-Credited with bringing reggae to Las Vegas, reggae artist and longtime DJ Stan Rankin T is our guest this week on Nevada Week In Person.

♪♪ -Support for Nevada Week In Person is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and other supporters.

-Welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

I'm Amber Renee Dixon.

Born in Jamaica, he learned the guitar as a child.

And as a teen, he moved to Kingston, the home of reggae music, where reggae greats, including Bob Marley, guided him.

His music brought him to Las Vegas in the '80s, and it's here where he has served as reggae music's cultural ambassador ever since.

Stan Rankin T, reggae singer and songwriter, welcome to Nevada Week In Person.

-I want to say greetings.

[in Jamaican Patois] -So happy to have you here.

-Rastafari [in Jamaican Patois].

-Tell me how you brought reggae music to Las Vegas.

(Stan Rankin T) When I cut my first album, I was making in Los Angeles, I was distributing that music all around.

So I came to Las Vegas.

They told me that there was station here that started reggae.

So I came over here one day-- -A radio station here?

-Yeah, radio station here.

I've been at two station, KCP and KUNV, to distribute my music.

And so when I get to KUNV, they told me that a guy named Sticks was, he was quitting his job.

He was going to, to work.

Say if I want his spot, his spot, Sticks.

So I say, yeah, I want his spot.

And so I come to Vegas every Thursday to KUNV to learn the board.

-And that is the radio station at UNLV, KUNV.

-UNLV, KUNV 91.5.

-And you were there how many years?

-Thirty-nine.

-Thirty-nine?

What did Las Vegas know about reggae music when you first got here?

-They know little Bob Marley.

That's all.

A few guys.

So it was really slow.

It was really, you know, not popular.

People just get into it at the time.

And a few concerts came here at the time, like Benjamin Joe Higgs came here at one time.

And so I started to do some promotions, these clubs here, and played with my band.

And that's how I really got started here in Las Vegas.

-What did you tell people to educate them about reggae, outside of what they knew about Bob Marley?

-I would tell them that reggae is a conscious peaceful music.

Everyone listens to reggae.

Everyone loves reggae.

The only thing I don't, I don't [indistinct] sometimes when some guys try to portrait and they don't know nothing about like, they want to talk like Jamaicans.

-Do you see that a lot?

-I see it a lot, you know, and so but reggae is a lovely music.

Everyone, it's everyone music.

Young, old, black, white, brown, pink, everybody loves reggae.

But it's now taken roots here now.

It's very big here now.

-And you're responsible for that?

-Oh, yes.

Oh, yes.

I record seven CDs.

I'm a recording artist.

I'm a singer.

I'm a producer.

I produce the music.

-How do you continue to do all of this?

-Well, it's something that I want to do along all the time.

And so the only way to get in the record business, you know, is write your own songs.

I write my own song because I learned it in Jamaica.

If you want to sing, you got to write your own music.

-Who taught you that, and why did they say that?

-Well, in my young days, when we was trying to go to the studio to record somebody, you know, we have to have our own songs.

-Can't use anyone else's?

-Well, it don't make sense, because it won't reach nowhere like that.

You got to write your own.

I've been to certain auditions at Coxsone, and the guy said, Well, you sound good, but come back.

Come back, come back.

And the first time I, in Jamaica, when I, when I wants to make a record, and the studio in Jamaica, the guy, we went there.

Because it was late, the guy took our advance.

-Oh.

-Because, you know, I didn't realize that's what would happen.

And we give my advance and say, Oh, guys, you're late, man.

You gotta come back.

We're gonna take this advance, and you come back.

I didn't know not too much about them, me and my cousins.

-They took your money, you mean?

-They took my money.

-And said?

-And said, Oh, you were late.

We were late coming to the studio.

[laughter] -I think I have heard you talk about in other interviews how it was very competitive at that time, the '60s reggae scene in Jamaica.

-It was very hard to get out.

When you go to shoot a Coxsone [indistinct] on Sundays, are 60 guys waiting for the main city are Lee Perry, Lee "Scratch" Perry to interview you, you know.

So it was very hard to get out.

-How do you think you were able to get out?

-I didn't get out in Jamaica, you know.

I leave Jamaica, and I started traveling.

And then I came to USA, and I'm sitting in clubs with the bands.

And I started recording my songs, and that's how I branch out.

Patois Music is my label.

-Is the name of your own label?

-Yes.

-How many albums do you have?

-Seven.

-Seven?

-Yes.

-Where do you get the creativity?

-I think of things to write about.

There's so many things.

Right now, it's so many things to write about, and that's what I do.

I write cultural stuff or living with people or you live or work or you move, and that's where I write my songs of cultural stuff.

-What was Jamaica like growing up?

And your grandfather is your introduction, was your introduction to music?

-Yeah.

He's a drummer.

And his sons were musicians, too.

They play guitar and banjo, and [indistinct] went to England at the time to play music.

And so I said, Okay, I started following them a little bit.

And so I get out like that.

That's how I get the influence to play the music.

-You had told me off camera that prior to moving to Kingston, you were a plumber?

-I moved to Kingston to learn the trade of a plumber.

-Okay.

But then you had a passion for music?

-Yeah.

Because I leave Portland, have that feeling.

And then I met up with some guys, my cousin's one of the guys, and we started playing guitar at night, at night, and write songs and trying to get out.

And it was so hard.

It was very, very hard.

[indistinct] Studio, Coxsone Studio, JJ's Studio was-- there was a studio in Jamaica at that time.

