Music - Blogs - CaribShout2024-03-28T14:11:46Zhttps://caribshout.com/blog/feed/category/MusicThe reggae anthem Helen Mirren couldn’t live withouthttps://caribshout.com/blog/the-reggae-anthem-helen-mirren-couldn-t-live-without2024-02-08T17:22:50.000Z2024-02-08T17:22:50.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12375296285,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12375296285,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12375296285?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p>Undoubtedly one of the most highly acclaimed and celebrated actors, there is a certain aura of respectability around Helen Mirren. So, when thinking about the Hammersmith-born actor’s musical leanings, you would be forgiven for thinking it might consist entirely of classical compositions, perhaps some Tchaikovsky to celebrate her Russian heritage or ‘Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven’, in an ode to the late Queen Elizabeth II, who Mirren famously played in 2006. The reality, thankfully, is much cooler.</p>
<p>Back in 1982, when Mirren had already made a name for herself as a prominent actor on stage and screen, she appeared on BBC Radio Four’s long-running series Desert Island Discs. Her eight choices of songs she could not live without did indeed feature high-class classical compositions, such as Max Bruch’s ‘Violin Concerto No.1’, but the actor – then in her 30s – also showed an appreciation for more contemporary works.</p>
<p>Her final choice came in the form of ‘Falling In Love Again’, an unforgettable recording by Billie Holiday, but much earlier in the programme, Mirren selects one of the 1980s’ biggest reggae anthems, ‘Pass the Dutchie’. Released in 1982, shortly prior to Mirren’s appearance on Desert Island Discs, the track was a number-one hit in the UK singles charts.</p>
<p>Taking its inspiration from the Jamaican marijuana anthem ‘Pass the Kouchie’, by The Mighty Diamonds, Musical Youth altered the track to revolve around a Dutch Oven – a pot which is regularly used within Jamaican cooking. As their name implies, Musical Youth was made up of brothers, some of whom were children, and so the record caused quite a stir once the powers that be eventually figured out that the track had a subtext of cannabis.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, Mirren’s love of the track does not come from its ties to getting high. “This is the present,” she explained on the radio programme. Back in those days, the interviews on Desert Island Discs seemed to place less importance on the actual music, often using the tracks simply to break up what would otherwise be a long-form interview. As such, Mirren does not expand too much on ‘Pass the Dutchie’, though she does note, “This is just to dance around to. It’s good to have a dance around – get your energy and your spirits up. This is such a lovely record.”</p>
<p>While it is objectively funny to hear two old-school, middle-class, well-spoken accents discussing ‘Pass the Dutchie’ on a flagship BBC programme, Musical Youth are so much more than a novelty act. The members of the group were among the first British-born reggae artists to make such a huge impact on the singles charts.</p>
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<p>Of course, earlier boss reggae and subsequent Two Tone ska scenes had featured charting singles, but they were still very much considered subcultures away from the mainstream. Musical Youth helped to integrate Jamaican reggae into that mainstream. ‘Pass the Dutchie’ is undoubtedly their defining track, and its recent resurgence, thanks to being included on the soundtrack of Stranger Things, speaks to its enduring quality – something that Mirren clearly saw coming.</p>
<p>Courtesy: FAROUTMAGAZINE.COM</p></div>How Bob Marley Used the ‘One Love’ Concert as a Gesture for Peacehttps://caribshout.com/blog/how-bob-marley-used-the-one-love-concert-as-a-gesture-for-peace2024-02-05T19:19:32.000Z2024-02-05T19:19:32.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p style="text-align:center;"><strong><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12373976671,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12373976671,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12373976671?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></em></strong></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong><em>Marley hoped the star-studded concert, held in Kingston, Jamaica in 1978, could help bring stability and peace to a divided, violence-stricken country.</em></strong></p>
<p>Shortly after midnight on April 22, 1978, Bob Marley took the stage with his band at the One Love Peace Concert at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. It was the first time that Marley had performed in his home country in nearly two years.</p>
<p>Marley was performing at the urging of gang leaders from rival political factions, with the goal of leveraging a star-studded musical performance to encourage peace in the politically divided, violence-stricken Jamaica. While the performance provided a powerful and memorable moment of unity, political violence would continue to plague the Caribbean nation.</p>
<p>Ziggy Marley's Memories of his Father</p>
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<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Bob Marley and the Wailers: A Cultural and Political Force</strong></span><br /> The reggae singer had fled first to the Bahamas and then to London in 1976 after he and his wife, Rita Marley, and two others in his inner circle survived an assassination attempt at his home outside Kingston. Shot in an arm, Marley had been preparing for the government-sponsored “Smile Jamaica” concert when several armed men raided his compound.</p>
<p>Since the early 1970s with his group, the Wailers, Marley had established himself as a cultural and political force in Jamaica. His songs included lyrics that broadly addressed a concern for Pan-Africanism and colonial oppression, as well as the tensions between the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) and the opposition Jamaica Labor Party (JLP).</p>
<p>Under the leadership of Michael Manley, the PNP had won the 1972 general election and reggae, according to Brown University Caribbean Studies scholar, Brian Meeks, was the soundtrack of this new political movement.</p>
<p>“Leading up to the ’76 election, Marley was invited to present a concert by the minister of culture at the time, so it was seen as a PNP concert even though it was a government concert,” Meeks said during an interview with the Jacobin magazine.</p>
<p>“Marley was shot shortly before the concert, and it’s now pretty much certain that he was shot by a JLP gunman who wanted to stop him from bringing his significant presence to bear on an event that would redound to the interests of the PNP just before an election.”</p>
<p>Just two days after the attempt on his life by these suspected gang members, Marley recovered well enough to perform a 45-minute set in the “Smile for Jamaica” concert before 80,000 people at National Heroes Park in Kingston.</p>
<p>While he recorded Exodus, one of the Wailer’s most famous albums during his exile in England, politically-motivated gang violence continued to engulf Jamaica, particularly in the capital city of Kingston, as the PNP consolidated its power under Manley, who won the 1976 election.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Black Culture, Black Consciousness and Rastafarianism</strong></span><br /> To understand Marley’s music and political motivations is to understand his life as a Rastafarian, a religion developed in Jamaica in the 1930s that he began to embrace in the mid-1960s after being raised as a Catholic.</p>
<p>Rastafarians believe that Ethiopia is their promised land and that the Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie, is the Black Messiah, the one that Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey prophesied would come from Africa. Marley brought that philosophy of the world to his involvement with the warring political parties that led to his involvement with the One World Peace Concert.</p>
<p>“In my music I and I want people to see themselves,” Marley said. “I and I are of the house of David. Our home is Timbuktu, Ethiopia, Africa where we enjoyed a rich civilization long before the coming of the European. Marcus Garvey said that a people without knowledge of their past is like a tree without roots.”</p>
<p>Party Leaders and Political Violence<br /> The son of Norman Manley, who founded the PNP in 1938, Michael Manley courted Marley and Rastafarians during his successful run for prime minister in 1972, where the party’s slogan, “Better Must Come,” came from a song from Delroy Wilson, a reggae artist. During the campaign, Manley wore African garb and carried an ebony and ivory staff that was given to him by Selassie.</p>
<p>''An epoch of brainwashing in white-oriented society has left scars which, however unconscious, mar the inner assurance with which Black people accept their own forms of beauty and excellence,'' Manley said in 1969.</p>
<p>In June of 1976, Manley imposed a state of emergency to curtail the political violence in the streets between gang leaders hired by both his PNP and Edward Seaga’s JLP. The State of Emergency allowed the government’s security forces to arrest 1,000 Jamaican citizens, which helped reduce serious crimes from as many as 160 a week before the emergency down to 54 in the weeks after the emergency began.</p>
<p>However, for Edward Seaga, the JLP leader, the state of emergency signaled the suppression of civil liberties and his party’s growing popularity with the people. A Democratic Socialist with close ties to the Cuban government, Manley believed that the JLP’s conservative opposition was sowing destabilization in the country and making allegations that Jamaica’s ruling party was communist.</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Marley Returns Home for 'One Love' Concert</strong></span><br /> In late February 1978, Marley returned to Jamaica after being away in London for 15 months. He was lured home by gang leaders from rival political factions—Claudius “Claudie” Massop from JLP and his PNP counterpart, Anton “Bucky” Marshall. The two men believed that music could help bring peace and that no one better embodied this idea than Marley.</p>
<p>Shortly after midnight on April 22, 1978 Marley appeared before 30,000 people at the National Stadium in Kingston. During his performance of “Jammin,” he called Manley and Seaga to the stage in a show of peace. They all clasped their raised their hands together in show of unity.</p>
<p>The rich symbolism of the scene and Marley’s expression of love and hope filled the air with optimism for this country troubled by violence and economic blight. But the concert couldn’t ensure peace or the end the gang-related political violence in Jamaica.</p>
<p>In 1979, Massop—one of the "One Love" concert organizers—was killed when he was shot a reported 40 times by police in a car chase in Kingston. During the 1980 election, when Seaga soundly defeated Manley, an estimated 700 people were murdered. In 1980, Massop's counterpart, Marshall was killed in a New York City nightclub.</p>
