Rupert “Ojiji” Harvey wears many hats as a pillar of Canadian reggae music. Founding member of two record-breaking groups, Crack of Dawn and Messanjah, Harvey has taken forty-plus years of experience and left a foundational legacy. Both Crack of Dawn and Messenjah were the first Black Canadian soul group and Black Canadian reggae group to be signed to a major record label, respectively.
Harvey was born in Jamaica, moving to Canada at the age of 11. He began playing music and writing poetry as young as 8, this passion would follow him once settled in Ontario. He founded the Crack of Dawn in Toronto and the group became massively successful, with tours across North America. The band would unfortunately split, this however, led to Harvey being able to focus on a solo career. In 1979, he released his debut album, Ojiji the Shadow; a revolution of the era, the album is a fusion of jazz, reggae, funk, and soul.In the 1980’s he helped form group Messenjah, which once their tunes caught on, spread like wildfire both across the country and internationally. The group won several awards including a 1998 JUNO award and they
continue to perform together to this day.
More recently, Harvey has released the song “Blazing Iron” and song and video “Old Friends” (2021). “Old Friends” was a longtime family collaboration, with Harvey writing the song in 2004, then producing it in 2020 with the help of Carl Harvey, a Canadian music legend of his own accord, and help from his son Meshach Harvey, for the video. The song and video act as a storyteller for the Canadian-Caribbean experience of the 1960s, featuring archival footage and old album covers.The decorated musician has won a Juno, CASBY, a Q107 Award, and was inducted into the Canadian Reggae Music Hall of Fame. His music is featured in film and television, with Harvey appearing in a cameo for Tom Cruise film, Cocktail. Aside from his illustrious music career, he is also known as Sifu Rupert Harvey, a master of martial arts. He began training in the 1960’s and is now a founder of Golden Harmony Martial Arts and Wellness, in Toronto.
- Black Canadian Music Archive