Reggae singer Chardavid, aka ‘Iley Dread’, has released his first single from behind bars in the United States. Titled Inna America aka Conspiracy, it dropped on Mother’s Day and the proceeds are earmarked for the Innocent Project.

“This will be my first single since 2017 when I released Smile, which was submitted as charity to Operation Smile, which performs free surgeries for children with cleft palate. The song is already receiving critical acclaim from some of the top deejays and industry people such as Cordell Burrell aka ‘Skatta’, who said in two points, ‘The lyrical argument is bad and the beat is mad.’ He also offered to make me a wicked beat for my new project, so I am anticipating he will deliver his best based on his expression,” an upbeat Chardavid, whose real name is Colin Levy, explained.

He shared that super producer Clive Hunt has also listened to the track and given it the thumbs up, and emphasised that he was “more than grateful” for the encouragement from these two reperesentatives from the music fraternity.

“Clive Hunt is not a man of many words and when he said, ‘It’s a great track and will create a massive impact’, it means so much to me. This beat was made by Geoffrey Star, who has multiple executive producers and artistes knocking at his studio door for beats. The song was recorded and arranged by Andrew Jonah, and 100 per cent of my portion of the proceeds, along with Andrew Jonah’s, shall be donated to the legal aid organisation Innocent Project, which fights tirelessly for those incarcerated unjustly,” said the reggae singer, songwriter, and producer, who told the The Gleaner in January that on November 2, 2018, he was “arrested in Canada and extradited to America for something that I was totally clueless about”.

Expanding on the beat, he stated that Inna America will also be released as “a juggling” with multiple dancehall-driven artistes “because it is a dancehall beat”.

A number of artistes have already recorded songs on the beat, including Norris Man, who delivered Iley Dread’s Kings of Kings label’s first chart-topper, Persistence. He is confident that Norris Man’s song can be a follow-up to Persistence.

“A remixed version of Inna America aka Conspiracy will also be coming out soon and will be on my album, which is currently being worked on by Clive Hunt, Dean Frasier, Wyz Malcolm of Cornerstone production, Kweku Afro and Andrew Jonah,” Iley Dread added.

A follow-up single titled Chant is already in the works, and it speaks in part to the encouragement that Iley Dread has been receiving since he officialy informed family, friends and fans that he was “alive and well” even though physically incarcerated.

“I am feeling motivated by the outpouring of prayer and encouragement I have been getting from the musical family, for which I am sincerely grateful and wish you all heaven’s blessings. One love,” he said

Inna America aka Conspiracy is being distributed internationally by VP Records.