– Ryan ‘Lyrical Fyah’ Samaroo says as he reflects on his musical journey

“NEVER be afraid to swim against the tide” is a popular adage that especially resonates with dancehall artiste Ryan ‘Lyrical Fyah’ Samaroo, a 27-year-old who hails from the West Bank of Demerara and who relentlessly pursued his dreams even when others thought that he was just “making noise.”

Currently residing in the USA, Ryan’s career started in 2015 as a recording artiste and, very quickly, he began writing songs. Apart from dancehall music, he started working with other genres such as chutney.

Ryan can never forget his ‘Mash’ day experience when he saw the crowd’s reaction to some local artistes who were performing. Impressed, he thought to himself that he could get the same response.

At that time, he was going through a lot emotionally.

“Guyana is not big on anxiety and depression, and all the other mental health issues. People think you’re automatically crazy if you have these and that’s far from the truth,” Ryan shared. And so music became his therapy.

“It felt good. It was like I was being a therapist to myself. I would listen back to my music and feel the emotions,” he recalled.

Apart from the emotional side of things, though, Ryan realised that if structured the right way, he could make money from his music too.

“After understanding the business side of it, my aim was to do it in such a way that I can do it for the rest of my life.”

Realising that putting out a certain quality of music matters, Ryan tries to be as versatile and relatable to as many different emotions as possible so that his music is not just channelled in one direction or centred on a topic.

“It’s whatever I am feeling at the time I write. My music has always been versatile and diverse, so you would find a song for girls, one about Guyana…”

Ryan said a big accomplishment for him was being able to inspire others from the community he is from.

“A lot of people used to curse me and tell me I am making a lot of noise and then eventually when the songs started playing on the radio everybody started saying this is my friend…So I want to inspire people to believe in themselves even when no one else believes in them.”
Ryan plans to officially launch his own music recording label and video production company.

Currently working on the business aspects of these plans, he will be collaborating with other artistes in and out of Guyana.

Furthermore, as a way to inspire young people, he will be launching a ‘mother company’ called Samaroo’s Investments which is going to have several smaller companies under it.

Through this venture, he will be able to employ and inspire persons from his own community and will also be able to invest in his community.

“Time is the most valuable currency, so I think we should spend time making our dreams a reality,” he advised.