Interview: Tosh Alexander speaks on 'My Ting Different' with Lady London, musical journey, fashion influences, and Caribbean Music Awards experience
Tosh Alexander, always combining style, fashion, and unique sound (Photo: Shalaina Joy)
There are few singers who transcend genres and seamlessly excel in them, but this has always been relatively easy for Tosh Alexander. The multi-talented singer just debuted her single with American rapper Lady London titled “My Ting Different”, combining the New York rap flow with Caribbean melodies to create a gyal tune that will definitely stick in your head.
Sitting down to talk to Kaboom Magazine, Tosh Alexander describes her relationship with Lady London, how My Ting Different came to be and her passion projects outside of music.
The catchy gyal tune, My Ting Different, was birthed from “always feeling as if when it comes to Jamaica, sometimes you're not Jamaican enough. And when it comes to America, you're just a straight yardie.”, which was sentiments London and Alexander shared amongst each other, both being from Jamaican descent but grew up in the United States.
Tosh has had a close relationship with Lady London outside of music and comfortably calls her “cousin” as “we actually linked up first, just as two lovers of music. She has Jamaican background, and she called me cousin, and from there we formed a friendship and have had it for a couple years.”
The song idea was sparked from a discussion with the producer, Lunch Money and Tosh, where “I ended up saying well My Ting Different, and he's like, yo, let's make that into a song.”
Tosh felt that Lady London was “perfect” to do the feature as “It's a very witty song. I wanted it to be a woman's anthem kind of feel and she's also the same. First generation American from Caribbean heritage.’
The melodious phrase “My Ting Different” rings throughout the song, creating an uplifting spirit that Alexander wants listeners to adopt.
“It's an uplifting song for you to feel as if those things about you that you probably thought worked against you actually work for you. Like those things that you consider to be so different, that's not palatable or likable, is actually the thing that makes you uniquely you.”
She started singing at a young age, where she describes “I was always the person that sang happy birthday at all the family functions because my parents were very proud that I could sing.”
When Alexander moved to the USA, her classmate’s dad was apart of the “The Commodores”, who were looking to put together a young girl group, which birthed “my introduction into professionally pursuing music at 14. That’s when I was basically nurtured as an R&B vocalist in Florida. Even though that situation didn't work out, I just, at that point, had opened my eyes to the dream being real of making music a full-time career and I just never stopped.”
Citing R&B as her introduction into music and “falling in love and I saw myself in it”, she references Monica, Brandy, Missy Elliot and Aaliyah as her musical influences.
Destined from birth, with her mother naming her after the late Peter Tosh because her mother “felt I had a rebellious spirit”, she resonated with Peter’s activism, which eventually aided the creation of her apparel and accessories line “BNBC Lifestyle” , featuring the slogan “Black Nuh Bumboclaat”.
“It was during the time that the George Floyd incident had happened, and I felt like there was a need to do something that was more endearing and with more substance. At the time I really couldn't put it into the music. I was trying to find a way to, but I couldn't get it quite right. So, I was like, let me try and do it through apparel.”
Tosh’s deep relationship with fashion doesn’t stop there, it extends into her personal style, with her earlier influences coming from her mother who “poured” her styling and fashion sense into Tosh. “I loved how depending on her mood, you could see that reflected in her clothing.”
Reflecting in her style now, Tosh says “Every day I get up, the outfit is intentional. So, with me, when it comes to fashion, it's about individuality and being intentional.”
"It was during the time that the George Floyd incident had happened, and I felt like there was a need to do something that was more endearing and with more substance. At the time I really couldn't put it into the music."
Tosh loved “watching the awards at the time to see how different artists would show up because each person told their stories through their garment and when you saw their outfits, you could almost hear what the sounds would sound like.”
Regarding awards, the 2nd annual Caribbean Music Awards that took place in late August in New York was a monumental moment in Alexander’s career, with her taking the stage to perform at “one of the greatest initiatives I've seen for a very long time.”
With the award show paying homage to Marcia Griffiths, Tosh highlights that it was “very rewarding” for her, giving gratitude to Griffiths for persevering through the music industry as “it's a very treacherous space for women”. “She's an exceptional artist that's outlived a lot of her peers and she transcends generations.”
Tosh Alexander presented at the recent Caribbean Music Awards (Photo: Shalaina Joy)
“It always makes me happy to be in a space where there is the Caribbean community because ... for a long time, I was the odd one out … So, to be in a space where there's just so many of us who have the same stories and this passion for our homes, our islands was just really cool. I loved every minute of it.”
Showing heavy adornment for the late Aaliyah, who Tosh resembles, she cites her as someone she wished she could collaborate with because “I genuinely love her sound because she had the essence of, I don't necessarily over-sing, but I know that my tone is special, and she was like that.”
The My Ting Different artist also wants to collaborate with Pharrell again as “I don't feel like we've really scratched the surface on a Tosh Alexander project.”
“One of the greatest initiatives I've seen for a very long time. to be in a space where there's just so many of us who have the same stories and this passion for our homes, our islands was just really cool. I loved every minute of it.”
Dabbling within Dancehall and R&B, Tosh states when experimenting with her sound, she drew from what felt “natural”, which was a “strong bass and drums from dancehall” and “singing ballads”. This grew to be a struggle for her as “How do I do both of them together? Because for a long time, I was doing one and the other and I think over the past few years, I've just been trying to find a really cool way to blend both.”
Highlighting her exposure to DJ remixes as the catalyst to mixing genres, she says “Diana King started to feel very familiar because she was a vocalist but then she was also singing a lot on reggae, dancehall-esque beats and sometimes she'd sing in patois which felt a lot relatable to me”
Tosh’s constant feeling of not necessarily “fitting” into one genre as well as her musical influences, have allowed her to create a beautiful blend of sounds, reflecting her life story, desires and overall genuine and gifted spirit.
With her Campari campaign launching last Friday, be prepared to see more and more of Tosh Alexander in our ears and on our screens.
“I've been working on this body of work for the past three to four years. Just doing a lot of songs that speak on things that I don't normally speak on but I'm taking my time to do that and hopefully next year, that's something that we can look forward to from Tosh Alexander for 2025.”
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