Korina Lopez

USA TODAY

Although their fifth studio album, Amid the Noise and Haste, is still over a month away from release (Aug. 12), reggae group Soja is giving fans a taste. They release their new single exclusively with USA TODAY.

This time around, they recruited the producing talents of Supa Dups (Bruno Mars, Eminem, Rihanna, John Legend) along with featured artists Michael Franti, Damian Marley and Collie Buddz. Over the course of their career, Soja has collected 3.3 million fans on Facebook and over 183 million page views on YouTube. They're currently on a 60-date tour in the USA and Europe.

Lead singer Jacob Hemphill explained the inspiration behind the song Shadow in an e-mail to USA TODAY.

"Trevor (Young, guitarist) and I were walking through Lisbon, Portugal, when we heard singing coming from a window that i recognized as West African dialect. I lived there as a kid. Me and Trevor walked up and sat in. They were awesome. We walked back to the hotel, discussing something I had experienced as a kid. (I remembered that) the African kids had such big smiles. They were so happy, but they had nothing. Shorts, shoes, that's it. I wondered my whole life why. Trevor said because they knew they weren't throw-away people, not shadows. We sat down in the room and he played me something he had been working on, Shadow."

Young offered his thoughts behind the song:

"Everyone has their own voice and opinion that matters. Everyone has a voice and something to contribute to the situation around you for good. This is an uplifting anthem."