An unapologetic ‘disciple’ of groundbreaking gospel-reggae acts like The Grace Thrillers and Lester Lewis, Canute Neil Ellis pays tribute to his heroes on ‘Slingshot’, a six-song EP released in early August. 

This project hears the Jamaican artist/producer sampling classic gospel songs in his bid to introduce himself and their work, to a contemporary audience.

“The power of this project is to introduce a new generation to songs that would be foundational to Jamaican and dare I say, Caribbean gospel. The thing is, these aren't just my heroes. These are the heroes of anyone who has been in the (Christian) faith for the last 40 years. Dare I say even close to 50 years,” Ellis explained.

The songs on ‘Slingshot’ include ‘Rescue Me, which samples The Grace Thrillers’ ‘He Saw my Need’; ‘Undefeated’, inspired by Lester Lewis’ ‘Winner Man’; and ‘Nah Miss It’ which has snippets of ‘If I Miss Heaven’ by Reverend Glen Graham.

They feature several neo-gospel acts such as Samantha Gooden, DJ Nicholas, Ryan Chew, J.DAT, Jason Mighty and Zabbai.

Based in Orlando, Ellis started his career as an engineer at the Kingston, Jamaica studio of The Grace Thrillers during the 1990s. That group is largely responsible for breaking gospel into mainstream music with songs like ‘He Saw my Need’ and ‘Can’t Even Walk’.

Ellis’ credits as an engineer include projects by Beres Hammond, Kirk Franklin and The Commodores. He considers ‘Slingshot’ “one of the most forward thinking projects that I’ve done.”

Written By Howard Campbell