But some people have a very strange way of expressing their compliments.

And under his name was the word "productions".

Another time, someone took a Sure Dread tune and "voiced" over it. Not that he mentioned Sure Dread, though. He didn't even ask for permission, and the vocals were a total disrespect to Sure Dread. It was not audible, and the words were actually quite offensive too.

But there it was, the guy promoting "his" music on the Internet.

It's not just limited to our solo works. As you might know, I am also a member of a band called JAH Roots. In fact, I'm a founding member. The band started in 1987 and continues until this day.

Throughout the decades, we had several members. In total, I estimate that ten people on this planet may call themselves member or ex-member of Jah Roots. 

And some people want to be a member.

Or at least, so it seems.

A few years ago, there was this guy who wanted to sing with us. And so he joined us during our practices. It didn't take us to long to realize, that the guy still needed to do a lot of work on it, before he could perform live on stage.

And so we told him, that we wanted to invest time and effort into getting him to the point wherein he could perform live. I mean, when you're 3-7 tones off-key, there's some work to do.

We shared a CD with him, containing our music. Demo's, just basic instrumentals we recorded on my four-track which unfortunately passed away last year. We told him specifically, that the CD was just for him to practice at home. 

That didn't land too well with the guy. Apparently, he was contaminated by the "I-want-it-all-and-I-want-it-now" attitude that we see so much over here in Babylon. He wasn't willing to work on his voice, he just wanted to use us to get himself a name.

A couple of years later, someone handed a video to us. He had taped it during a festival somewhere. Our bass player went to see me and told me: "I got something to show you, and you won't like it".

We turned on the tube and watched. There was the "singer", doing his thing on stage! It sounded off-key as ever, I was told that the only people dancing were two girls who were so drunk that they would even dance when there wouldn't be any music at all.

We watched, and listened. We listened to our own music!

The guy had taken our music, the disc we gave him to practice on, and used it for his own lousy performance! And it sounded even worse than in the two or three practices we had together! 

Sure, we learned from these experiences. In a way, they're the best compliment you can get. When people steal your music, because they are unable to produce their own, this is a compliment. People do not steal things they do not want. They only steal things when they really want it and can't get it.

And in fact, it was actually quite funny to see how people boast about themselves, pretending to be you, while in the same time they consider you lower than low. 

But the most important lesson we learned was, that Dracula is real. When you have blood, which is the liquid of life, Dracula will want to have some. And when you don't watch out, you will be sucked completely empty.

Please consider the writing above as the personal opinion/observation of Messian Dread rather than "Official Dubroom Policy" or something like that. 

LINKS

MORE