Congo Natty is a British musical icon. A fact I don’t think anyone could dispute. He’s been active in music since the 80s and spent much of the 90s playing a pivotal role in developing sounds that defined one of the most boundary-breaking music movements the UK has ever known, Jungle.
Congo Natty aka Mikail Tafari is one of the most respected pioneers of Jungle. Raised in Broadwater Farm, Tottenham, he’s been part of the jungle movement since its very first conception. He’s also responsible for two of my favourite jungle projects, his single ‘Code Red’ with Super Cat and the ‘Jungle Revolution’ album. Jungle is an unwavering genre, over three decades after its manifestation it’s still going strong with new artists and listeners, many of whom were still in primary school when it first broke out. Some of them were even yet to be born.
Before the release of his single ‘Music 4 Da Soul’, taken from his upcoming album ‘Ancestorz (Rootz Of Jungle)’, Clash sat down with Congo Natty to talk through what is set to be his most personal, ambitious, timeless and expert album to date.
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It’s a warm morning in July and Congo Natty greets my call with a bright tone. If there were two things a person could take away from a conversation with Congo Natty (beyond the layers of wisdom he presents on every subject that enters his sphere) it’s that first of all his children are a real source of pride, secondly, Jungle music is a deeply spiritual experience for him. Although I get the sense that he would probably tell me by the nature of the reality we reside in that everything could be quantified as a spiritual experience. So maybe it’s more apt to say it’s a transcendental experience.
We talk about where jungle sits in the landscape of British music and if he feels closely connected to any of the genres that have come about as a result of the influence of jungle. “There’s a tree and that tree is what makes the branches, jungle is a branch of a tree in itself and from this branch of jungle comes more branches again. So my son makes drill, he’s a drill producer, so in my house, it’s jungle and drill organically. We create in the same house, that’s organic, that’s father and son.”
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I ask about his son and whether he recognises himself in the processes his son enacts in his music. “Jungle and drill are very similar in the process. It just so happened that my son’s process happened at a faster rate. Our process was at a slower rate. Time and space have shifted again but it’s all about the process. Because without that, how would you know about jazz?”
How each generation of musicians exchange with the next is one of the most fascinating parts of music. Being able to see where an artist or a genre took creative inspiration from makes itself an incredibly meaningful part of the process of creating music. Nothing new can exist without the energy of what came before and that is exactly what Congo touches on. “Reggae is dub, from reggae dub jungle carried on the sub-frequency, hip-hop as well carried it on. Then there was a change in frequency, but Jungle carried on the same vibration to this very day. It’s very much about the frequency that is married to the music.”
This cross-generational exchange of frequency is an important part of the process because through it artists learn and adapt new ways of making from the foundations of those before. It’s exactly what we’ve seen with British music, drill learned from grime, grime learned from Jungle, Jungle learned from Reggae. Obviously, the process is far more intricate on a scale but the principle remains the same. Congo explains that staying connected to the process of creating is the key to longevity within music. “A lot of people aren’t observing the process, they’re just fixated on the end.”
“So I’ve had talks to people say seven years ago and they were trying to tell me that jungle was not relevant, seven years down the line. I’m not even hearing these artists because their genre has gone off the menu whereas jungle is still holding its position because this position is not in a race. It’s an organic entity that’s growing, it’s been a mystic journey and hopefully, now people start seeing that jungle is not just this one expression because there‘s a spiritual journey going on”.
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His forthcoming album ‘Ancestorz (Rootz Of Jungle)’ is a vibrant culmination of this precise spiritual journey. A revitalising concoction of tribal flutes and strings that weave between rhythmic drums and rumbling subs. Nine years after his critically acclaimed ‘Jungle Revolution’ album, he remains centred on what his process means to him and the journeys of those around him.
Delving into how the music industry can affect an artist’s relationship with their creations, he observes in a serious tone: “Being told you’re not good enough. You’re not relevant. Do you know how much people get anxiety and depression? The worst ones are people being told you’re too old, if you believed that shit for a minute do you know how crumbling that would be? They’ve created a competition within music on the same basis as a competition in a race. Who’s first? Who’s the fastest? Who’s the slowest? Who’s last? Who’s not doing so well? Who’s in? Who’s out? And all these things are nothing to do with music.”
“There’s a reason why I’m creating music now because it hadn’t come to this part of the journey yet. This part of the journey had to come because there were youts that I had to link with that when Jungle revolution came out, they was still tucked up in bed. Going to school, so they couldn’t be part of this revolution that we have in front of us. So now we have a whole new generation of late teens, early 20s producers, artists involved in jungle, coming through some have got signed already. Like Nia!”
Congo speaks high praises of the young musician and uses her as an example of how Jungle is breathing its life into the next generation. “She’s junglist, she hasn’t come in as an R&B or another genre and they just so happened to find one that works, when I met her she was unsigned, no manager just a likkle yout gyal making jungle, that was it. Now she’s got the whole thing going on because at this moment in jungle there’s a resurgence”
That resurgence is exactly why ‘Ancestorz (Rootz Of Jungle)’ is an incredibly welcome release in 2022. When demand for high energy and bass-heavy music is at a high, these organically forming music cultures step in to show us how it’s done. To Congo Natty, jungle is a manifestation of the love carried within the universe and his service is to connect with and share its loving experience. “I am telling you that the motion of the universe, the love is so powerful, it had to give us the choice to choose love. And to choose the truth or carry on in illusion. So we had to have this moment, everything is about us, our personal choices.”
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Words: Naima Sutton
