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Ok, so first off I must iterate the fact that this particular run down is in no particular order, nor is it a definitive list of the best British record labels of all time (as if such a breakdown could ever be truly quantified). It is simply a list of some personal favourites within the British...MORE>>

It has to be said that the previous 12 months have been rather busy for Natty. It seems an age since the release of his debut opus, Man Like I, but it has in fact been just over a year since it came into the public consciousness. Man Like I was well received in many national publications for it’s intimate mix of Roots, Reggae, Soul & Folk, this combined with Natty’s socially critical lyricism, often denouncing the Inner city culture from he which his melodic brand of Neo-Folk sprung ensured both commercial & critical acclaim. Well since then Natty has been pedaling his funky wears across the Globe, encountering subsistence amid the Jamaican hills & Hyper-commercialism amid the major Metropolis’ of both the East & West; quite an experience for a guy from Finsbury Park.

Yeh, Jamaica was something else. It was really chilled out experience; I just spent a lot of time up in the Hills among a Rastafarian camp, so it was a real spiritual event. It was so good to just see these old guys, some of them 80 odd years old, growing their own food & just being completely away from the trappings of Western society. It’s just real basic, all you need, food, water, air.

But Natty’s time in Jamaica was not simply

a period of relaxation, his hard work ethic coming to the fore.

I spent some time with the DJs from Irie FM, gave them a CD & they were playing it the next. It was kinda humbling because they’re probably the premier Reggae radio station in Jamaica & broadcast all over the world.

It was just really good to be there, just about getting back to my roots. It has such resonance because I started writing music around the same time I started growing my dreads, It was kinda like me putting an old part of me to rest, a part that’d got into a lotta trouble as a kid.

From the halcyon calm of the Jamaican hills Natty’s next plane journey touched down in the commercial capitol of the Western world, New York, New York.

To be honest with you, coming from Jamaica to New York was a bit of a headf**k. It just completely throws you going from one extreme to the other, from a very spiritual environment to the typical Western society that just seem to have completely rejected the spiritual side of life. It’s a pretty hard thing to adjust to.

Once you get used to that though it becomes kinda inspiring. It’s so big & so epic. I was staying at this real Babylonian hotel, I think it was the place they used to film Sesame St., every night there were these crazy parties with grandmothers all dolled up, plastic surgery and everything singing along, word for word, to Notorious B.I.G.

A lot of the experiences there found their way into some songs, some of which are gonna be on the next record.

Post New York come down, and anther plane was awaiting, a change of culture, and another immersive experience was awaiting.

Tokyo was just something else. It’s like 25 cities in one. It’s unbelievably vast and while being such a metropolis, there’s still this inclination towards the spiritual.

The people over there are so receptive to the music as well, very respectful. They’d be sitting there in silence just listening to the songs & taking them in.

It seems such receptiveness is well deserved considering the hard-work & dive-gigs that Natty has had to endure in his short, yet fruitful, career.

It’s nice when people listen like that. I remember my first gig, an open mic night. There were six people. Three were smoking crack in a corner, one went on to stab the owner & two were my friends. So I’ve worked hard throughout.

Natty’s time has also been invested in his collaborative efforts of late, with live coalitions with both Nitin Sawhney & Sam Duckworth (Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly) coming to prominence.

It’s great to work with other people, you just bounce off stuff. It’s been great, I’ve been working with some great people for some tracks on the new album, Lil’ Ray & Roots Manuva as well some other big names that I can’t let out just yet, but it’s gonna be pretty exciting once it all starts to take place. I’m in a good place right now. Had some great experiences, but I’m always working, once it starts coming it’s really hard for it to stop, and you gotta take care not to rush the creative side, once that happens it’s not a good thing.

Natty’s new album is expected to be released during the early part of next year, and with such big artists helping him find his footing on the often precarious ‘follow-up’, he seems in pretty good stead to further that which has been done previously. It seems the good times lay ahead.