WITH one of the hottest songs in dancehall, deejay Alkaline is set to release his debut album in February.
The project is entitled New Level Unlocked. He says 14 tracks have been completed for the set, but a final list is still un-decided.
Alkaline has said that he and his management had different plans for the piece.
“We started out working on an EP, but upon listening to the songs, the whole team decided it was more serious than an EP,” he said.
New Level Unlocked contains his current hit song, Champion Boy, Conquer the World, Somebody Great, One More Time and Wait Your Turn.
Lee Miller Productions and DJ Frass are the producers who worked on the album.
The 22-year-old Alkaline pointed out that he and his sound have evolved.
“Time is the answer to everything. With time you grow and tend to see things differently. Music forces you to grow quickly,” he said.
Alkaline said he and his team went into 2015 with a game plan.
“It was a good year. I just paced myself and released music at the right time and it worked,” he explained.
His management’s strategy resulted several chart hits, including About The Money (ATM), Fleek and Object Bingo.
Music, not his tatooed eyes or erratic behaviour that saw him banned from performing in St Kitts & Nevis, took centre stage.
Born Earlan Bartley, Alkaline hails from the Ricketts Crescent area of Kingston. He was pursuing a degree in communications at Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, but shelved it for music.