<p>By then Marley was fighting his own personal battle. Diagnosed with melanoma in 1977, the 36-year-old hero of the people died in 1981 in Miami.</p>
<p>Excerpt From: <a href="https://www.history.com/" target="_blank">https://www.history.com/</a></p></div>The 2023 Welcome To Jamrock Reggae Cruise: In Photoshttps://caribshout.com/blog/the-2023-welcome-to-jamrock-reggae-cruise-in-photos2023-12-17T20:56:12.000Z2023-12-17T20:56:12.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p> </p>
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<p>By: Dani Mallick - Dancehallmag</p>
<p>The <em>Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise</em>, founded by Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and his manager Dan Dalton,<em> </em>recently wrapped up its 8th successful voyage, entertaining 4,375 Reggae and Dancehall enthusiasts from 47 countries on a musical odyssey aboard the Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12327615082,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12327615082,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="550" alt="12327615082?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a>Departing Miami on December 4, the sold-out cruise journeyed to Jamaica, with stops in Falmouth and Ocho Rios, before returning on December 9. It featured musical performances from Sean Paul, Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley, Capleton, Wayne Wonder, Beenie Man, Max Romeo, Anthony B, Kabaka Pyramid, Ding Dong, and more.</p>
<p>Here are highlights from the 2023 <em>Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise</em>. <strong>(Photos by Tizzy Tokyo)</strong></p>
<p><strong>Cruise Co-Founder Damian Marley greets guests.<a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12327590487,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12327590487,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="550" alt="12327590487?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></strong> </p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12327648869,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12327648869,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="350" alt="12327648869?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>Max Romeo opens arms and acknowledge the many fans during his set. </p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12327649456,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12327649456,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="350" alt="12327649456?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>Performing on Mainstage Deck II, <a href="https://www.dancehallmag.com/2023/12/11/news/anthony-b-wows-welcome-to-jamrock-reggae-cruise.html">Anthony B whipped the crowd</a> into a frenzy with his signature running dance, then segued neatly into <em>Freedom Fighter. </em>He then energised the crowd with an emphatic rendition of Fire Pon Rome,<em> </em>which got a huge roar from the crowd.</p>
<p>He reeled off a series of hits such as <em>Hurt the Heart, Damage</em> and <em>My Yes and My No, Tease Her</em>, and closed his set with <em>Raid the Barn</em> and a cover of <em>Wanna Know What Love Is.</em></p>
<p>Reggae songbird Nadine Sutherland started off her set with a rendition of <em>I’ll Do Anything for You</em> and surprised the crowd with a series of high-energy knee lifts as she deejayed parts of the song. She followed up that with songs like <em>Wicked N Wild, Babyface</em> and <em>I’m in Love</em> where she showcased her sparkling vocals and impressive range.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12327618260,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12327618260,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="350" alt="12327618260?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>Then she delivered the boom with a cleverly constructed Bam Bam medley with songs such as Murda She Wrote, Toots’ original festival slow-burner Bam Bam, and Sister Nancy’s internationally known version of Bam Bam.Ms Sutherland pulled off a surprise with a cover of General Degree’s dancehall anthem, <em>Traffic Blocking</em>. She closed her set strongly with <em>Wicked Fe Please Me </em>and her biggest hit, <em>Action.<a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12327621878,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12327630858,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="550" alt="12327630858?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></em></p>
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<p>Looking ahead, the 9th annual “Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise” is scheduled from December 9-14, 2024. It promises another unforgettable journey from Miami to Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, aboard the same majestic ship. With its reputation for selling out, cabins for the 2024 cruise are <a href="https://withlovepr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e56cb023f7aa1f0618b4c1c24&id=a253fdc3dc&e=6eff0de188" target="_blank">available for booking</a>, according to a release.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12327649897,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12327649897,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="350" alt="12327649897?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a>Busy Signal had the Ladies singing along</p>
<p>For his fifth appearance on the cruise, Capleton performed hits such as <em>Hunt Yuh</em>, <em>Bad Mind, Slew Dem, </em>and <em>Consuming</em>.</p>
<p>“The highlight of the performance was when I was doing the oldest set of songs… it was definitely the retro segment,” Capleton told the Observer. “People were definitely into it, and you know they go wild singing the songs. It was epic, it was energetic, it was a frenzy, it was pandemonium, and I enjoyed myself. It was a great performance.”<a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12327639295,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12327639295,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="550" alt="12327639295?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p>
<p>“The last time I performed, it was raining. So, I had to perform in a theatre. Now I got to perform on the deck, so it was a totally different atmosphere and it was a bigger audience,” he added.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12327641280,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12327641280,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="550" alt="12327641280?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a>Looking ahead, the 9th annual “Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise” is scheduled from December 9-14, 2024. It promises another unforgettable journey from Miami to Montego Bay and Ocho Rios, aboard the same majestic ship. With its reputation for selling out, cabins for the 2024 cruise are <a href="https://withlovepr.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e56cb023f7aa1f0618b4c1c24&id=a253fdc3dc&e=6eff0de188" target="_blank">available for booking</a>, according to a release.</p>
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<p><a href="/https://www.dancehallmag.com/2023/12/14/news/the-2023-welcome-to-jamrock-reggae-cruise-in-photos.html" target="_blank">https://www.dancehallmag.com/2023/12/14/news/the-2023-welcome-to-jamrock-reggae-cruise-in-photos.html</a></p></div>Photographing 80s sound system culture in Jamaica & the UKhttps://caribshout.com/blog/photographing-80s-sound-system-culture-in-jamaica-the-uk2023-11-27T18:11:58.000Z2023-11-27T18:11:58.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article">
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<div class="teads-player">By: Miss Rosen - Vice.com</div>
<div id="teads1" class="teads-player">On a hot and humid night in April 1986, British photographer <a href="https://www.waynetippetts.com/" target="_blank">Wayne Tippetts</a> ventured into the Kingston yard of singer and producer Lincoln Barrington “Sugar” Minott (1956–2010), where he encountered Jamaican sound system <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/topic/culture">culture</a> for the very first time. “It was literally a sonic vibe,” he says. “I remember it was very dark and the intensity of it, just being enveloped in ganja.”Then shots rang out into the night. An off-duty policeman gave a proper gun salute, firing rounds off his M16 rifle into the air not far from where Wayne stood. “It was quite a shock, but it certainly added to the atmosphere,” he says.</div>
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<p><em>Pleasure Minott (wearing bowler hat) brother of dancehall legend Sugar Minott, with deejay Donna P at the Youthman Promotion Sound System HQ at 1 Robert Crescent.</em></p>
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<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">Armed with just a Leica, Wayne made his way through the dark, his eyes acclimatising to a realm few outsiders had seen. As a social documentary <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/topic/photography">photographer</a> by training, he serendipitously stumbled upon a hypnotic subculture taking the underground by storm. Having no camera flash, Wayne quickly improvised, grabbing a bright, halogen lamp and handing it to a friend so that he could freely shoot a single roll of film. </span></div>
<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">Entranced by what he had witnessed, Wayne began making regular trips to Jamaica<strong> </strong>to work on a range of social documentary projects. At the time, the vibrant dancehall scene was flourishing at<strong> </strong>1 Robert Crescent, home to Sugar and the flourishing Youthman Promotion Sound System and organisation. Widely considered to be the godfather of <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/3adjw3/dancehall-history-identity-podcast">dancehall</a>, Sugar changed the game when he showed up at Clement “Sir Coxsone” Dodd’s legendary Studio One in 1977 with a revolutionary idea: rather than audition with a band, he sang over a rhythm in the Studio One vault. </span></div>
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<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><em>Pleasure Minott - Brother of Sugar (front right) and deejay Blacka T (leaning against the window) in Sugar Minotts Black Roots/Youth Promotion recording studio.</em></div>
<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">The two went on to create two albums together, giving Sugar an education he couldn’t find anywhere else and inspiring him to pay it forward by creating the Black Roots music collective in 1979 with artists including Little John, Tristan Palmer, and Tony Tuff.</span></div>
