Having released a number of singles since 2018, deejay Mental Chung launched ‘The Psychic Realm’, his first album, in Jamaica on October 10. It contains six songs, which he produced for his Art Creed Records. Mental Chung, also known as Rastafareye, was determined to give listeners something different with a sound he calls Reggae Barque.
Each of the six songs on ‘The Psychic Realm’ is accompanied by a video, which plays to Mental Chung’s strengths as a filmmaker/animator. The visuals help define Mental Chung’s musical concept.
“Reggae Barque is about being fierce and to love through militancy and truly learn how to love because life is a battlefield,” he said. “People are facing internal battles and it’s reflecting in the world. It teaches unwavering strength, perseverance, discipline, cunningness, being tactical and to develop a new way of viewing the world.”
Mental Chung, who is from St. Ann parish in Jamaica, collaborated with beatmakers Stephen Dajure and Aye Psycho for ‘The Psychic Realm’. ‘Quinting Pink Pinch’ is the only song released from the project to date.
The dreadlocked artist started his career as an animator. He got his break in 2010 with ‘Bad Influence’, an eight-minute, dancehall-inspired film that won an award at the Reggae Film Festival in May 2011 in Kingston.
Mental Chung became even more popular with ‘Dutty Bwoy’, another dancehall-driven project with animated depictions of stars such as Bounty Killer and Beenie Man.