Jah9 Announces The Open Heart Project, Due March 27 via VP Records

Jah9, the Jamaican singer-songwriter born Janine Cunningham and known for weaving roots reggae with jazz-inflected phrasing and spoken-word elements, will release The Open Heart Project in full on March 27 via VP Records, completing a sequence she first began unveiling in chapters back in 2023.

The project is structured as a multi-chapter sequence that brings together four original songs and their corresponding reinterpretations, alongside a set of visuals, into a single complete work. That architecture, original alongside reinvention, gives the release a layered quality unusual even within a genre that has always prized dub and remix as legitimate creative acts rather than afterthoughts.

The full sequence will be available on all digital platforms on March 27. VP Records, the label behind the release, has been a foundational distributor for reggae music reaching international audiences for decades, making it a fitting home for a project this deliberately constructed.

The chapter-by-chapter rollout beginning in 2023 means that listeners who followed The Open Heart Project from the start have been sitting with pieces of this puzzle for the better part of three years. The March 27 consolidated release gives the full picture its proper context, letting the reinterpretations sit directly alongside the originals and allowing the accompanying visuals to function as part of the sequence rather than standalone drops.

For Jah9, whose critically acclaimed catalog has consistently pushed at the boundaries of what roots reggae can absorb sonically, The Open Heart Project reads as an intentional statement about process and transformation as much as it does a collection of songs.