Tony Rebel with his daughters Jahyudah (left) and Kenya. - contributed

Annually, the Rebel Salute concert pulls thousands of people to Port Kaiser Sports Complex, St Elizabeth, for a deluge of not only music but the spirit of camaraderie and goodwill which is created at what is one of the very few truly family marathon concert events.

The 2010 staging is on Saturday, January 16. Tony Rebel, Tarrus Riley, Queen Ifrica, Singing Melody, Fyakin and many more will perform.

It is run by a family through Flames Productions, created by deejay Tony Rebel. Now, happily, for someone who would much rather be performing than organising on the night of the event, Tony Rebel has handed over most of the Rebel Salute organising duties to his daughters, Kenya and Jahyudah.

Kenya describes herself as a multitasker, dealing mostly with the accounting side of Flames, with marketing and running the office on a day-to-day basis part of her responsibilities. The Gleaner asks how she got involved in Flames and Kenya says "my father encourages me to get involved in his business".

There is an exchange of glances across the table and chuckles as Kenya corrects to "our business. He lectures me on the benefit of family business and how this is important, for us to work together, to keep an empire, basically".

She started at the real entry level, selling tickets at Rebel Salute as a 17-year-old.

Father's dream

Jahyudah got her Rebel Salute start in much the same way and, even before handling ticket sales, always knew she would get involved in Rebel Salute one day. "My father always had a dream for us from when we were small. He is only realising it now, but it was always there. I'm coming to realise that he actually socialised us that way. We were not aware of it, but he socialised us in a way where we developed this family identity, where we knew whatever we were going to do it ... were going to come back into the business he was trying to set up from way back in the early 1990s," Jahyudah says.

Kenya has an associate degree in accounting (in addition to a political science degree from the University of the West Indies) and when The Gleaner asks if her father had nudged her into business subjects, Kenya replies (laughing) "he did it genetically. He passed it on to me and said 'you, I'm going to carve you out into that'". Jahyudah is doing a law degree and will specialise in entertainment and media, "and do a little sports with it too".

The studies will be incorporated in the operations of Flames Productions and Jahyudah says "my father's aim really was to build an empire. Part of my contribution was to go into the legal aspect of the entertainment business. Therefore, it is only logical to establish a law firm as a part of Flames Productions."

Tony Rebel points out that there are more of his children involved, but they are not yet at Kenya and Jahyudah's stage. "When me work, me work fe them. So is time now them gwaan work fe themself. Me set the foundation. Me no plan fe deh ya every day really. Them must run it and sen a little bonus come give me," he says, laughing.

Family-oriented business

"Me always notice every successful business in the world is family oriented. Is like people more want to give to the business if them know sey them going benefit. Even if is not your biological children, or say family, you have to really involve these people to become a part of it like family so them can put them all into it and don't really come to tear it down," he says.

He says while it does not have to be one's children, "it is good to use them because they have a purpose, them have a sense of what the business is about, what them supposed to do and who are the beneficiaries".

He says that Flames Productions started when he was with Columbia Records and he would go to the office daily. Maxine Stowe was the A&R and on her door was the huge legend on a magazine cover 'The Most Powerful Woman in Reggae'. Rebel learned all he could and realised "it was not anything greater than we had the ability to do". And then there was Motown, which started in a basement.

He set up Flames Productions in 1993 and for years worked to maintain the office without the business being able to pay for itself. Rebel Salute came around and "Jahyudah and Kenya were young and you actually don't want to force it on them. You want them get them education first.

"So me kinda introduce them - as them say, them realise now - subtly. Make them hold the gate, make them take it from the ground up. Cause one time for Rebel Salute me used to have people who just take the ticket and sell it back. From them start go to the gate now, is like nobody can't bribe them. Is fi dem ting," Rebel says.

He says they worked until "them come into them own. The first time me hand it over to them, them make nuff mistakes too. An me cuss them too. Them can tell you. Them get nuff chastisement".

There is a brief, lively discussion about who was upset, then Kenya says "at the end of the day, it's for our benefit". And at the end of the day, too, it is one family.

Things have got to the point where Rebel says for the last two or three years he has been able to perform at Rebel Salute, something he could not have done when he was more directly involved in the organisation. "Is really them right now. That is the plan," Rebel says.

No doubt

The sisters say they have never doubted their abilities, Kenya pointing out "our family structure is different from the general traditional family structure. Daddy grow us with a whole lot of confidence in ourselves as females, as independent females, so I was never in doubt about my capabilities to perform in any organisation whatsoever".

And Rebel has never had any doubts about them, their education coming first. "Me no grow my youth fe have no inferiority complex. Them know them is a blessing to the world, they have a right to be here," Tony Rebel says.

"To me, right now, the girl them good, especially when them a do business. From long time, woman on a whole, them run business all over the world. Sometimes the man no waan give them them due, but as a student of Haile Selassie, Selassie crown Empress Menen as Queen of Queens beside him as King of Kings, when that was not the tradition. True me is a hundred per cent man me no insecure. Me waan grow up me yute dem, especially me daughter them, them way deh," Rebel says.

"I guess them take some of the vibes cause them a move nicely and it kinda feel good."