Born In Brooklyn New York, formerly known as big belly youth.

Ras Sh… Read Full Bio ↴Born In Brooklyn New York, formerly known as big belly youth.

Ras Shiloh Coming Home
Article by Diane “Livonn” Adam

“Ras Shiloh’s voice remains piercing yet amazingly gentle. He displays a different range on Coming Home than previously heard. Clearly, this young Rasta’s voice is maturing in a direction that still places him as one of the highest order of Jah’s angels --- a Seraphim for the new millennium and beyond.” – Diane “Livonn” Adam

Ras Shiloh has been a truly missed live performance artist in Northern California. So it’s with much anticipation that this Brooklyn-born artist is back to the business of delivering the sweet sound of reggae in his own unique way with his superb new 2007 CD release, Coming Home (VP Records) produced by the legendary Bobby “Digital" Dixon.

Coming Home is truly a work of art and a labor of love by Ras Shiloh and producer Bobby Digital. A winning combination considering the Garnet Silk-like vocals of Ras Shiloh and Digital’s many accomplishments including his production work on Sizzla’s Da Real Thing and Black Woman & Child. From start to finish Coming Home is roots and culture at its highest and easily one of the best reggae releases this year. No doubt, this one will keep rotating in your music players day and night! Opening the album is the soul-stirring, “We Need Love” refraining that, We need more / Our nation is crying out / We need more love (love is what we’re searching for) in this world today / Promise us a better way / We need more joy (joy is what we need today) / a place for the children to play / Where is the sunny day...” Coming Home’s success can also be attributed to some brilliant musicianship from Squidley Cole on drums, Donald “Danny Bassie” Dennis on bass, Dalton Browne on guitars, Paul “Right Move” Crossdale, Sidney Mills, Mikey Spice and Benjy Myaz on keyboards and the great Dean Fraser on sax.

For many of us the introduction in 1998 of Ras Shiloh came by way of his 1998 CD release, Babylon You Doom which subsequently took him on tour to California to perform. His distinctive a cappella vocals literally took wings throughout the San Francisco Bay Area as he performed from Maritime Hall to Reggae In The Park and seemed to take root as a young artist who was destined to make it to the top. Personal issues may have played a part in his departure from the music scene in the Bay Area but it has not stopped this young Rasta from continuing what he does best, releasing a comeback album in 2002 with From Rasta To You (VP Records).

Accolades for Coming Home are many since every track on this CD is pure gold. Songs I find particularly impressive are “Give A Little Love”, the spiritually felt, “What You Have Done” and “Come Down Jah Jah”, “The New Rising Day” featuring Bascone X and “It Will Be Over” featuring Natural Black. The album also features Morgan Heritage on the song “Let The People Voice Be Heard”.

Ras Shiloh’s voice remains piercing yet amazingly gentle. He displays a different range on Coming Home than previously heard. Clearly, this young Rasta’s voice is maturing in a direction that still places him as one of the highest order of Jah’s angels --- a Seraphim for the new millennium and beyond.

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Tainted Love
Ras Shiloh Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Sometimes I feel I've got to
Run away I've got to
Get away
From the pain that you drive into the heart of me
The love we share
Seems to go nowhere
And I've lost my light
For I toss and turn I can't sleep at night

(chorus)
Tainted love oohhh tainted love
Though you hurt me so
Tainted love ooohhh tainted love

Now I know I've got to
Run away I've got to
Get away
From the pain that you drive into the heart of me
The love we share
Seems to go nowhere
And I've lost my light
For I toss and turn I can't sleep at night

(chorus)

Don't touch me please
I cannot stand the way you tease
I love you though you hurt me so
Now I'm going to pack my things and go
Tainted love ooohhh (x3)

Once I ran to you (I ran)
Now I'll run from you
This tainted love you've given
I give you all a boy could give you
Take my tears and that's not nearly all

Oh...tainted love
Tainted love

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Ras Shiloh's song 'Tainted Love' are clearly about a toxic relationship. The singer feels trapped in a cycle of pain and heartbreak caused by the person they love. The opening lines, "Sometimes I feel I've got to run away I've got to get away," indicate a desire to escape - to put physical and emotional distance between themselves and their lover. The repeated reference to "the pain that you drive into the heart of me" suggests that this is a deliberate action on the part of the lover, and that it is causing the singer significant suffering.

The chorus, "Tainted love, oh tainted love, though you hurt me so," is a catchy and memorable hook that strengthens the song's themes of pain, betrayal, and disappointment. This phrase is repeated several times throughout the song, underlining the central message of a love that has gone wrong. Despite the pain that the singer is experiencing, they still profess their feelings for their lover, singing, "I love you though you hurt me so."

The final lines of the song, "Take my tears and that's not nearly all / Oh...tainted love, tainted love," function as a sort of final farewell to the relationship. By offering their tears, the singer is suggesting that they have little else to give to the relationship. The repetition of "tainted love" at the end signals that this feeling of toxicity will linger even after the relationship has ended.

Line by Line Meaning

Sometimes I feel I've got to
Occasionally, I experience the impulse to

Run away I've got to
Escape from the current situation is absolutely essential

Get away
I have an urgent need to distance myself

From the pain that you drive into the heart of me
You are causing a great deal of emotional distress within me

The love we share
Our relationship

Seems to go nowhere
It feels like there is no progress or improvement

And I've lost my light
My sense of joy and positivity is depleted

For I toss and turn I can't sleep at night
I am suffering from insomnia due to the anxieties you have created

Tainted love oohhh tainted love
The love we share is poisonous and impure

Though you hurt me so
Even though you cause me pain and agony

Now I know I've got to
I have realized that I must