The only time I have seen one of Bermuda’s most loved reggae artists was either when he was on stage or sitting down.

But when I met him in person at Café Cairo, I found a man with an imposing figure waiting at the bar.

Recognising him, I approached Sean Anthony Clark a.k.a. Ninja Cutty, and was lead to a quiet corner table on the porch.

Although he has an impressive stature, he has a sing song voice, a mixture of Jamaican tones and his adopted Bermudian accent.

Usually my aim is to ensure that interviewees feel at ease, but on this occasion, it seemed that element of my job was eliminated.

He suggested that I dine with him, and although somewhat hesitant, I was finally persuaded by his wine selection — a robust Russian River Pinot Noir.

Mr. Clarke then took meon a tour of his past, detailing his love of music, his roles as a DJ, who performed on many of Jamaica and Bermuda’s stages, to now Ninja Cutty a radio jock.

He was born in Mandeville, Jamaica, and came to Bermuda when he was 11-years-old, so when I asked when his musical career began, he said: “Music is something that is embedded in me and you will find that a lot of artists from Jamaica are like that, because music is everywhere.

“It is played in the home, in cars, in shops, music just dominates and I was actually into it before I realised.”

He said his true calling whilst at school. “I had to do a project for school and I brought in a couple of Bob Marley songs and I explained what they meant.

“My teacher, who was from Canada, was blown away. So that’s when I really realised.”

Aside from that, he and his Whitney Institute School mates had clashes on home made recordings.

“We used to have competitions to see who was the best at it,” said Mr. Clarke.

“We used to play songs on (tape) recorders. I also got in on the street and being involved in music allowed me to get into clubs to DJ at a very early ages, like 13 and 14.”

He later DJ’d on a sound system, which was known as Squad 61.

Of that time, he remembered that it was with a couple of his friends and Wonnie British, who is currently his DJ, that they did their thing.

“We had a sound with him and Splinta Demus called Killer Force, and we used to go around and clash other little guys who had their sounds.

“When I left high school, I began performing around at Spinning Wheel and other dance hall venues like (the now defunct) Clay House Inn.”

Mr. Clarke is a man of many names with Ninja Cutty only being one of his pseudonyms.

He said: “The name came from an artist called Ninja Man who was the greatest clash artist in the 90s.

“Then there was another one called Cutty Ranks who was international who had a hard flow. At a young age I did too and I got mixed up in a lot of clashes.

“Ninja Man and Cutty Ranks were my mentors and people have just associated me with these guys. Some people called me Cutty, while others called me Ninja, so this eventually evolved into Ninja Cutty.”

In addition to the above, he is also known as The Matrix and in Jamaica, he declared: “I am known as Honey San and the girls call me Brown Sugar.”

He did his first show in 1994, which was the Bermuda Sting.

“It had Yellow Man, Bounty Killer, Gregory Isaac, Antonio Reed with Stonelove playing the music,” said Mr. Clarke.

“That was my first big show, and this went on all through the 90s with me being mainly a performer and not a recording artist.

“Since then, I have probably opened the most shows or headlined the most shows here in Bermuda.”

Internationally he performed at Reggae Kings in Action 2000, in Jamaica, and at Reggae Sunfest 2001. He performed at the latter with four other Bermudian artists.

“I am the first DJ, who resides in Bermuda, to perform at the Reggae Kings in Action, which is a six day long event of all reggae,” he stated.

“In 2002, I was the first Bermudian to perform at Rebel Salute, which is the biggest one-night show on the conscious reggae calendar. At this show there were two other Bermudian artists — Ras Giorgis and Ras Mykkal.”

Some might think that one would surely be nervous, but Mr. Clarke who gives the impression of taking life in massive strides, said: “I wasn’t nervous when I arrived, I did my set and said, ‘alright cool,’ and left.

“When I was walking away people were screaming for me and the lady (emcee) Elise Kelly asked the crowds did they want more and they sung out, ‘yes’.

“So then I heard, ‘Call the youth, call him, call him!’

“It was at that time that I received my first encore and that is when I got nervous.”

After that he performed at the United Nations with Global Peace and Tolerance, in 2004. He also did a song about road safety and Centre for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention (CADA) and it was there that he met Abimbola (Bim) Bademosi, a local and international recording engineer who has worked with the likes of British-based reggae artist Maxi Priest.

Mr. Clarke is the archetype of a driven man, his aim is to produce five double albums in the next five years.

“That is my goal!” he unwittingly stated.

“I think my aim is to also get international representation, because I have been a Bermuda-based artist for a long time. Now I plan to go international.”

It was 1998 when he recorded first single entitled “Champagne”.

After which he took a break from recording, but continued performing until he recorded the “Johnny Barnes” song, which was his first commercial hit.

“Before that I was banned from the radio because I was too controversial,” he said.

“I released ‘Johnny Barnes’, in 2005 and I released The Gombeys, in 2006, which was another Bermuda song.

“It is important for Bermudians to embrace their culture because before this they wanted to emulate everyone else’s stuff. They were singing about stuff that they knew nothing about, which was clearly not in Bermuda.

“So before those songs a lot of that persisted, but now the trend is to sing about Bermuda.”

Later this year he is putting out a double album, which will feature an assortment of his musical styles.

“One half is going to be clean, while the other half will be street level stuff,” he said.

“This is so all the people who like that can have it, while the others who like the commercial stuff will have that as well.

“I am also working on a piece with saxophonist (Wendell) Shine Hayward and that’ll also be released on the album.

“The only thing for me to do is to perform at Sting, get some singles on the UK, US and Jamaican Charts.”

With Donald Robinson and GLJ productions they own Madd Zulu Music company.

“We are putting out a compilation album ‘Transition Rhythms’,” he said.

“It will feature the works of Bounty Killer, Raw 21, Alaine, Wayne Marshall, Bermudian Corvin Melody and myself.

“GLJ have another compilation album, which will be released later this year as well.”

Asked what was the inspiration behind the lyrics on his new music, his response was insightful.

“It depends, when referring to love and sexy songs it will have to do with relationships and women.

“I party a lot when I am single and when I have someone in my life I respect them and stay monogamous. How some guys treat women is disturbing.

“But the album has all styles of dancehall, slow, provocative and conscious social commentary.”

Continuing on with his need to perform in all things musical, the artist has put on a new hat.

“I started at HOTT 107.5 fm and I joined Souljah One from the HOTT Squad,” said Mr. Clarke.

“We are on from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. on Fridays and we are offering the best four hours of reggae music anywhere in the world. It is not a problem with me being on the radio, because I used to play with sound systems before and I am a natural talker.

“It has been a good experience and I am thankful to the management for giving a young guy a chance to do his thing.

“I am also on from two to six on Saturdays, I have a show called De-Matrix: Ninja Cutty.

“The response has been great from the public — a lot of good feedback. I love it.”

All the goals that he set, as a student, he accomplished.

“I said I would perform at Reggae Sun Splash (now Reggae Sun Fest), which took place in 2001 and I did,” he proudly stated.

“When you reach a certain age you have to think about what you have accomplished and set new goals to achieve.”

‘Music is embedded in me’