Valiant is dancehall’s latest international superstar.
Finding success in Jamaica as well as abroad with singles like “Mad Out”, “Dunce Cheque” and “Narcissistic”, Valiant’s well-earned rise to fame can be most recently marked by his performance at London’s Wireless Festival. With close to 50,000 people in attendance at Wireless, Valiant’s appeal to both dancehall listeners and casual fans of popular black music was made clear when fans sang out the lyrics to his hits in their droves.
Valiant joined us for a chat in a bright studio in Central London in socks, slippers and with a fruit smoothie in hand. In his music videos and onstage, Valiant is the life of the party but in person, Valiant is humble, polite, a little shy and very homesick.
“Right now, I want to go home. Yeah mon, mi easy fi get homesick. If I go to other countries, even for two days, I want to go home. Mi love road. I’m not a person that socialises a lot, not because you see me on social media. I don’t know a lot of persons like that. I like to drive go here and go there. I’m a man weh drive from Kingston, go straight back to Mobay or even Negril. That’s my vibe. I’m home sick because I can’t get to.
“Last night, a friend said we should go and get some jerk chicken. We forgot we’re in London and you can’t go up the road and get jerk chicken. It reaches 11pm and you can’t really go and get anything”
Appearing on Kall Kash and The Cut, Valiant shared that he was adopted at 10 months old and that he isn’t currently interested in meeting his birth family. His revelation became a talking point on socials with many wading in with their unwarranted opinions on the personal topic. On the social media noise, Valiant, born Raheem Bowes, says, “I didn’t look at the response. Dem tings mi put out, ah me want to put it out. I just wanted to mek my fans dem know something personal weh mi have, something about myself. It’s nothing to be ashamed about.”
Sharing what he does in his spare time, the Kingston hailing artist said, “You know seh mi used to draw cartoons but mi nuh draw again. I was good at that but I stopped. (I watch) Seven Deadly Sins and Naruto. Mi nuh foot coordinated, hand coordinated, only music. I can play dominoes very well, very very very well. I can bet my life on that and I’m good at pool, I have my own pool stick.”
The themes in Valiant’s music range from personal struggle to street life, sex, money, aspirations and more. Valiant shared that his fans might be surprised to find lots of country music on his personal playlist but from his own catalogue, Valiant shared his favourite tracks to perform: He says, “before it was C.A.L – Cut All Losses” but now I love “Bubble Gum” and “Lumbah”.
Some of Valiant’s most popular tracks centre around relationships, “Narcissistic” which features Stalk Ashley currently boasts 30 million views on YouTube and details the aftermath of infidelity. The track, which received an emotive acoustic performance from the two earlier this year, will receive part two as teased at the end of the video – “Ah me nuh finish it. (Stalk Ashley) sent me her part already, ah me just lazy and don’t go to it yet”, he explains.
In real life, Valiant often shares relationship advice with his friends: “I’m the wrong person to come to, I tell them the truth!”
Valiant is no stranger to the UK, performing in London several times including at DJ Nate’s Caribbean Rocks back in 2023. “London is one of my favourite places to come to”, shares the dancehall star, but the fun in London has to wait until he’s rested as the minute he lands, the routine is as follows, “Go inna mi bed. It’s a nine hour flight, I go right inna mi bed! Even though when I’m flying I’m always in a bed, I want to roll around. As mi get up, mi get a likkle nice drink. My favourite drink is rum cream – Baileys or Sangsters.”
On his favourite things in the UK, Valiant has been watching Supacell on Netflix as he shared on TikTok and has lots of our own homegrown talent in his music rotation – “I like Stormzy, Central Cee. Headie One. I like Dave, he’s calm. I like J Hus. I like Digga D – Digga D is my friend. As I land, Digga D texted me, ‘You good?’, I said ‘Yeah I’m good bruv.’
“Every country I go to, everybody asks me if I’ve tried their food. Meh. I’ll stick to my food. The last time I tried something, eh…”
“Every time I come to London, Birmingham, Leicester, Bristol, it’s always Jamaican food. It’s always Jamaican food for me. Anywhere I go, it’s always Jamaican food. I just need that. It’s nothing to do with London but I don’t want to try it and be disappointed.”
“I’m not like this big, you know, Chef Boyardee or something like that but I can help myself (in the kitchen). Fish, shrimp, pasta…”
“Mad Out”, a standout on the Big Bunx Riddim, is one of the most energetic songs on Valiant’s setlist but behind the track’s fun vibe is a message asking people to take their mental health seriously.
The music video for the track has a disclaimer at the end that reads, “It is important to be respectful of those who may be struggling with mental illness. We want to use this music video to raise awareness and start conversations about mental health. We hope that our video can provide some entertainment, but we also want to remind our viewers that mental illness is a serious issue that affects many people. If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health. Please seek help from a medical professional.”
One year on from the release of the video, I asked Valiant if he thinks the stigma around mental health has dwindled at all. Valiant said, “When I did the video, most people didn’t get the gist of what I was doing at first. They were saying that the song was foolish. Remember that negativity sells so I was doing something negative and pushing something positive around mental awareness, it became a hit.
“I was just trying to let people know about mental health awareness. There’s a lot of people that are not mentally sane. So, let’s try to make people aware that a lot of people are going through depression and all that and mi ah try fi create music weh fun, less depressing because if you ah go through depression, yuh nah guh go pon yuh playlist fi listen to more depression. You want something to make you smile, think or carry your mind away from the depression.”
Valiant made headlines in Jamaican media last year over a line of dunce backpacks that went viral. Inspired by his track “Dunce Cheque” but of no direct affiliation with the artist, the backpacks were condemned by school officials and the education department.
“Focus on crime and violence,” Valiant said in response to the headlines, “why the hell are you talking about a backpack?
“Dunce is like you saying cool or something like that. Everybody in this generation, even a little baby understands things like this. We can name some things and just make it ccool. Same like if you hear a song and say ‘it’s fire’, dunce is a word, it’s not saying that you’re supposed to be dunce. I think certain things are taken way out of proportion.
“Me? When I saw it, I laughed a lot and it’s giving me more publicity. I didn’t create the bag you know. The person that created the bag linked me. I think Rajah (Wild) wore the bag first and then I wore it after. When me wear the bag now, it’s a problem but mi nuh know, mi nuh understand.”
On “Beer and Salt”, Valiant says in the lyrics that he is fronting new dancehall. Defining new dancehall, he told GRM, “It’s creativity. I think before, dancehall lacked creativity, because dancehall shunned a lot of things that a lot of artists didn’t want to say but now they’re saying it now. So I think creativity – that’s what I’m trying to bring. I don’t really listen to the noise. I’m just trying to do creative things to see if it works. I don’t call things that don’t work a failure, it’s just trial and error. I’m just trying different things to see what dancehall needs. It’s not just music. Your fans don’t only just want music, they want to see different sides of you.”
Looking ahead to the future, Valiant is excited for his birthday in September as well as his sons and wants to come back to the UK for more shows. Valiant also wants to experience the infamous Notting Hill Carnival.
As for music, he says, “I’m trying to go back to the old me. I want to sing songs for the gyal dem but I want to go back to what I started off with, that soulful side of me, that’s what I’m planning for my EP. That side of me when I started to sing, I want to get back to the roots.”
Watch the visuals for “GodFada” now.