. “Spragga is a one-of-akind artiste, unique talent, voice, writing skills just everything,” he said, before drawing attention to the significance of the album’s title. For Riley, Endeavors speaks to Spragga’s willingness to make an intentional musical statement — to choose what he wants to say, how he wants to say it, and with whom he wants to say it. That intentionality may well be the project’s defining characteristic; the relationships mattered. Endeavors Reloaded is a record of friendship, respect, memory and the enduring brotherhood of Jamaican music.