This rasta head carving is prominently perched in super-irie’s kitchenette area where it has been hanging for years. The story of this piece dates back to some time in the early ‘80s. Super was nice enough to let me tell the story for him from my feed.
It was either his first or second trip to Negril. He was still newer to the vibes of the 7-mile, unlike today. Now, he gels with the people as if he lives there year round.
His place of stay back then was the Native Son Villas, which is no longer there today. On our last trip we checked to make sure because we had a long time friend that worked there who had grown close to the family over the years. His name was Blue.
One day super-irie was vibing the beach (I hadn’t even been born at this point in time) and here comes a Rasta mon strutting down the 7-mile. He had a huge knapsack thrown over one of his shoulders and was carrying a wood Rasta head in one of his hands. As he got closer super said,
“Yo what’s up!”
The rasta mon slugged the heavy duffel bag down as if to say thanks for stopping and giving him a break. The knapsack was heavy. It was loaded full with rasta heads just like the one he had been carrying down the 7-mile.
Super asked if he could see the heads. The Jamaican man laid them out for super to see. They talked for a bit and eventually it came down to super choosing his favorite. They were all so carefully crafted. All similar but unique in their own regard.
After a while super chose the rasta head seen in this post. This was back in the 80s as I mentioned, so the price was something like 80 or 90 USD. Pretty reasonable given the fact that this rasta head, although you can’t tell from the photo, is fairly large in both size and weight. Now all super had to do was get it back home.
He lugged this thing back to Native Son where he asked Blue if he’d help him wrap it up for protection as well as to get it back home on the plane to the States. Blue was good for it.
It’s a sweet piece and super has since added to his collection of woodcarvings throughout the house. I also have begun my own collection, and many of which have previously been featured on the feed before.
Nowadays, the prices for rasta heads half the size of the one featured above run well into the triple digits, ranging anywhere from 125-275 USD. You can imagine how the times have changed so drastically from the early eighties until now. I mean just look how I’m presenting this to you all on a Caribbean content based forum headquartered in the exact place where super originally bought this piece, Negril, Jamaica.
super-irie isn’t it?