<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">After the success of their first album, <em>Ghetto-ology</em>, Sugar decamped for the UK to sing and produce lovers rock records. Although he hit the top ten hit with “Good Thing Going” in 1981, Sugar needed more than money and status to be a successful artist: he needed vibes that could only be found on the island of his birth. He returned home to resume his journey as a roots artist and producer with a vision to create YP in 1984. <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12304300683,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12304300683,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="450" alt="12304300683?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></span></div>
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<p><em>Selector for the Black Ruler Sound System from Spanish Town, goes through a collection of 45s for a beach party session in St Anne, Jamaica. 1988</em></p>
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<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">Blessed with the ability to spot raw talent, Sugar envisioned YP as a “University of Dancehall” where new singers like Tenor Saw, Junior Reid, and Yami Bolo could practice alongside their elders, gaining wisdom and guidance from artists of all generations. Headquartered at 1 Robert Crescent, where Sugar was born and raised, YP became a training ground for <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/topic/art">young artists</a> to grow when they became breakout artists on the dancehall scene. </span></div>
<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">When Wayne arrived at YP in 1986, a new crop of artists like Tony Rebel were up next, taking part in Sugar’s innovative approach to <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/topic/music">music</a> making. Necessity being the mother of invention, Sugar freely experimented with ways to bring down the cost of studio time and record production with computerised keyboards and drum presets, which stood in striking counterpoint to the gritty lyrics that spoke to their shared realities. </span></div>
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<p><em>Singer Neville Valentine on the mic at Sugar Minott's Youthman Promotion Sound System. Kingston, Jamaica. 1986.</em></p>
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<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">Throughout his life, Sugar maintained the same integrity he held walking away from a UK music career, preferring to use his talents and skills to help new artists emerge. He took the position of facilitator rather than boss, investing the proceeds into building the studio rather than lining his pockets. </span></div>
<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">“Sugar’s house was a revelation to me,” Wayne says of that first night on the scene. After returning home, he hooked up with Sugar’s brother Earl Minott and Youth Promotion UK, photographing rehearsals at their Brixton home and travelling with them to Birmingham and Handsworth, where racial tension and police harassment ran thick. Soon thereafter, he began shooting for <em>Black Echoes</em>, the only Black music magazine in the UK, documenting historic events, including Aswad’s 10th anniversary in Paris and Black Uhuru at Glastonbury.</span></div>
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<p><em>“Sugar Minott at the mixing desk in a recording studio in Islington, London. 1986”.</em></p>
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<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">Over the next 17 years, Wayne documented the sound system culture in London and Jamaica, going on to create his celebrated “Inna Dancehall Style” project that spotlights Dancehall Queens and patrons of the scene. The photos were first published by <em>The Guardian</em> in 1993, the same year he moved to Jamaica, where he lived and worked for the next decade.</span></div>
<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">Now Wayne returns to his roots for a look back at where it all began in the new book, <em><a href="https://www.caferoyalbooks.com/international/wayne-tippetts-sound-system-culture-jamaica-uk-198688" target="_blank">Sound System Culture Jamaica & UK 1986–88</a></em> (Café Royal Books). The book features photographs of the dancehall scene on both islands, providing an inside look at the ways in which music helped to shape and maintain bonds between the motherland and <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/z34mja/marvin-bonheur-black-diaspora-photography">diaspora</a>. </span></div>
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<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">In August 1988, Wayne travelled to Central Village, a settlement outside Spanish Town, St Catherine, to photograph the Black Ruler sound system. Just 40 years earlier, the first Rastafarians established their own <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/search?q=community">community</a>, known as Pinnacle, in the mountains just above Spanish Town. By rejecting white supremacy, they were branded as a threat and targeted by the British colonial government for destruction.</span></div>
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<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">Despite the fall of Pinnacle and systemic persecution, Rasta culture survived on the outskirts of Kingston, the tenets of its spiritualism and philosophy making its way into the music that came full circle with dancehall. “Black Ruler was hardcore,” Wayne says. “They didn’t play much outside of Central Village, but they were booked for a local dance down on the North Coast. I enjoyed the dance until it got a bit heavy and things broke up. The music had to be played very late, and the people from Kingston didn’t quite mix with the North Coast.”</span></div>
<div class="sc-aXZVg iQQyff abc__textblock size--article"><span class="sc-gEvEer mUxAV">Returning to the start of his photography career, Wayne pays homage to these groundbreaking artists with reverence and joy. Four decades later, his excitement remains palpable as he recounts photographing the underground scene whose influence continues to shape the <a href="https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/topic/fashion">fashion</a>, music, and rebel culture around the world today.</span></div>
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<p>'Gong' ran a sound system called 'Black Ruler'. Gong lived in Central Village, a sprawling settlement on the outskirts of Spanish Town, St Catherine. There were often shoot-outs. This photo was taken in August 1988.</p>
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<p><strong>Port-of-Spain, Trinidad </strong>– The stage is set for the upcoming Carnival season in Trinidad and Tobago, but not before the newcomers make their grand entry. The world will know Prenzo. He’s dynamic, vocally unique and what he says is God’s grace, has him sitting on one of the biggest riddims that penetrated the Carnival circuit leading into Carnival 2024, in Trinidad and Tobago.</p>
<p>Prenzo was born in Trinidad, but now resides in Tobago. He says he gets the best of both islands. A young, vibrant artiste, he has big dreams to be a successful entertainer, and certainly a household name. Admittedly, he says he started off singing RnB and reggae music from as early as 10-years-old, having been a part of The Love Movement then. The opportunity to perform at Queen’s Hall during that time, sparked an inextinguishable passion that pushed him toward his dreams.</p>
<p>Last year, for the first time, Prenzo released a Soca single. “I was encouraged by my lady to first be a part of the culture of my homeland. She said to me, “to get noticed, you have to start with your culture.” ”After eight years honing his craft as an artiste, Prenzo explained that he felt confident in his ability to maneuver in the industry and, as luck would have it, through the encouragement of a friend, he scored the opportunity he had<br />hoped for.”</p>
<h3>Wuk Up</h3>
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<p>Prenzo’s single, ‘Wuk Up’ forms part of the ‘Pay the People’ riddim – a riddim that happens to be Barbados’ Road March riddim. “I am so happy that I got the chance to add my voice to the riddim. My very good friend is responsible for this and I’m really grateful,” he said. He joins artistes like Yankey Boy and Swappi on the riddim, and says he believes God aligned it all. “Last year I wrote that song, not realizing that it would land on Barbados’ Road March riddim. God had to be working in some kind of way, because to jump on a big riddim like this… I was shocked to know that it was still open for me to get a chance,” he said.</p>
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<p>The feel-good single is all about enjoyment, and places keen focus on the women of Carnival. Prenzo says it also encourages elevation and progress, relaying in the simplest way, the need for positive energy and optimism in life.</p>
<p>Mindful and practical, Prenzo says he will focus entirely on this single ahead of T&T carnival. He knows that penetrating the market in even the slightest way, is dependent on the strong effort he puts in, to bring awareness to himself and at least one engaging Soca single.</p>
<p>Inspired to push for greatness and rise above the challenges, Prenzo admits that fellow artiste, Voice has been a great source of inspiration to him. “Voice helped me out a lot with all those positive songs when I was going through certain things in my life. I also admire Kees. I’m a real groovy soca lover,” he rationalized. Now, excitedly, he is positioning himself to join some of his favourite artistes in the soca music industry. “I was born for this. There’s no better time than the present to share my gift with the world.”</p></div>Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Breaks Guinness World Recordhttps://caribshout.com/blog/rihanna-s-super-bowl-halftime-show-breaks-guinness-world-record2023-10-31T14:11:59.000Z2023-10-31T14:11:59.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12280759077,RESIZE_930x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12280759077,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12280759077?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p>SOURCE: BET – Rihanna has officially claimed the Guinness World Record for the most-watched halftime show in history with her Super Bowl LVII performance. The highly anticipated show marked the singer’s return to the stage after a five-year hiatus, captivating over 121.017 million viewers according to Guinness World Records.</p>
<p>This achievement surpasses the previous record set by Katy Perry’s Super Bowl XLIX halftime show in 2015, which garnered 121 million viewers.</p>
<p>Initially, Nielsen Holdings reported that Rihanna’s performance attracted only 118.7 million viewers. However, the data-collection company was forced to adjust the numbers, citing “irregularities” in the way the audience was measured back in February.</p>
<p>To put Rihanna’s accomplishment into perspective, her halftime show was viewed by some 6 million more people than had viewed any Super Bowl <em>game</em>. Guinness World Records reported that the 2023 Super Bowl game drew in 115.1 million viewers — also a figure that had to be adjusted for those irregularities — surpassing the previous record set in 2015 with 114.442 million.</p>
