Nowlege releases ‘The Yute From Portmore’

Last Friday, dancehall artiste Nowlege released his sophomore album The Yute from Portmore.

The eight-track project is the follow-up to his 2020 release Big and Heavy which peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart.

Nowlege, who is originally from Portmore in St Catherine, has resided in the US midwest state of Kansas since 2005.

"The name of the album came from a simple conversation that I was having with a friend about someone who was trying to remember my name and they said 'the yute from Portmore'. So that's really how the name for the album came about," Nowlege explained.

The Yute from Portmore features tracks such as Nuh Worry Me, One Choice, Hurt Again and Big and Heavy featuring veteran deejay Burro Banton.

The album, which took six months to be completed, features production work by Kana Kiehm, Youth Man Records and Clear Shot Media LLC.

Said Nowlege, "I have learned not to rush the music and to be patient. Also don't overwhelm the fans with too much at one time."

He said that the producer of Big and Heavy suggested that they needed to put someone on the track.

"Burro was the only one who came to my mind. So, we contacted his people about it, and he loved the track, and we did the song," Nowlege disclosed.

Nowlege, given name Jerome Foster, spent most of his years in Edgewater and Bridgeport in Portmore before moving to Portmore Pines. He attended the Bridgeport High School where he was on the school's high jump team and later participated in Champs at National Stadium in 2003, before taking up a scholarship at Kansas City Community College, where he studied audio engineering.

He has performed and shared stages with artistes who have passed through the midwest, including Tarrus Riley, Etana, Sizzla, Capleton, Tanya Stephens, and Yellowman.