Amai Kuda and Y Josephine – Used to Live
The song ‘Used to Live’ is a journey through ancestral memory. There is no cycle of chorus and verse, but instead an ever evolving vocal line supported by rhythmic variations that carry the listener along. The song invokes a distant past where the warmth of maternal love and an intimate connection with the natural world provide grounding before one is carried away by the voice of unknown spirits that draw you in… and then eventually allow you to “fly away.” Lively hand-clapping, reminiscent of African spirituals, takes over and the lyrics transport us to a timeless place of our beginning. When we emerge from this lush, luminous place, at once natural and otherworldly, we are reminded of how we have lost touch with this source energy. As the song draws to a close we are given a bold anthem: “I am going to sing and aint no thing can stop me! …going to sing and aint no thing can stop we!” – a reminder to reawaken our inner voices, and the voices of our ancestors so that they may guide us toward living in greater balance with the earth again.
Written by Amai Kuda and arranged by Y Josephine and Amai Kuda, the track is featured on their most recent release: AfroSoul Volume II: MaZai. Described as “earthy, rootsy and good for your ears” by CBC’s Errol Nazarethm and having received high praise from The Toronto Blues Society’s John Valentyn, MaZai, is the follow-up to Amai Kuda’s debut album, Sand from the Sea – named “one of the year’s most exciting discoveries” by Nicholas Jennings (Canada’s foremost music journalist and historian).
Since coming together for a tour in 2103, Y n’ Amai have shared the stage with the likes of Joel Plaskett, LAL and Kinnie Starr. The duo have been featured on Mary Ito’s show, Fresh Air and in 2015 they were selected as one of the 101 Standouts in the nationwide CBC Searchlight Competition. More recently they collaborated with Kinnie Starr and M1 of the legendary HipHop duo Dead Prez on a revolutionary call-to-action song called “We Can Do It (Dirty Money).” The new video for Used to Live is a Caribbean gothic collage of imagery that reflects the song’s narrative of ritual, ancestral memory, time travel and transcendence. The film brings new life to their old release just as the song itself reawakens the stories and memories of previous generations.
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