<p>Rihanna’s Feb. 12 performance in Glendale, Arizona, might be best remembered for leaving the crowd speechless after she set social media afire by rubbing her belly, singing while suspended above the field. That led to rampant speculation that she was pregnant with her and A$AP Rocky’s second child, which was confirmed when she gave birth to Riot Rose Mayers on Aug. 1.</p>
<p>Despite the shock value, the iconic artist delivered a mesmerizing performance with hits like “Diamonds,” “We Found Love” and “Wild Thoughts.” </p>
<p>Now that she has given birth, there are rumors that new music could be in the works.</p>
<p>This is not the first time Rihanna has obtained a Guinness World Record. Some of her most acclaimed Guinness World Records include, “Most consecutive years of UK No.1 singles,” “Richest musician (female),” “Most cumulative weeks on UK singles chart in a calendar year” and “Most digital No. 1 singles in the US.</p></div>Monday Morning Feeling.........Caribbean Stylehttps://caribshout.com/blog/monday-morning-feeling-caribbean-style2023-10-30T18:16:22.000Z2023-10-30T18:16:22.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fnmd20z5OnY?si=M43bt7vwktMMeTRJ" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<h1 class="style-scope ytd-watch-metadata">King Bubba - "Calling In Sick" (Official HD Video)</h1></div>Quest to Caribana 2023 - A Tourist in Torontohttps://caribshout.com/blog/quest-to-caribana-2023-a-tourist-in-toronto2023-10-07T01:53:31.000Z2023-10-07T01:53:31.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p> </p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12243636482,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12243636482,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12243636482?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="550" /></a>Ashleigh (center) Cheyenne and Anaya join new found friends at Caribana</p>
<p style="text-align:center;">By: Ashleigh Fields</p>
<p>Nobody told yall I did Caribana in heels? Yes, honey! I was walking and talking to the people with ease. It was my very first time going to a Caribbean festival or anything of the sort, so I too did not know what to expect.</p>
<p>I remember seeing Tonya from Real Housewives of Atlanta bring her friends there for a girls trip and I thought that it would be so much fun. It was! I visited Toronto with my two friends Anaya and Cheyenne and we took the city by storm.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12243709867,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12243709867,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12243709867?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="450" /></a>It was a six hour ride from Cleveland up to the “six” as Drake affectionately refers to the Canadian city. As we crossed the border, visuals from his album “Views” crossed my mind. The buildings were just as tall, the streets were clean and the food was immaculate.</p>
<p>Although we were only there for a full 24 hours I got the full scope of the active Caribbean pulse vibrating through the town. Our first and only stop at Caribana was the parade.</p>
<p>Never had I seen more intricate costumes with vibrant colors, carefully crafted beading and seamless waist lines. The outfits were giving! People were marching to the beat of their country which evoked a type of pride most Black people from the U.S. are not familiar with.</p>
<p>Carnival and any event that resembles it celebrates independence! The Caribbean islands that we know and love each went through a stint of colonization which many of them fought tirelessly to be released from in order to become a self-governed nation.<a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12243631068,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12243631068,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12243631068?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="550" /></a></p>
<p>As people strutted through the Princes’ Gates at Exhibition Place in Toronto you could feel the spirit of freedom in the air. Some chose to take it all in while wearing a t-shirt and shirts and others purchased iridescent custom made costumes. My friends and I did the best we could with a last minute Amazon order only to find a head piece and a crystal bra.</p>
<p>When making our way through the parade, we got too close to the moving stages and were called out a few times for being “stormers” also known as the underdressed people in the crowd. They wanted us to move away from their trucks which featured groups of dancers and performers.</p>
<p>We took note of the shortcoming and promised to take more time to prepare next year by possibly ordering the $300 plus feather filled outfits offered on Etsy in years to come. While maneuvering through the crowd we took a ton of pictures with festive friends who welcomed us into this niche world of celebrations occurring across the world to honor Caribbean islands.</p>
<p>Every kind of flag you could think of was being flung with passion. Green and gold for Jamaica, blue and yellow for Barbados, red and black for Trinidad and Tobago amongst many more. In the case that you forgot yours at home, street vendors were happily selling a small bandana with a replica for each country.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12243710078,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12243710078,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12243710078?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="350" /></a>The display of artwork was spectacular. On the side of one of the trucks was a large painting of Muhammad Ali with his famous quote, “Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.”</p>
<p>This message and plenty more proved just how welcoming the Caribana environment could be. Our amazingly long foot journey included sightseeing and picture taking amidst so much fun.</p>
<p>Once we got tired and our feet grew increasingly sore, we decided to stop for something to eat.</p>
<p>Our first choice was the Petty Cash social house. It was a little ways away from the parade and we walked about a mile into downtown to get away from the crowds to find a resting point. After we ordered waters to drink and took a glance at the menu we looked up to see supermodel Cindy Crawford seated one booth over. I was in awe of her beauty, composure and the mere fact that she travels without a body guard. I wanted a picture so bad, but my friend said it was better to be respectful and let her eat in peace.</p>
<p>I still wish we got some form of documentation to prove we were dining with a top-tier celebrity but I guess as long as my memory works fine it serves the same purpose.</p>
<p>Displeased by the service at this establishment, my friends suggested we turn back to this crowded Jamaican restaurant a few blocks away. And let me tell you this was one of the best decisions of the trip. We crept inside Chubby’s Jamaican Kitchen escorted by a waitress with a beautiful blonde afro (that I also did not capture a picture of) to be seated on their outdoor patio. (Asleigh, Cheyenne and Anaya)</p>
<p>We ate and laughed in nature’s oasis surrounded by melanted Black people. I of course opted for the jerk chicken, cabbage and rice which was absolutely immaculate. It had the perfect amount of seasoning and spice.</p>
<p>After eating, we purchased an uber to head to our hotel in Mississauga. Let me tell you, we slept so good. The next morning we woke up, packed our bags and headed back to Cleveland. But not before stopping at Niagara Falls. Another must see on any visit to Canada.</p>
<p>It was so big, the rushing water was crystal clear and the drop from the waterfall was massive. I can definitely see why it’s one of the world’s seven wonders. All in all it was an amazing trip from start to finish. And I thank my friend Anaya for making it all happen. I am beyond excited to plan my next trip back.<a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12243710662,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12243710662,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="12243710662?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="710" /></a></p></div>Dominica’s 23rd World Creole Music Festival is officially launchedhttps://caribshout.com/blog/dominica-s-23rd-world-creole-music-festival-is-officially-launche2023-08-10T16:26:10.000Z2023-08-10T16:26:10.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}12185078897,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}12185078897,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="12185078897?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p>Roseau, Dominica – (August 8, 2023)</p>
<p>Dominica’s World Creole Music Festival returns with a significant emphasis on patriotism and culture as the event coincides with the 45th anniversary celebrations of the nation’s independence. The three-day festival will follow a ‘Legacy’ theme by paying homage to past festivals from October 27 – 29, 2023 at the Windsor Park Sports Stadium in Roseau.</p>
<p>The first wave of the festival’s stellar lineup includes Dominican natives Gordon Henderson, Midnight Groovers, Extasy, and Michele Henderson. Other popular musicians include Beres Hammond and Popcaan from Jamaica, JoeBoy from Nigeria, Njie from Gambia, Vayb and Tabou Combo from Haiti, TK International and Asa Bantan from Dominica, Machel Montano and Patrice Roberts from Trinidad & Tobago, Medhy Custos from France, Joelle Ursull from Guadeloupe, and Jean Luc Guanel from Martinique.</p>
<p>Standard tickets cost $150 each for nights one and three, and $200 for night two. Season tickets cost $375. Tickets may be purchased online at <a href="http://www.TicketLinkz.com">www.TicketLinkz.com</a>, or locally at Depex Color Lab in Roseau, Water’s Edge in Portsmouth, and Bullseye Pharmacy in Roseau, Portsmouth, and Grand Bay. DDA has again partnered with Nex Connex Radiance<br />Productions to provide a top-shelf VIP experience! Tickets for the Tropical Disco themed VIP experience can be purchased only at <a href="http://www.TicketLinkz.com">www.TicketLinkz.com</a>.</p>
<p>Discover Dominica Authority extends special gratitude to this year’s World Creole Music Festival sponsors which include presenting sponsor, the Government of Dominica; corporate sponsors, Belfast Estate (agent for BB RUM and Kubuli) and L’Express des Iles; business sponsors, H.H.V. Whitchurch (agent for Carib Beer), DOWASCO and Pirates; telecoms sponsor, DIGICEL; and accommodation partner, Fort Young Hotel.</p>
<p>For more information on Dominica’s World Creole Music Festival, contact the Dominica Festivals Committee at (767) 448-4833/255-8221, visit the official website <a href="https://dominicafestivals.com/">www.DominicaFestivals.com</a>, or follow Dominica Fests on Instagram and Facebook.</p></div>For Bob Marley's many children and grandchildren, reggae is the family businesshttps://caribshout.com/blog/for-bob-marley-s-many-children-and-grandchildren-reggae-is-the-fa2023-05-29T12:59:32.000Z2023-05-29T12:59:32.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11153735675,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11153735675,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="650" alt="11153735675?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
