With his first studio album in a decade, Got To Be Tough, due for release this Friday, Jamaican musical icon Frederick "Toots" Hibbert today unveils its latest single 'Just Brutal', out now via Trojan Jamaica / BMG.
An unflinching torrent of Stax-style soul-pumping-on-adrenaline horns with a socially conscious heart, 'Just Brutal' comes in the wake of widespread praise for the album from the likes of Rolling Stone, and ups the pressure ahead of Friday's much-anticipated album drop.
The energizing provocation of the forthcoming album Got To Be Tough renews the near six-decade career of the man who launched a new sound and genre with his 1968 release, 'Do The Reggay.' It's a reminder that through Toots' creative veins run all the roots and shoots of the Black Diaspora. Blues, soul, r'n'b, funk, jazz, reggae, African griots - Toots honors, embodies and owns them. Throwing down an authoritative guide: how to survive and thrive among our earth challenges.
He hipped our heads in the 1970s with the dynamic pan-Africanism of 'Funky Kingston' and the early warning message of 'Pressure Drop'; re-defining soul with the 'Toots In Memphis' LP in the 80s.
Toots has constantly evolved while staying uniquely the same.
The multiple GRAMMY® Award nominated and winning musician, vocalist, songwriter, producer and icon has made the wait worthwhile, producing the album himself, he has crafted a stubborn groove, designed to inspire tenacity, while splendidly balancing joy and anger, pain and healing.
Tough, though the message is, your body has to respond to these songs, and your mind will follow. An impeccable performer himself, Toots knows that the dance itself is a primal exorcism; a greater guarantee than any that, helped by heeding this warning, we will live to 'Do The Reggay' into the 21st century and beyond.
Listen to "Just Brutal" here:
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