In Conversation With IRAH

IRAH, a name synonymous with taking the sound of dancehall to the forefront of drum & bass, is back with a new single, Gunfinger, featuring Chase & Status. This big room, system-melting track draws on all his experience as a prolific and versatile artist, zeroing in on the breakout success he enjoyed as a performer and writer behind Chase & Status & Bou’s platinum-selling 2023 single, Baddadan, which became a chart topper.

Emerging from the vibrant sound system culture of South London, IRAH has carved his own path through the drum & bass world. His undeniable talent led him to a breakout moment on Chase & Status’s seminal Return II Jungle album, lending his vocals to the anthem Program. 

Now, with Gunfinger, IRAH delivers a  menacing anthem purpose-built for raves big and small.  Produced by his long-time collaborators and winners of the Producer Of The Year award at the 2024 BRITs, Chase & Status, it feels every bit a festival-crushing, genre-defining record — and a recap of the true meaning behind the symbol that grew out of dancehall culture. UKF sat down with IRAH to delve into his upbringing in South London, the impact of his formative years spent in Jamaica, and how Gunfinger came to be.

IRAH, you have been on the scene, writing and making music for years now.  Let’s take it back to the beginning, what was the first thing that made you think “I want to get into this music thing?”

My first link to music was my dad. He just had a massive record collection. Stacks of vinyl on top of each other. So I’ll just remember as a child playing with them at first and seeing all the faith, and then all the names and all the jazz records and reggae records and that played in white labels and stuff. And then as you grow, you know, you start to understand what they are. One of the earliest records I remember was Bob Marley’s Catch a Fire album, because it had a lighter at the bottom of the cover. It was one of those iconic ones. That was my first introduction to music. I grew up in Brixton and was always surrounded by music. Brixton is one of my favourite places in the world because a lot of my favourite artists came from there. 

What was Brixton like back in the day?

Brixton to me? It was all about sound system culture. It was all about the local sounds. We had sound systems, like Silver Hawk Sound, and then we had foundational artists, Pulp Cut, Green Maiden, General Levy.  These were voices from the sound systems before drum & bass,  before jungle even. We knew them from sound system culture. Even though I was young, I knew about the local guys and respected them. 

You grew up with some of the greats who are now in the drum & bass scene. Anyone you’d recommend from that local scene you want to big up?

Congo Natty / Rebel MC still killing it. His voice is iconic. Lost Souljah too, she’s got a multiple level of talent going on. She does dancehall stuff, grime stuff, drum & bass stuff, singing, rapping all of it. 

You’re a man of many genres yourself. What would you consider your foundational genre? 

My foundational genre is and always will be reggae music. It’s the base, the foundation. It’s where it all began. 

Even though you’re from Brixton, you spent a few years on the island. Can you tell us about your time in Jamaica?

So I was 15 and my parents had moved us out to the countryside in Kent, as Brixton was getting a bit hot. Back then, I was young and I didn’t think. So I ended up getting in a bit of trouble. And in a classic Jamaican parent move, I was offered a lovely holiday in Jamaica, that I didn’t know was a one way ticket. It got spun on me and I was green to it. So I was shipped out to Jamaica to get some discipline and ground myself, which it did. I stayed there for a few years. Me and my dad, at my grandfather’s house, who was a pastor. I quickly saw real life. All that privileged little English boy behaviour quickly disappeared. I found the core of my being there. I was there for three and a half years from when I was 15 to 18. They were formative years.  

How did you manage to get back to the UK?

I got some money working in Jamaica, I was building houses with my cousin. Saved the money and got right into a whole new world. Because, remember, I’d left in the drum & bass era and came back into the UK garage era, right? Everyone was wearing white jeans and moschino belts and stuff. Looking back now, it was probably for the best man. In the drum & bass scene, we all needed to calm down around that time. I think we just got a bit crazy.

So let’s just talk about ‘Gunfinger’ featuring Chase & Status. What was your mindset like going into writing a track like Gunfinger? 

My mentality was all around the idea of wanting to contribute something to the scene. You know, a real contribution, rather than just a song. After Badadan, I realised how important what I was doing was. I wanted to start injecting some culture into the scene. Obviously we all know the gun finger salute is kind of when you hear a good song, when something good is going on. This is the kind of reaction that is intrinsic to the rave scene. I just wanted to keep the history of it, where it comes from, why it’s here and why we love it.  I thought we could inject some of the culture back into the scene while we can. 

In a weird way, it’s a kind of foundational track. I feel like I heard it 20 years ago. Not to say it’s old sounding or stale, but more in the sense of, why hasn’t this type of song been done before this?

Right? Because it’s a building block that needs to be there. And it was always there. It just needed to be dusted off.

So, you’ve obviously been collaborating with the Chase & Status boys for a while now. When did you get introduced to them?

Over the years, I bounced through every genre because I’m a lyricist. I’m a wordsmith. So we have no genres, just only frequencies that we adapt to. For years, I was doing grime. I left out of grime into comedy. I made a Facebook page called The REFIX Show, where I was doing voice overs of Family Guy, The Simpsons, and the Royal Family. If you’ve ever seen a clip online with a tv character speaking Jamaican, it was probably me.