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<p><em>Kymani, Julian, Ziggy, Damian and Stephen Marley sons of Bob Marley pose for a photo after their performance at the "Roots, Rock, Reggae Tour 2004" at the Filene Center August 8, 2004 in Vienna, Virginia <span class="image-source headline-regular">Frank Micelotta/Getty Images</span></em></p>
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<li>Bob Marley became an icon for popularizing reggae music worldwide.</li>
<li>Marley passed away in 1981 at the age of 36, leaving at least 11 children behind.</li>
<li>Many of his children and grandchildren have followed in his musical footsteps, continuing his legacy.</li>
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<p>Robert Nesta Marley was born February 6, 1945 in the village of Nine Mile to Cedella Malcolm, a 19-year-old Black Jamaican woman, and Capt. Norval Marley, a nearly 60-year-old white <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131845/Revealed-white-ex-naval-officer-fathered-Bob-Marley.html" target="_blank">naval officer</a> who was overseeing plantations in the area for the British government. Marley said he was often <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/gallery/bob-marley-facts" target="_blank">bullied</a> for his biracial heritage growing up and derogatorily referred to as "White Boy."</p>
<p>The Jamaican reggae artist has been credited with making Jamaican music more popular worldwide. His professional career first began with the band the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/wailing-away-time-bob-marley-reggae-398060" target="_blank">Teenagers</a> — eventually renamed the Wailers — which he formed with Peter Tosh and Bunny Waller. Their debut album <a href="https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-lyrics-one-love-people-get-ready-by-bob-marley/" target="_blank">featured</a> the single "One Love," which Marley continued to revisit throughout his career. After signing to Island Records, the band was renamed Bob Marley and the Wailers, and their star power continued to grow, even after Tosh and Waller left the band.</p>
<p>Marley became a sensation with recordings of songs like "No Woman, No Cry" and "<a href="https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-meaning-of-the-song-i-shot-the-sheriff-by-bob-marley/" target="_blank">I Shot the Sheriff</a>," which was later covered by Eric Clapton. In 1976, he <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/the-night-bob-marley-got-shot-203370/" target="_blank">survived</a> an assassination attempt, when gunmen entered Marley's home two days before he was slated to perform at "Smile Jamaica," a concert set to take place days before a snap election in the country. Because of rising tensions at the time, some saw the concert as being politically motivated. Marley suffered minor wounds to his chest and arm.</p>
<p>His career was cut short. Marley died of melanoma that spread from his toe in 1981 at the age of 36, leaving behind his wife, Rita, and at least 11 children. He was buried <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/24/bob-marley-funeral-richard-williams" target="_blank">along with</a> his red Gibson Les Paul guitar and a Bible. In a eulogy, then-Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga called Marley "part of the collective consciousness of the nation." His greatest hits album "Legend" — which was released posthumously — remains the <a href="https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/entertainment/marley-wailers-legend-best-selling-reggae-album/" target="_blank">best-selling</a> reggae album of all time, and Marley still ranks among the best-selling musicians of all time. </p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Rita Marley</span></div>
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<div class="lazy-holder"><img class="lazy-image js-rendered" src="https://i.insider.com/63b36ffd3e42ed00185613b6?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp" alt="Rita Marley performing at the Ritz in New York City on October 4, 1982." />https://i.insider.com/63b36ffd3e42ed00185613b6":{"contentType":"image/jpeg","aspectRatioW":3200,"aspectRatioH":2400}}" /></div>
Rita Marley performing at the Ritz in New York City on October 4, 1982.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Ebet Roberts/Redferns via Getty Images</span></span>
<p>Bob and Rita Marley married in 1966. Rita, born Alfarita Constantia Anderson, was born in 1946 in Cuba and was raised in Kingston, Jamaica. In the 1960s, Rita joined a group called the Soulettes, a trio that was mentored by Bob Marley. After they married, Rita often sang vocals with the Wailers.</p>
<p>In 1976, Rita <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-life-and-times-of-bob-marley-78392/4/" target="_blank">survived</a> a shot to the head in the assassination attempt two days prior to the "Smile Jamaica" concert. That same year, Rita <a href="https://www.timeout.com/london/blog/15-places-in-london-with-a-bob-marley-connection-051116" target="_blank">moved</a> to London with Marley, who had begun seeing model Cindy Breakspeare, who had just been crowned Miss World. Despite her husband's infidelity, they continued to make music together.</p>
<p>After Marley's death in 1981, Rita continued to record albums, and converted their former home In Kingston into the <a href="https://www.bobmarleymuseum.com/" target="_blank">Bob Marley Museum</a>. She is also the founder and chairperson of the <a href="https://ritamarleyfoundation.org/about-mrs-marley/" target="_blank">Bob Marley Trust</a>.</p>
<p>Rita has also been heavily involved with humanitarian organizations. She has worked to support students in Ghana, and created the Rita Marley Foundation to alleviate hunger in developing countries.</p>
<p>She has six children, three with Marley and three from other relationships. </p>
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<div><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Sharon Marley</span></div>
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<div class="lazy-holder"><img class="lazy-image js-rendered" src="https://i.insider.com/63b3752e3e42ed00185613c6?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp" alt="Sharon Marley, left, with her mother Rita and siblings Stephen, Ziggy and Cedella in Central Park, New York City, June 12, 1992." />https://i.insider.com/63b3752e3e42ed00185613c6":{"contentType":"image/jpeg","aspectRatioW":4677,"aspectRatioH":3508}}" /></div>
Sharon Marley, left, with her mother Rita and siblings Stephen, Ziggy and Cedella in Central Park, New York City, June 12, 1992.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Michel Delsol/Getty Images</span></span>
<p>Rita's eldest daughter, Sharon, was born in 1964, and was adopted by Marley when he married Rita in 1966. She was a part of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, a musical group made up of four of Bob Marley's children. Together, the group won <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/sharon-marley/11941" target="_blank">three</a> Grammy Awards.</p>
<p>Sharon has also <a href="https://sharonmarley.com/biography" target="_blank">served</a> as the curator and manager of the Bob Marley Museum, and worked in public relations for the Ghetto Youth United Recording Label, which was founded by her brothers Stephen and Ziggy.</p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Cedella Marley</span></div>
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<div class="lazy-holder"><img class="lazy-image js-rendered" src="https://i.insider.com/63b375ce3e42ed00185613ce?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp" alt="Cedella Marley attends the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern California on April 24, 2022 ." />https://i.insider.com/63b375ce3e42ed00185613ce":{"contentType":"image/jpeg","aspectRatioW":3058,"aspectRatioH":2294}}" /></div>
Cedella Marley attends the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at the University of Southern California on April 24, 2022
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">David Livingston/Getty Images</span></span>
<p>Cedella Marley is the daughter of Bob and Rita Marley, born in 1967.</p>
<p>She is the CEO of Tuff Gong International, a recording label that was first started by her father, named after the nickname he received growing up in Jamaica. In a 2016 <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/bob-marley-family-photos" target="_blank">interview with GQ</a>, Cedella talked about her role within the family businesses, saying "whatever business ventures we get into, I'm the one who has to deal with whoever we partner with on a day-to-day basis."</p>
<p>She has also founded a number of <a href="https://www.cedellamarley.com/about-1" target="_blank">clothing lines</a>, and, in collaboration with Puma, designed the uniform for the Jamaican track and field team at the 2012 Olympics, which was worn by Usain Bolt.</p>
<p>She has also written children's books inspired by her father, including "<a href="https://affiliate.insider.com/?amazonTrackingID=biauto-60754-20&h=9dfe385f124639ac8b018cecd6f37a31d7dd02304e3c5c56f404ce20b633b309&postID=63b3690dba755633e776bf52&site=in&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FBoy-Nine-Miles-Marley-Spirit%2Fdp%2F1571742824&platform=browser&sc=false&disabled=false&tag=insider-safetynet-20" target="_blank">The Boy from Nine Miles</a>," and "<a href="https://affiliate.insider.com/?amazonTrackingID=biauto-60754-20&h=11b0f794a654954314c13ef806fb81e7ceb742935187ca41b09ca2deac852f2a&postID=63b3690dba755633e776bf52&site=in&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FLittle-Cedella-Marley-Gerald-Hausman%2Fdp%2F0971975825&platform=browser&sc=false&disabled=false&tag=insider-safetynet-20" target="_blank">Three Little Birds</a>."</p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Ziggy Marley</span></div>
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<div class="lazy-holder"><img class="lazy-image js-rendered" src="https://i.insider.com/63b37703a51b3d00185b6a6e?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp" alt="Ziggy Marley performing on the Open Air Stage at the Womad Festival on 26 July 2019." />https://i.insider.com/63b37703a51b3d00185b6a6e":{"contentType":"image/jpeg","aspectRatioW":4020,"aspectRatioH":3015}}" /></div>
Ziggy Marley performing on the Open Air Stage at the Womad Festival on 26 July 2019.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">David Corio/Redferns</span></span>
<p>David Nesta "Ziggy" Marley was born in 1968, the second child of Rita and Bob Marley. He has had a successful music career, both as the lead of his family band Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, and as a solo musician, releasing <a href="https://www.ziggymarley.com/category/works/music-releases/studio-albums/" target="_blank">eight solo albums</a> under his own label, Tuff Gong Worldwide (a separate record label from the one started by his father, Tuff Gong International). He has won eight Grammys and one Daytime Emmy.</p>
