It was a beuatiful spring evening and Ziggy had just finished sound
check at La Zona Rosa (Austin, Texas.) I cautiously entered the dressing room,
but Ziggy's low key persona instantly made me comfortable. I always find
interviews hard to initiate, so I started my hand-held tape recorder
and quickly sat down next to him. I was carrying a few copies of the crucial
Rastafarian literature JAHUG. Ziggy looked through them with great interest
and soon a mutual connection was made. I started with some casual
conversation.

S.I.- Congratulations on your recent grammy. Is that your third?

Ziggy- Yeh mon. That's the third one. Give thanks for it.

S.I.- That includes Conscious Party, One Bright Day and Fallen Is
       Babylon? Where do you keep them all?

Ziggy-(laughing) I don't know..I don't even know...

S.I.- What, you don't even see them? (We were both laughing at this)

Ziggy- Yunno, I think my mother has them!

S.I.- I guess thats what a mother is for!

S.I.- Reggae music began with a solid foundation of rastafarI. How do
you think that has evolved through the years and does the younger crowd
relate to rastafarI?

Ziggy-  Reggae music...every ting, every foundation is rastafarI.
Every ting that living at the foundation is RastafarI. Now... reggae
music; not everyone who sings reggae music is rasta. Not everyone
singing reggae music is saying rasta or is from the foundation....
reggae music is really for everyone and the foundation is not just like
a rasta man say "me make reggae music." You understand, nuff of the
artists sing reggae music back in the days when it just come out..they
were not saying rasta, so you have to give them man respect, too.We are
all Jah's children. You know. So, in terms of I and I and our people who
went before us as rastafarI, who play the reggae music. Nowadays I see
dat the youth dem, certain youths comin' up see rastafarI the same way
unto the music. But, it is a misconception to make people believe that
everyone, the reggae music is rasta. So we must set that clear, you
know?

S.I.-That's true.

Ziggy- But the youth dem, the youth dem...comin' up now,  we have nuff
youth now Sizzla, Buju and some other youth dem who set rastafarI unto
the music. You understand, but the music is separate from rastafarI. It
is not the music dat make rastasfarI. Understand?

S.I.-RastafarI has had great influence on your music?

Ziggy- On life itself. Not just the music.

S.I.- You consider yourself rasta?

Ziggy- I don't consider, I know.

S.I.-From Conscious Party is the song Dreams of Home. Are you referring
to Ethiopia?

Ziggy- Yes, I was referring to Ethiopia. Check out history, like the
whole of Africa, what we call Africa, but Africa is a European word
anyways, but Ethiopia, Abyssinian, all these places, most of Africa we
know now was Ethiopia. So when we talk of Ethiopia in these terms, we
talk of all of Africa.

S.I. Have you been to Shashamane and if so what is going on currently
there?

Ziggy-No, Me never go to Shashamane. I have never been to Ethiopia in
the physical sense. I have an idea as to what is happening but I
couldn't say I know. I just have an idea from certain people telling me
what is going on there. But I haven't seen it for myself so I really
don't know.

S.I.-Your music is heavily based in social issues and conscious style
lyrics, One of the things I wondered about from the c.d. Conscious Party
is about the song Lee and Molly. You sing about a white guy who falls in
love with black beauty. Where did the inspiration of this song come
from?

Ziggy- Inspiration is a true life ting. A reality you see. My sister
used to go to a school called Pryor (sp?). It's like an upper class
school in Jamaica where the dignitaries send them youth and like
diplomats and all these types of people go dere. So, she end up dere and
met this girl name Molly. She came home and tell the story of Lee and
Molly which is what is in the song. That's where it come from.

S.I.From Fallen Is Babylon, my favorite song is Diamond City. Tell me
more about the message in this song.

Ziggy-Diamond City is a very special song because I mean the whole world
seems to be running blind in terms of Africa and injustice that Africa
has received from many centuries ago until this day. The world is blind
to it because everyone is making money and living good except the
African people where most of the riches of the earth come from.So we
write Diamond City to tell the people in the world that we see a
crime.The crime that we see is that we are living in a country which is
the richest country on earth with the most natural minerals and diamonds
and uranium, gold and all different kinds of tings yet still the people
are suffering so much.So dere is some sort of injustice a going on in
Africa which everyone blind to accept the people that suffer. And I and
I know what a going on. Even though is not a slavery ting or a colonial
ting, yet still the money is not being used for de people benefit. So
dis is what Diamond City is about. Rich country, poor people, why?

