by Howard Campbell
TORONTO, Canada – Singer/producer Sadiki is a big fan of artists who tell good stories. In his opinion, one of the finest storytellers in contemporary music is British singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran.
The Canada-based Sadiki’s latest single is a cover of Sheeran’s Perfect, one of his breakout hits from 2017. Sadiki’s reggae version is due for release on December 6 by his Skinny Bwoy Records.
“Ed is definitely a standout artist, I’m a fan of great songs and he writes them. The challenge with doing any cover song is to make the song your own without straying too far from the original,” he said.
Sadiki’s Perfect features guitarist Mitchum “Khan” Chin, an original member of the Firehouse Crew whose recent credits include touring with Tarrus Riley and Buju Banton.
The song is done to a lovers rock beat, a feel Sadiki was weaned on 30 years ago when he started in the music business. Over the years, he has worked with established acts like Beres Hammond and producer Lloyd Campbell.
Campbell, a veteran music man who produced songs like The Itals’ In A Dis Yah Time and Mikey Spice’s cover of Neil Diamond’s I Am I Said, died in 2016. The lessons Sadiki learned from him served him well on Perfect.
“Having worked with producers like Lloyd Campbell, who was a genius at doing covers over reggae tracks, it wasn’t too difficult to interpret Perfect,” he said.
Sadiki has doubled as artist and producers for much of the last five years. His productions include Blue Mountain Acoustic, his fifth album, which was released in 2018; that set included a cover of Photograph, another Sheeran original.
He has also produced albums by Ronnie Davis of The Itals and ska great Eric “Monty” Morris.