<p>Ziggy first made his debut with the Melody Makers at the age of 11. After the death of his father, Ziggy often played in his place alongside the Wailers.</p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Stephen Marley</span></div>
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<div class="lazy-holder"><img class="lazy-image js-rendered" src="https://i.insider.com/63b377983e42ed00185613db?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp" alt="Stephen Marley performs at The Greek Theatre on August 31, 2018 in Berkeley, California." />https://i.insider.com/63b377983e42ed00185613db":{"contentType":"image/jpeg","aspectRatioW":2457,"aspectRatioH":1842}}" /></div>
Stephen Marley performs at The Greek Theatre on August 31, 2018 in Berkeley, California.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images</span></span>
<p>Stephen "Ragga" Robert Nesta Marley was born in 1972, the third child of Rita and Bob Marley. Like his older siblings, he also <a href="https://www.stephenmarleymusic.com/my-roots" target="_blank">began</a> his musical career as a member of Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers when he was 7 years old. He has won <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/stephen-marley/9331" target="_blank">eight Grammys</a>, three of which were as a solo artist.</p>
<p>He also began <a href="https://kayafestivals.com/" target="_blank">Kaya Fest</a>, an annual music festival that first launched in 2017.</p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Julian Marley</span></div>
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<div class="lazy-holder"><img class="lazy-image js-rendered" src="https://i.insider.com/63b3785f3e42ed00185613e9?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp" alt="Julian Marley attends 2022 Black Music & Entertainment Walk Of Fame Induction Ceremony on June 18, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia." />https://i.insider.com/63b3785f3e42ed00185613e9":{"contentType":"image/jpeg","aspectRatioW":5504,"aspectRatioH":4138}}" /></div>
Julian Marley attends 2022 Black Music & Entertainment Walk Of Fame Induction Ceremony on June 18, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Prince Williams/Wireimage</span></span>
<p>Julian "JuJu" Ricardo Marley was born in London in 1975, the son of Bob Marley and Lucy Pounder. Like his siblings, his musical career started young; he had recorded his <a href="https://jujuroyal.net/meet-julian-marley/" target="_blank">first demo</a> by the age of 5. After moving to Jamaica, he formed the record label Ghetto Youths Crew with his brothers Stephen, Damian, and Ky-Mani. Together, they toured for three years.</p>
<p>Julian has released four albums as a solo artist, two of which have received Grammy nominations for Best Reggae Album. In 2008, Julian and the Uprising Band represented Jamaica at the Beijing Olympics.</p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Ky-Mani Marley</span></div>
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Ky-Mani Marley sings on the pitch at half time during a match of the UEFA Champions League between Ajax and AEK Athens on September 19, 2018 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images</span></span>
<p>Ky-Mani Marley was born in 1976 to Bob Marley and Anita Belnavis, a table tennis champion in Jamaica. His debut album, "Like Father, Like Son," released in 1996.</p>
<p>In 2001, his album "Many More Roads" received a <a href="https://www.grammy.com/artists/ky-mani-marley/12987" target="_blank">Grammy</a> nomination.</p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Damian Marley</span></div>
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Damian Marley performs on stage during the 2017 ONE Music Fest on September 9, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Marcus Ingram/Getty Images</span></span>
<p>Born in 1978, Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley is the son of Bob Marley and <a href="https://jamaicans.com/cindybreakspeare/" target="_blank">Cindy Breakspeare</a>, a jazz musician and model who was crowned Miss World in 1976.</p>
<p>His musical career began as a child with a <a href="https://www.melodymakers.com/mm/damian.html" target="_blank">group</a> called the Shepherds. In 1996, he released his debut solo album "Mr. Marley," and continued a successful solo career with albums "Halfway Tree," "Welcome to Jamrock," and "Stony Hill." In 2010, he released "Distant Relatives," an album made in collaboration with Nas. In total, Damian has won four Grammy Awards.</p>
<p>Unlike his older siblings, Damian's early music was not as inspired by traditional reggae sounds. "You have to remember, Ziggy is ten years older than me. So I grew up with dancehall and a whole different set a influence," Damian <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/bob-marley-family-photos" target="_blank">told GQ</a> in 2016.</p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Bambaata Marley</span></div>
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Daniel Bambaata Marley performs at House of Marley booth during the International Consumer Electronics Show on January 6, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Isaac Brekken/WireImage for House of Marley</span></span>
<p>Daniel Bambaata Robert Nesta Marley was born in 1989, the eldest son of Ziggy Marley. He has collaborated on music with family members, including cousin Jo Mersa on "<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jo-mersa-marley-dead-obituary-1234653280/" target="_blank">My Girl</a>," and with his father, Ziggy, on "Changes."</p>
<p>His music often incorporates dancehall and hip-hop sounds. In a 2014 <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/meet-the-next-generation-of-musical-marleys-106833/" target="_blank">interview</a> with Rolling Stone, Bambaata said, "the root of my music, regardless of if it might sound a different way, is always reggae."</p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Jo Mersa Marley</span></div>
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Jo Mersa Marley visits Fox 29's 'Good Day' on April 9, 2015, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Images</span></span>
<p>Joseph "Jo Mersa" Marley was born in 1991, the son of Stephen Marley. He began his career on stage with Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, alongside his family. Soon, he launched his solo career, releasing a single "My Girl" with his cousin Daniel Bambaata in 2010, and <a href="https://thepier.org/interview-jo-mersa-marley/" target="_blank">debuted</a> an EP titled "Comfortable" in 2014.</p>
<p>In a 2014 <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/meet-the-next-generation-of-musical-marleys-106833/" target="_blank">interview</a> with Rolling Stone, Jo Mersa said, "I am one of the new generation of Marleys, but I am still experimenting at the same time… My plan is to do something new with my roots."</p>
<p>On Tuesday, December 27, 2022, a representative <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jo-mersa-marley-dead-obituary-1234653280/" target="_blank">confirmed</a> to Rolling Stone that Jo Mersa had died at the age of 31.</p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Skip Marley</span></div>
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<div class="lazy-holder"><img class="lazy-image js-rendered" src="https://i.insider.com/63b3fc0d3e42ed00185615c5?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp" alt="Skip Marley performs live during Sea.Hear.Now Festival on September 17, 2022 in Asbury Park, New Jersey." />https://i.insider.com/63b3fc0d3e42ed00185615c5":{"contentType":"image/jpeg","aspectRatioW":3542,"aspectRatioH":2657}}" /></div>
Skip Marley performs live during Sea.Hear.Now Festival on September 17, 2022 in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Jim Bennett/Getty Images</span></span>
<p>Skip Marley Minto was born in 1996 to Cedella Marley. His EP, "Higher Place" was released with Island Records in 2020. "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4jZKM5Y6-0" target="_blank">Slow Down</a>," a single off that EP featuring H.E.R. quickly reached the number-one spot on Billboard's Adult R&B chart. Skip also co-wrote and is featured on Katy Perry's "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um7pMggPnug" target="_blank">Chained to Rhythm</a>," which he performed at the Grammys in 2017. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/interview-with-skip-marley-on-his-ep-higher-place-11696049" target="_blank">interview</a> with Miami New Times, Skip said he was inspired to pursue music in 2005 after watching a tribute to Bob Marley at an Africa Unite concert.</p>
<p>He has received two Grammy nominations.</p>
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<div class="notranslate celtra-banner"><span style="font-size:1.5em;">Selah Marley</span></div>
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<div class="lazy-holder"><img class="lazy-image js-rendered" src="https://i.insider.com/63b3fee3a51b3d00185b6c75?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp" alt="Selah Marley attends the Balenciaga Womenswear Spring/Summer 2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on October 02, 2022." />https://i.insider.com/63b3fee3a51b3d00185b6c75":{"contentType":"image/jpeg","aspectRatioW":5459,"aspectRatioH":4094}}" /></div>
Selah Marley attends the Balenciaga Womenswear Spring/Summer 2023 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on October 02, 2022.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Anthony Ghnassia/Getty Images For Balenciaga</span></span>
<p>Born in 1998, Selah Marley is the daughter of singer-songwriter Lauryn Hill and former football player Rohan Marley.</p>
<p>As a model, she has worked with the likes of Chanel, Armani, Calvin Klein, and Ivy Park. In 2022, she found herself at the center of <a href="https://americansongwriter.com/lauryn-hills-daughter-bob-marleys-granddaughter-selah-marley-talks-wearing-white-lives-matter-t-shirt-you-can-not-bully-me/" target="_blank">controversy</a> after modeling an article of clothing that read "White Lives Matter" for Kanye West's Yeezy show in Paris.</p>
<p>Just like her famous family, Selah has also <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/selah-marley-star-power-ep-interview" target="_blank">ventured</a> into music, releasing an EP, "Star Power," in 2021.</p>
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<h2 class="slide-title-text">Mystic Marley</h2>
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<div class="lazy-holder"><img class="lazy-image js-rendered" src="https://i.insider.com/63b4000a3e42ed0018561600?width=1300&format=jpeg&auto=webp" alt="Mystic Marley performs on stage during Kaya Fest on April 20, 2019 in Miami, Florida." />https://i.insider.com/63b4000a3e42ed0018561600":{"contentType":"image/jpeg","aspectRatioW":2666,"aspectRatioH":2000}}" /></div>
Mystic Marley performs on stage during Kaya Fest on April 20, 2019 in Miami, Florida.
