** Jimmy Cliff: **It’s a song called "Over the Border." It’s on the last album I made, Fantastic Plastic [2002’s Fantastic Plastic People, re-released as Black Magic in 2004].

GQ: How did you hook with Strummer in the first place?

** Jimmy Cliff: **I and the Clash used to cross each other’s path when we did concerts in Europe. We never had time to like, stop and talk, but we’d just say, "Hey Joe!" "Hey, Jimmy. What’s up, what’s going on?" "All right. See you." It was always more or less like that. Like a respectful artistic nod to each other, you know. So when he came into the studio while I was doing the Black Magic album—it had two titles, Fantastic Plastic and Black Magic—I thought he just came in to greet me. We sat down talking a little about music, and he came out with these lyrics and said, I hear you singing these. He showed them to the producer who said, Well how does the melody go? And he said, I don’t have any melody! I just have these lyrics and I hear Jimmy singing them. So we three of us sat down and put the melody together. It was really a great track.

GQ: Of the new material, what did you have a hand in writing?

** Jimmy Cliff: **I wrote "One More" and I rewrote "World Upside Down"—the original melody and title was by Joe Higgs. I just rewrote it, again to honor Joe Higgs’ memory because he was the one of the foundations of reggae music. I wanted to put a spin on it with so it fits right in with what’s actually going on right now in the world today. The other one I wrote is "Our Ship is Sailing."

GQ: "One More" almost seems like a bit of a—not a manifesto, but a statement about where you’re at in your life.

** Jimmy Cliff: **No doubt about that. The "one more song" that I have to sing is not just that song. The story I have to tell is not just that story. I’m taking aim. All of that is to come.

GQ: You’ve been so identified with the genre of reggae—because you were there at the foundation, and because of the iconic status of The Harder They Come— but you’re also such a citizen of the world at this point. Do you still feel like a reggae artist?

** Jimmy Cliff: **Well evidently I am an artist first. Look at all of the things I’ve done that are really not reggae: "Sitting in Limbo," "Many Rivers to Cross," "Trapped." So really first and foremost, I’m an artist. And I’m happy that I was there at the commencement of this music, this Jamaican music, to put my contribution and help to establish it. This record now is putting my seal on that part of my artistry. At the same time, the next album that I do might not be in that genre. It might be in the genre of "Many Rivers to Cross," or "Sitting in Limbo" or something completely fresh. Because that’s what I do. I love to create and that’s what gives my soul the satisfaction.

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GQ: So where do you call home these days?

** Jimmy Cliff: **Jamaica is still home. However, I spend a lot of time in Paris and in Europe—between Paris and London.

GQ: When you go to Jamaica, do you seclude yourself or are you picking things up from other people on the scene in Kingston?