Jimmy Cliff Research Paper
Tannen
Eng 1A
The Life and Rebirth of Jimmy Cliff Undoubtedly, Jimmy Cliff is one of the most underestimated and unknown reggae artists in the world. . The singer/songwriter/actor’s career has spanned 5 decades, starting in 1962 all the way through present day, and taken him around the world and back again many times over. From his beginnings in the inner city of urban Montego Bay, Jamaica, singing in talent shows at night, to acting in - and recording the soundtrack for - the movie “The Harder They Come”, and now, experiencing a rebirth with his new album, which is produced by Tim Armstrong of Rancid/Operation Ivy fame, Jimmy Cliff is the hardest working man in ska and reggae. Cliff’s staunch support for the lower classes is unfailing, his anti-war message unchanging, his stance on environmental awareness loud. This is why he is the ideal candidate for the Hall of Fame’s Lifetime Achievement …show more content…
The movie follows Martin as he comes to Kingston to make it as a singer and gets swindled by record producers. Martin turns to a life of crime, becoming a notorious gangster. Cliff plays the title character, drawing heavily on his own experiences with gangsters while living in Kingston. Cliff states in an interview with Reshma B, contributing writer for Complex Magazine, on the 40th Anniversary of the release of the movie, “For myself as an actor, the only thing I had to draw on was those experiences…There were some parts that I didn’t know if I could manage. And I just, I went back to West Kingston and I talked to a few of the guys… It was a guy in the barber shop, one of the bad guys was hanging out at the barber shop that I used to hang out, that was like one of the scenes he told me how to do” (Behind). It is this awareness of the social unrest in the slums and ghettos Kingston that added to Cliff’s believability in his depiction of
Eng 1A
The Life and Rebirth of Jimmy Cliff Undoubtedly, Jimmy Cliff is one of the most underestimated and unknown reggae artists in the world. . The singer/songwriter/actor’s career has spanned 5 decades, starting in 1962 all the way through present day, and taken him around the world and back again many times over. From his beginnings in the inner city of urban Montego Bay, Jamaica, singing in talent shows at night, to acting in - and recording the soundtrack for - the movie “The Harder They Come”, and now, experiencing a rebirth with his new album, which is produced by Tim Armstrong of Rancid/Operation Ivy fame, Jimmy Cliff is the hardest working man in ska and reggae. Cliff’s staunch support for the lower classes is unfailing, his anti-war message unchanging, his stance on environmental awareness loud. This is why he is the ideal candidate for the Hall of Fame’s Lifetime Achievement …show more content…
The movie follows Martin as he comes to Kingston to make it as a singer and gets swindled by record producers. Martin turns to a life of crime, becoming a notorious gangster. Cliff plays the title character, drawing heavily on his own experiences with gangsters while living in Kingston. Cliff states in an interview with Reshma B, contributing writer for Complex Magazine, on the 40th Anniversary of the release of the movie, “For myself as an actor, the only thing I had to draw on was those experiences…There were some parts that I didn’t know if I could manage. And I just, I went back to West Kingston and I talked to a few of the guys… It was a guy in the barber shop, one of the bad guys was hanging out at the barber shop that I used to hang out, that was like one of the scenes he told me how to do” (Behind). It is this awareness of the social unrest in the slums and ghettos Kingston that added to Cliff’s believability in his depiction of