<span class="image-source-caption"><span class="image-source headline-regular">Jason Koerner/Getty Images</span></span>
<p>Mystic Marley is the daughter of Stephen Marley. Her debut single "Beatdown" was released in 2018, followed by "Sad Girls (Cause Damage)" in 2021. In an <a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/bob-marley-s-granddaughter-mystic-feeling-his-presence-t214144" target="_blank">interview</a> with the TODAY Show, Mystic said she often senses grandfather Bob Marley's presence, saying, "I just, like, close my eyes and I see him, or I'm making music and I feel him."</p>
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</div></div>Rihanna and Apple take Barbados to the worldhttps://caribshout.com/blog/rihanna-and-apple-take-barbados-to-the-world2023-05-29T12:41:36.000Z2023-05-29T12:41:36.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11153731684,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11153731684,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="650" alt="11153731684?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p>Throughout her 20-year career, Rihanna has never forgotten her humble beginnings and that love and pride was exhibited once again in the latest trailer for the Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show.</p>
<p>The Barbadian superstar is headlining the Halftime Show which takes place this Sunday, February 12. </p>
<p>The nine-time Grammy awardee will take to the stage for the first time in six years. During her absence from performing, she has been busy building the Fenty beauty and fashion empire and being a mom. </p>
<p>Images of filming at Rihanna Drive have been circulating for a number of weeks, but now our curiosity has been quenched!</p>
<p>On Thursday, Apple Music dropped the trailer, capsulating Rihanna’s start as a “little girl from Westbury Road”. </p>
<p>From the opening, a thick Bajan accent says, “You know it is about time she come back….And the fans waiting!”</p>
<p>The trailer transitions to show a story similar to Rihanna’s own — a little girl with big dreams. </p>
<p>The song amplifies, as plays a prank, taking the sunglasses of a woman braiding hair in the community and struts throughout her neigbourhood — Rihanna Drive, formerly Westbury Road. </p>
<p>Any Bajan watching will swell with pride as they see the familiar face of Barbadian actress and media personality Belle Holder, the bright colours of Barbadian wooden houses, the little boy ‘buss a wheelie’, the group of adults in the veranda playing dominoes, and the drone footage of kites flying high above Westbury Cemetery and the St Michael area. </p>
<p>The trailer concludes with the caption "My whole life shaped on this very road. I was just a little island girl flying kites in the cemetery, but I had big dreams." </p>
<p>And this sentiment echoes what Rihanna at the official opening of Rihanna Drive in November 2017. </p>
<p>"I want to give a special thanks to all my neighbours in Westbury Road who all had a part in hand in raising me and the woman that I am....I am very grateful for that kind of backbone, [and] that kind of foundation... I believe I was here for a reason and I just want you guys to know that faith can go a very, very long way."</p></div>Reggae Hero Protoje Returns From the ‘Hills’ With Fierce New Musichttps://caribshout.com/blog/reggae-hero-protoje-returns-from-the-hills-with-fierce-new-music2022-04-22T14:23:32.000Z2022-04-22T14:23:32.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10432106476,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10432106476,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10432106476?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="650" /></a></p>
<p>By: Mankaprr Conteh - Rollingstone Photo Credit: Destinee Condison</p>
<p>One of the titans of modern <a id="auto-tag_reggae" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/reggae/">reggae</a> is back. <a id="auto-tag_protoje" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/protoje/">Protoje</a> — the Grammy-nominated singer, rapper, and label chief — has dropped his first solo release in more than a year with “Hills,” an ode to peace, nature, and frankly, being left the hell alone. “This song narrates what the last two years have been like for me, living in the mountains while the world was on lockdown,” Protoje says in a statement. “Connecting with the simplicity that exists here and being inspired with what I see surrounding me.”</p>
<p><iframe title="Protoje - HILLS (Official Video)" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YlqCITVVahM?feature=oembed" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>“Hills” is made up of tittering drums and slick flows that lean heavily into rap. “We are much more experimental than our predecessors,” Protoje says of he and like-minded “reggae revival” artists like <a id="auto-tag_koffee" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/koffee/">Koffee</a> and <a id="auto-tag_chronixx" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/chronixx/">Chronixx</a>. “We’re influenced by <a id="auto-tag_hip-hop" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/hip-hop/">hip-hop</a>, rock, pop music, with a reggae base underneath it.”</p>
<p>In the video, set in the hills of Jamaica, two women ask locals to point them in Protoje’s direction, seeking out the mountainous retreat where he enjoys a brisk jog, a mug of beverage, and the company of a bevy of goats. Before the out-of-place looking pair can find him, he’s taken off in a helicopter overlooking the majestic green terrain. </p>
<p>With “Hills,” Protoje announces that his sixth album is coming this summer via <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">In.Digg.Nation</span> Collective and RCA Records. Protoje founded <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">In.Digg.Nation</span> Collective in 2014 and the company is now home to fellow Jamaican artists Lila Iké and Jaz Elise. <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">In.Digg.Nation</span> received support from RCA through a <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/protoje-rca-deal-sevana-lila-ike-982332/">deal</a> announced in 2020.</p>
<p>The reggae revivalist will also tour North America and Europe this summer, hitting Bonnaroo and the Roots Picnic</p>
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<p>Protoje will also tour North America and Europe this summer, with dates including <a id="auto-tag_bonnaroo" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/bonnaroo/">Bonnaroo</a>, the <a id="auto-tag_roots-picnic" href="https://www.rollingstone.com/t/roots-picnic/">Roots Picnic</a>, and the California Roots Festival. His full tour calendar is yet to be announced.</p></div>The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger Enjoys "A Little Downtime" In Jamaicahttps://caribshout.com/blog/the-rolling-stones-mick-jagger-enjoys-a-little-downtime-in-jamaic2022-02-21T15:07:36.000Z2022-02-21T15:07:36.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10142754679,RESIZE_180x180{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10142754679,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="650" alt="10142754679?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
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<p>By: Claudia Gardner - Dancehallmag.com</p>
<p>The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger, who was closely associated with Reggae legend Peter Tosh, seems up to some musical works in Port Antonio, the cradle of Jamaica’s tourism and a stomping ground for music and Hollywood’s rich and famous. The British rock legend gave his fans a peek into his most recent holiday in Portland, on Friday, by posting several snapshots on his Instagram page of himself having fun round-town in the picturesque parish capital.</p>
<p>Sir Mick, 78, showed off pics of himself with his guitar standing somewhere in the mountains, with the Caribbean sea in the distance; another with him at a fruit and vegetable stall listening to a market vendor as well as himself leaning on a neon green mural.</p>
<p>The music legend, unsurprisingly, posted an image of himself at the Roof Nightclub, Portland’s longest-standing night club.<img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10142757662,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="550" alt="10142757662?profile=RESIZE_584x" /><img class="i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content" src="https://www.dancehallmag.com/assets/2022/02/mick2-960x1200.jpg" alt="mick2-960x1200.jpg" />https://www.dancehallmag.com/assets/2022/02/mick2-480x600.jpg 480w, <a href="https://www.dancehallmag.com/assets/2022/02/mick2-768x960.jpg">https://www.dancehallmag.com/assets/2022/02/mick2-768x960.jpg</a> 768w, <a href="https://www.dancehallmag.com/assets/2022/02/mick2-150x188.jpg">https://www.dancehallmag.com/assets/2022/02/mick2-150x188.jpg</a> 150w, <a href="https://www.dancehallmag.com/assets/2022/02/mick2.jpg">https://www.dancehallmag.com/assets/2022/02/mick2.jpg</a> 1080w" alt="mick" /></p>
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<p>“A little downtime before things get busy!” the lanky musician captioned his <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CaIcwaPqQeo/" target="_blank">post</a>.</p>
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<p>Jagger’s visit comes just a year shy of the 50th anniversary of The Rolling Stones’ month-long stay in Jamaica in 1973, where they recorded their <em>Goat Head Soup</em> album at Byron Lee’s Dynamic Sounds Studios in Kingston, during what was the Briton’s second trip to the island.</p>
<p>With the Terra Nova Hotel as their abode, the group deeply immersed themselves in Jamaican culture where they gallivanted in Ocho Rios, had the time of their lives in Port Antonio, and, according to one band member, essentially caused merriment and Jamaican bliss, to take precedence over the album, according to Far Out Magazine.</p>
<p>Jagger, who formed one of the five members of the Rolling Stones, sparked a connection to Reggae when the band’s record label signed Peter Tosh in 1978, and released his album <em>Bush Doctor</em>.</p>
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<p>Tosh’s album also featured Mick who collaborated with him on the lead single <em>Don’t Look Back</em>, which was a cover of The Temptations’ original song. That album also featured classics such as <em>Pick Myself Up</em>, <em>I’m the Toughest</em>, <em>Dem Ha Fe Get a Beatin</em> and <em>Creation</em>.</p>
