JUMAINE Walcott, aka Jay Anderson, is someone all youths should emulate. Humble, focused, ambitious and a real achiever, this US-based Essequibo lad, like many Third World youths, was uprooted from a lifestyle steeped in rustic customs at age thirteen to start, as it were, a new life in the ‘Big Apple’ (New York City, USA).

His father took him there with the promise of a better life. Now, more than ten years later, he has completed high school and college and has, not so long ago, graduated with two degrees, a major in law and a minor in criminal justice. Ultimately, he is aiming to become a criminal/ corporate lawyer as well as a politician; but music is his first love, and that’s no secret.

“In my mind, I envisioned that I would be intimidated; and sure enough, I was told that I wouldn’t fit in,” Walcott disclosed.

He recalled being told by a girl in 9th grade that he didn’t “belong” and that his dreams were beyond achievable, especially since he was a ‘foreigner.’

However, that has changed dramatically. “A lot of the people who taunted me are now my well-wishers and sideline cheer leaders,” he confided.

The culture difference would have shocked many who were suddenly confronted with a fast-paced First World experience when previously they were accustomed to slipping out of the house to go swimming, and experiencing two seasons in their homeland. Intimidation and peer pressure were the order of the day, but he used those ‘barriers’ as facilitators, and the ever-present motivation from his mum Lurine Jones, a Guyanese nurse working in the ‘big apple’ spurred him on.

Although he couldn’t swim, he joined the swim team in high school, and did pretty well. But given his Guyanese primary school talent shows, he gravitated into music. He had written one poem when he found his Mojo. Jokingly, he says it was about romance and girls.

“My brother had hip-hop instrumentals, and one day I was ‘vybing’ to the tracks on a web cam and that is when I realized that I could do this. It was a case of music coming to me more than I was going to it, from age seven when mum bought me a keyboard, a guitar and a microphone,” he revealed.

Jay Anderson is now arguably one of Guyana’s best ‘Hip-Hopsters’, with countless tracks, three singles, and three videos. Looking back a couple of times, he was approached by talent scouts, including a European-based record label, to drop school and do music. But while the offers were tempting, his mum was a stickler for “education and qualification first, anything else after.” With a sense of pride, Jay Anderson admits, “I don’t regret my mum’s stern Guyanese values, because she is ‘a long-term person’ and thanks to her I’m a graduate on my way to higher heights with a firm educational base; and music is still there.”
Having graduated, he moved to completing several conferences with the United Nations; but with those concluded, he is now taking a break from academics and his focus is going to be on his music.

So look out for this Guyanese kid as he goes full steam into his quest to land on the music mainstream circuit in hip-hop, dancehall, pop, and R and B, because he’s gunning for the top.
His releases to date are, ‘My Life’, ‘Do it the way I Wanna’, ‘Don’t do It’, ‘Popular’, and a few others. As he works on being booked for live appearances on local and international stages, he continues to release several other songs.

His advice to Third World youths is: “Stand for something and believe in you while taking kindly the wisdom of the years, and you can and will be more than just popular.”

By Alex Wayne