I was doing that for a while, and I was putting my music as the backing tracks  and intros of the videos. One day, somebody called me and said that Chase & Status were opening up their sets with the REFIX show intro.

They sent me a few videos of the boys playing big shows, opening them up with my intro. I couldn’t believe it. So I reached out to see what was up, and they asked me to come down to the studio.

So that’s how you started working with Chase & Status?

Nah. When they asked me to go to the studio, I was like, nuh. They were doing drum & bass and I was dead set on making dancehall. At that time I’d already been in drum & bass. I’ve grown on a beat, evolved my posture in the bass. And I’m speaking to Vybz Kartel at this time, planning trips to Jamaica and dancehall kind of stuff, you know? 

What made you decide to work with them in the end?

What swayed me was the fact that actually flew into Jamaica to work on that album, the likes of Masicka, Cocoa Tea and Kabaka Pyramid. These are the real artists from Jamaica. They didn’t just get any old samples, they went there themselves and worked with local artists. That made me think,  “Do you know what? There’s something different about these guys.” And knowing them now, obviously now I knew there was definitely something different about it.

We went back and forth for a while, then I think a year later they hit me up again, determined to get me on a track. They sent me a dancehall beat and that’s what it did for me.. I came to the studio, I spent all day in there with them and got the lyrics down. My best stuff right there. I put the headphones down, I walked out and said “That’s it boys, I’m done.” A few days later, Saul gives me a call and goes “Can we just get one more take?”. He had an idea. So I went back in and they had turned the track into a drum & bass track. And that was originally Program, it was a dancehall beat.

I left there not even knowing what was going to happen. I just thought it was going to be a tune up and you get paid a little feature fee, you know, I was on the hustle at that time. A couple of days later, they sent me Program and my life changed from there. The first thing I thought was; Why didn’t I do this two years ago?!

I was just so blown away that they turned dancehall into this monster of a beautiful tune! That tune brought back all of my memories of drum & bass and jungle.  Everything came back and I haven’t stopped. Haven’t turned back since then.

Tell me a little bit about Badadan. Easily one of the biggest Drum & Bass tracks of all time. Break down how that track came together.

‘Badder than’. A word we use in the Jamaican language so much. It was just a throw away line. But when you look at that word, pull it by its own, you realise there’s so much packaged into this word. There’s a lot of self-empowerment there. One of the biggest ones, like badder than before. I think that’s the message that kind of went out to a lot of people. A lot of the messages I received were from people on a self-empowerment journey who listened to that song.

I wrote that song it all the way back in 2001. I was holding on to it for a long time, waiting for the right moment. So as soon as I heard the beat, you hear the tones and frequencies and it is like, yeah, that fits.

Was Baddadan going to be a dancehall tune too?

Everything I wrote was dancehall before. That’s what I was doing back then, I was in the world of competitive dancehall. And I think that’s why it  blended so well with the drum & bass. Drum & bass is born from jungle and jungle is born from reggae music. So they link together. There’s no overlapping edges. They just merge.

Your recent success with Program, Baddadan, and now Gunfingers all in a short few years, how was it impacted you as an artist? Has your artistic direction moved towards getting on those big drum & bass lineups?

I’ve been doing tours on rotation for years now. I’ve headlined every show that I’ve wanted to do. There is no headline show that I haven’t done, I’ve done every drum & bass line up out there. 

What I want to do is make drum & bass grand. If there’s a drum & bass gig going on, it has to be a big show. And drum & bass turns up these days. It is not the underground small thing I grew up with. Not like a local business. This is global heavyweight music now. It’s worldwide and better resourced, greater. I want to make sure that there’s some of that royalty in there where it belongs. And like a lot of artists out there, I want to evolve the genre, to bring the new. That’s my job in drum & bass at the moment. I’ve got some big things coming next year. 

Any advice you would give to aspiring DJs? Producers or vocalists trying to get involved in the UK scene?

First thing I would do is, spend your 10,000 hours doing what you need to do. If you’re a boxer, you need to put in your 10,000 hours in the gym before you get in the ring. Whether it’s mcing, singing, producing, DJing, don’t go out into the world unless you’ve put the work in first. Farmers have to get up and farm every morning. Musicians have to make music. You might be willing, but are you able? There’s nothing without toil. Once you’ve done your 10,000 hours getting your craft down, then you can create. Once you’ve done something good, hit up one of the artists you see shelling about, doing the things you want to be doing. Get in touch with someone who’s sick at what they do and sick at what you can’t do. If you’ve done the work, they’ll like what you do. Collaborate with them. Get them into the studio or get them behind the mic, and create. It’s like a sith lord. There’s always two. Or a magician and his assistant, there’s always two. If you’re just an MC or just a DJ, it’s a lonely world. Collaborate and that’s where the magic can happen. 

Outside of music, what else are you working on?

I make movies and I’m a stuntman.

Are you winding me up?

Never.  We’ve one coming out with Trigger and Flow Dan. A Kung Fu / comedy one we’re doing with Big Narstie. Then there’s one more called Hit Man incorporated which is a bit more John Woo, bullet time and that. 

In terms of what’s next for IRAH and the world of Drum & Bass, you mentioned that you’re working on big things for next year. Can you give us any hints of what’s to come?All I’ll say is, I want to build the ultimate bridge between the UK and Jamaica.