The hardest part of the journey of an artist is that it’s hard to predict what is going to happen. The music business is not like most businesses. It’s more like a roller coaster ride which twists, turns and goes up and down. It’s also hard to get a stable career in music. It requires a lot of hard work so that you can support yourself. Sticky Gong is an emerging artist from Toronto who has spent most of his time soaking in the rich cultural history and music of Caribbean Islands. Now that people are noticing his music and he has a fanbase in both Toronto and Caribbean, he shared his story and upcoming projects with us.
Sticky Gong was born in Toronto but he spent most of his life in the Caribbean. He said that his style and sound are a reflection of his Caribbean roots, years of being a fan of hip hop music and exposure to the diverse sounds and rhythms that resonate out of that part of the world. It was inevitable for Sticky Gong to start making his own music at some point. He said that he has been making songs for 3 or 4 years. Ever since I started taking music seriously, I’ve spent quite a lot of time perfecting my delivery, flow and catchy lyrics.
Many fans of Sticky Gong seem curious about his name and how did he come to acquire it. The backstory narrated by himself is this, “My name is very reggae/island oriented. When I chose my rap name to represent me, it was actually inspired by two popular reggae performers. “Tuff Gong” was the nickname earned by Bob Marley. Damian Marley, his son also continued the legacy and is known by “Jr Gong”. In some Caribbean dialects, “Gong” means boss as Bob Marley was called in his hometown and I believe that my music has drawn a lot of inspiration and motivation from him and so I chose this name.”
Making it successful might seem easy on TV, but there are a lot of things that need to be in place for an artist to be successful. When you are young, you see life as a straight line going forward with nothing but opportunity. As you get older and experience life, you begin to see that it is more of a circle. The circle represents life and the journey of the musician: Believe in yourself and do not give up. Now after a lot of hard-work and conditioning, I feel like I have arrived.
On asking about his style of music, he said that he thinks of himself as the prophet of the rap game because he is here to speak the truth and bring a new aged reggae to the front.
“I am versatile and make various genre of music but I love Reggae, Dancehall & RNB”. Said Sticky Gong.
Sticky Gong is working on his upcoming music projects, he has 4 music projects lined up with rappers such as 900ways, Big risky and Sim Simma to name a few. I have a joint work dropping soon with Simma and I as well as a few singles to drop with 900. He will also be dropping a solo single soon.