S.I.-What do you think needs to happen in order to make a change?

Ziggy-Well, we always talk about revolution, you know what I mean?
Revolution is the only thing that can make a change but is what type of
revolution we are talking about? Whether it be a physical gun war or a
mental ting. Right now we feel dat is only the consciousness of Jah in
the human being can make a change. Once the consciousness of Jah come
into the mind, and we are human beings, then we do whatever job we have
to do. The consciousness of Jah is in my mind to play music. That is my
work. The consciousness of Jah in someone's mind, he becomes a
politician, he becomes a president of a country. That is the only way it
is going to change. When the consciousness and love of the father is in
the people mind whose running the place. Until that day then, we just
have people who rob and greedy. You know what I mean? Until all of the
world, the leaders of the world have the consciousness of the father in
their heart and mind, the world will be forever this way. You know?

S.I.-Yes and your music is a vessel for getting that message to those
people.

Ziggy-Yeh man, we agree, we agree.

S.I.- I know you do alot of wonderful things in Jamaica, I hear about
the food and other things given away. What is your favorite... I don't
know if the appropriate word is charity, but what is your favorite thing
to do for the people?

Ziggy-We have alot of dreams. Alot of dreams. When I was younger, I had
so many dreams in terms of our people, people in Jamaica where I come
from. I was trying to fulfill all of them and was very frustrated at
times when I couldn't get to do what I wanted because of whatever
reason. But our dream is to help the people dem in whatever way we can.
We have dreams to build school, music school, hospital, we give money
away to the hospitals in Jamaica. Just everyday life, people come and
need some help. Somebody want to start a business, we help them out,
help them out, whatever...whatever comes into our focus in terms of
helping people, we help them with it..you know? What we can do. But we
have bigger dreams, you know what I mean, it's just time before these
things come to pass.

S.I.-Over the next five to ten years where do you see the evolution of
reggae music going?

Ziggy- The evolution of the music is the evolution of the self. What the
self cause is not everyone going to play the same thing. The music is
itself, yet still it is the individual who play the music which give it
what it has from that individual. The evolution of the music, whatever
my evolution is, the music shall reflect that because the music come out
of me. So each individual's evolution and enlightenment will reflect in
the music dat him do. Reggae doesn't play itself. I and I play, so it is
what come out of us that will be the evolution. It has alot to do with
the self. Our aim is to become closer to the almighty, in our spiritual
being. That is the way the music is going to be evoluting, closer to the
almighty. You are going to feel it more and it is going to affect the
spirit and the mind more than the physical. That is the evolution of it,
for us. I don't know for somebody else.

S.I.-Sounds right to me. When you talk about consciousness in the music
versus commercial success...what is the problem there?

Ziggy-Most of our money come from being on the road. That's how we
really make our money in term of making a salary to pay for rent or
light or whatever. We have to pay all of these musicians who work with
us. This is the way they make a living. So, the music get a fight. It's
a cosmic fight it get cause these lyrics we singing, if it should be
instilled in the people's mind then alot of things would change around
the world. I don't just talk about our music but my father, Spear,
PeterTosh, everyone who is coming with the fathers will. If these things
were to be in the mind like the most popular song of today, then society
would change. The system that exists don't want that. The system which
exists don't need that. They don't need for people to be conscious of
what is going on in the world...conscious of spirituality and conscious
of love. They don't need that because that's not how they make their
bag. They make their bag off of frustration and wars and all these types
of negative ting. The system fight we and it is a spiritual fight more
than a physical fight. But we don't give up, yunno.

S.I.- How would you like people to remember you in the future, Ziggy?

Ziggy-I don't have a legacy for myself. The fathers will is our legacy.
Jah is our legacy. I am not in this life to make a personal statement
for myself. We are in this life to do the will of the father and that is
our legacy...the will of the father. We are not here to make ourselves
martyrs or prophets or kings or whatever. We are here to do the will of
the father. We are here to manifest that. Whatever that is, that is it.

S.I.- I want to thank you for all the great music and for being the
inspirtation for my show Conscious Party.

Ziggy- Yeh mon. Respect. Love...Love