And we were trying to record, but it was so hard.

There were so many singers.

-When you were growing up and playing the guitar in church, I think you told me, was that a church of Rastafarianism?

-No.

It was my church that my mother use to go to, Church of God.

-A Christian church?

-Christian church, yes.

-Okay.

How were you introduced to Rastafarianism?

-Well, when I-- The first Rastafari I saw, you know, I went on an outing one day in a place called Annotto Bay.

It's in St.

Mary.

I went there on a church outing, and I started walking, walking the city.

I never been to there before.

And I saw a Rasta man preaching called John Ross I at that time.

And it was by-- it was by the police station and a market public place.

And I went and I went and listened to his words, [indistinct] or Ras Tafari wasn't a king.

I said, Yeah, that's what it is.

And then I pick up the pace same time, and I start exalt thyself in that phase same time.

And when I moved to Kingston now, I'm move into Rasta camps and listen to them, and, you know, talking, I went to meetings, Rasta meeting downtown.

And I've been to Rasta concert, drums and stuff.

-How different was life in those camps than what you had come from?

-Well, those camps is just a regular thing, you know.

I started learning the fate of Rastafarians and started move in that culture and started gather, and they start talking about Haile Selassie, same thing, you know.

Haile Selassie, ever heard of him?

-No.

-I saw him close to me, like I'm close to you.

That's who Rastafari prays as the king.

If you know that.

-Okay.

-That's who Rasta prays as their king.

-And you got to be next to him?

-He came to Jamaica.

And the day that he came-- Well, he was coming.

I saw him before.

I went to the airport, when he was coming in, walk the-- almost all in the [indistinct] but walk.

Lot of people in the street.

And I saw him coming in, and a truck was coming toward the stadium, and I hop on the truck.

It was a lot of dreadlocks was in the truck.

And I went to the stadium, and he talks.

And then where they lay his cornerstone on Penn Avenue close to my house.

So the day when he was coming, and the Prime Minister's here, I went over there.

And lots of dreadlocks.

-Do you still practice Rastafarianism?

-Yes.

That's my faith.

-How would you explain it to someone unfamiliar with it?

-I say I would say Rastafari, Rasta is a peaceful man.

Don't believe Rastafari-- They will love.

Let's say a Christian was a different movements, and if you're a Rasta man, you're gonna be clean.

Rasta man don't eat certain food, certain meat.

I don't eat meat.

-Okay.

So how does that lifestyle fit in Las Vegas?

-Well, it's a lot of new people now, young people, all nations, care to fit, because they realize that the Rasta man speak the truth.

That is why this gets so strong.

And I talk a lot of youths about that, because they realize that Rastafari is a peaceful man.

Don't believe in doing wrong.

-So Rastafarianism is part of-- It's closely linked with reggae, right?

-Well, Rasta and reggae moves together because it was Bob Marley and all those cats, they speak of Rastafari in songs just like me.

Rastafari has strong movements now.

-How well did you know Bob Marley?

What were your interactions with him like?

-The first time I went to Coxsone studio at Church and Brentford Road-- -Which is a famous studio, you were telling me.

-Yes.

Bob Marley used to help, you know, go there.

And Bob was a fresh singer, young singer.

Bob Marley used to help the guys to, you know, get the songs out.

Like, sing this way.

-He would help?

-Yeah.

He had his guitar.

He'd say, Sing it for me a little bit before we go to interview.

He says, Sing it that way or sing it faster or slower.

And he helped the little guy.

He helped me, me and my cousin, [indistinct], a lot.

We go there.

We sing couple songs for him and say, Well, sing it so when you go to the guy, when you go to city, sing it that way fast.

I know Bob Marley at his shop downtown Kingston.

I passed his house on Greens Park Road many times over in Trench Town.

I watched him play his guitar over there at the cemetery.

And for him, I learned nothing from that guy.

He's a nice man.

He's a very good guy.

-Speaking of shops, you had one of your own here in Las Vegas?

-Yeah.

I'm the one who brought reggae music at a shop in Las Vegas called Caribbean Lifestyle.

It's on Las Vegas Boulevard.

I had it for like, you know, [indistinct] five years now, you see, and I was in the music and the T-shirt and all the reggae attire that you could think of.

-But the digital age of music...?

-Run me out of business.

[laughter] Yeah, because of all this new stuff coming in and everything you could get now on the internet.

I stopped making money myself, it slowed down.

I have very good savings, so I say my savings run this shop.

I better cool it for a while.

I make some more records and go on the road.

So I make a good sale of my record at times selling CDs.

-And you're performing on the road currently?

-Yes.

-How often?

-Well, it's often.

I have a little history.

I've been in California sometime.

I go to Utah.

I go to Arizona.

These places, guys call me.

Right now they call me from Nigeria-- No, not Nigeria, but Ghana in Africa.

-Really?

-Right now, yeah, send me a link to come play over there, but I don't know if I want to travel right now.

[laughter] -Well, and when do you perform in Las Vegas next?

Do you know?

-No.

My next show is going to be in Pahrump.

-Okay.

-Yeah, at the night, going to college and all, right there off-- the street, I forget the street name.

But that's where we're performing next.

-Okay.

-The 17th of next month.

It's called the Caribbean-American Marketplace.

-Wonderful.

-Yes.

-Stan Rankin T, we have run out of time.

-Yes.

-But thank you so much for joining Nevada Week In Person.

-I say One Love, [indistinct].