<a class="amp-hidden" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phKSXbgeEK0" target="_blank"><img class="i-amphtml-fill-content i-amphtml-replaced-content" src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/phKSXbgeEK0/hqdefault.jpg" alt="Peter Tosh - Bush Doctor Full Album Side A (1978) (Cassette)" /></a><iframe class="i-amphtml-fill-content" title="Peter Tosh - Bush Doctor Full Album Side A (1978) (Cassette)" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/phKSXbgeEK0?enablejsapi=1&amp=1&playsinline=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Peter Tosh was the only Reggae artist signed to Rolling Stones’ label, from 1978-1981. He also served as the opening act for their 1978 US tour. The <em>Johnny B Goode</em> singer is also featured in the opening scene of the band’s music video for the song <em>Waiting On A Friend</em>.</p>
<p>The Rolling Stones also covered Jamaica’s 1971 Festival Song winner <em>Cherry Oh Baby</em> by Eric Donaldson for their 1976 album <em>Black And Blue</em>.</p>
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<p>Jagger was also in attendance in 1978 at the One Love peace concert at the National Stadium in Kingston.</p>
<p>Peter Tosh recorded a total of three albums on Rolling Stones small record label, but their relationship reportedly ended on a sour note, as the Reggae icon grew bitter after his second and third albums did not do great numbers, which he attributed to a lack of promotion by the label.</p>
<p>The relationship between the parties ended after Tosh’s 1981 album <em>Wanted Dread & Alive</em>.</p>
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<p>According to a 1973 Rolling Stone Magazine article, about The Rolling Stones’ Goat Head Soup album, after completing the most intensive studio activity of their ten-year recording career, the schedule for which they had to compress in order to finish up before Christmas, by “working sundown to sunup seven days a week during four weeks in November and December, “the Stones cut more than a dozen basic tracks at Dynamic Sounds Studio”, ahead of their month-long tour of Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong and Australia.</p>
<p>“Nobody has had any time to go sightseeing or shopping,” their manager Marshall Chess was quoted as saying. “Their only relaxation has been a few late afternoon hours by the pool at the Terra Nova, a palatial hotel that was formerly the family home of Chris Blackwell, founder of England’s Island Records, which brought Kingston Studios their current fame.”</p>
<p>Jagger had also laid out a pro and a con of recording in Jamaica, according to the article.</p>
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<p>“Finding something to eat has been a problem. We usually get up too late for lunch and too early for dinner. When we return from the studio it’s too early for breakfast,” he was quoted as saying.</p>
<p>“One of the benefits of recording away from home in an isolated place like Jamaica is there are no distractions. We can work without interruptions and that is what we have been doing,” he added.</p>
<p>Three Jamaican musicians played on the album, which according to Rolling Stones, a Jamaican conga and timbales player and Ian Stewart, long-time friend and road manager, on piano.</p>
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<p>Byron Lee had told the magazine at the time that he had completed his new Studio B just in time for The Rolling Stones, and had also sourced specific equipment they requested: “a grand piano and Hammond B3 organ, as well as special microphones and headphones, which Jamaican musicians never use in the studio)–an investment of nearly $100,000”.</p>
<p>Jagger has kept abreast of Jamaican music over the years. On two occasions, a few years ago, he not only named his top 10 Reggae songs, but also stated that Vybz Kartel was his favourite ‘rapper’.</p>
<p>He told Far Out Magazine, at the time that <em>Get Up, Stand Up, No More Trouble</em> and <em>War</em> by Bob Marley were in his top 10.</p>
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<p>In addition, Toots and The Maytals’<em> 54-46, </em>War Ina Babylon by Max Romeo; Marcus Garvey by Burning Spear; and You Don’t Love Me (No, No, No) by Dawn Penn, were among his favourites, in addition to Peter Tosh’s <em>Pick Myself Up</em> Gregory Isaacs’ <em>Cream of the Crop</em>; Brethren And Sistren by The Viceroys), Writing on The Wall by Ronnie Davis and Tenor Saw’s legendary Dancehall hit <em>Ring the Alarm</em>.</p>
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</div>The Evolution of Jamaican Music – REGGAEhttps://caribshout.com/blog/the-evolution-of-jamaican-music-reggae2021-11-22T12:28:12.000Z2021-11-22T12:28:12.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9832443266,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9832443266,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="9832443266?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.caribbeannationalweekly.com/entertainment/the-evolution-of-jamaican-music-from-revivalism-to-reggae/">Part II: The Evolution of Jamaican Music: From Revivalism to Reggae</a></p>
<p>In the late 1960s, Jamaica was blessed with a variety of talented musicians and singers who experimented with and blended different beats of music and recorded their musical renditions at local recording studios like Dynamic Sounds and Treasure Isle.</p>
<p>So, while rocksteady, with its smooth rhythmic beat and melodious lyrics and sound, took over from the more pulsating and energetic sound of ska in 1967, by 1969 another new energetic beat was already replaying the rocksteady genre. The new beat would become the phenomenal genre of reggae.</p>
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<p>There is no definitive account of where the name reggae originated from. One account is that it emerged from a 1968 single, “Do the Reggay” by the group Toots and the Maytals. Another account claims the late reggae icon Bob Marley said the word <em>reggae</em> came from a Spanish term for “the king’s music.” This could have some accuracy as in Latin the word regi means “to the king.”</p>
<p>Whatever the source of the name, the fact is that within a short time the new genre reggae became king on Jamaica’s musical scene.</p>
<p>Reggae had a distinctive sound, heavy on the beat of the guitar and piano (or keyboard), and a collaboration of the traditional Jamaican musical genres of mento, ska, and American jazz and rhythm and blues.</p>
<p>Like its predecessor, ska, reggae when played immediately summoned people to the dance floor. In Jamaica, reggae had a similar effect on the local population as calypso had on the population of Trinidad. </p>
<p>And if one wasn’t dancing to reggae, the new genre, like calypso, evoked great satisfaction as the lyrics in several reggae songs performed by artists like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, the Third World Band, and others, were strong social commentaries that served to motivate people who were then marginalized, giving hope for their upward social mobility.</p>
<p>Somehow, reggae attracted singers, men and women, who were affiliated, or yearned to be affiliated to the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica, which created a societal conundrum in the late 1960s to early 1970s, as some uptown Jamaicans tended to turn up their noses, not so much at the music, but the artists rendering the sound, but the music grew to so much in popularity that the societal biases was eventually removed.<a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9832443867,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9832443867,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="512" alt="9832443867?profile=RESIZE_584x" /></a></p>
<p>There is little doubt that the music and lyrics of reggae orchestrated change in the Jamaican society in the 1970s—something quickly identified by the emerging populist leaders like Michael Manley and Edward Seaga in the 1970s. Manley came to power in 1972, riding on the rhythm of a popular reggae hit, “Better Must Come” by Delroy Wilson, which he chose as the People National Party’s campaign song, and for later campaigns, the hit, “My Leader Born Ya” boasting his Jamaican roots compared to his rival Seaga’s U.S. birth. Also, in the mid-1970s, when political violence threatened to destabilize the country, Manley turned to reggae for a solution and sought Bob Marley and several other reggae artists to perform in the legendary Peace Concert held at the National Stadium in Kingston.</p>
<p>And, Seaga who had a keen understanding of Jamaican music and musicians, and the impact of the music on the lives of impoverished Jamaicans, used reggae and other forms of traditional Jamaican music to bind him and his politics to the Jamaican working class.</p>
<p>Although reggae has had great singers like Marley, Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Gregory Issacs, Dennis Brown, among others, it also produced great musicians. These included bass guitarists like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlton_Barrett">Carlton Barrett</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley_and_the_Wailers">Bob Marley and the Wailers</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Brevett">Lloyd Brevett</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skatalites">The Skatalites</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lloyd_Knibb">Lloyd Knibb</a> from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Skatalites">The Skatalites</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Grennan">Winston Grennan</a>, Sly Dunbar, Anthony “Benbow” Creary from The Upsetters, and from Ritchie Daley of Third World. Several reggae sounds also featured organ shuffle sound mastered by keyboard artists like Jackie Mittoo and Winston Wright.</p>
<p><strong>Emergence in Jamaica</strong> </p>
<p>Reggae began to take over from ska in the late 1960s with hits like Larry And Alvin’s “Nanny Goat.” the Beltones’ “No More Heartaches,” and Lee “Scratch” Perry’s “People Funny Bwoy.” But, the music had also spread overseas with the legendary English group The Beatles recording the hit “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” with a distinct reggae beat.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wailers_(1963%E2%80%931974_band)">The Wailers</a>, with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, grew in popularity, and emerged from the rocksteady era in association with Lee Perry’s studio artistry with early reggae hits like “Duppy Conqueror” and “Small Axe.” The Wailers remained strong on the Jamaican reggae scene and in collaboration with Englishman Chris Blackwell’s Island Records, broke reggae firmly on the international scene with the first reggae album “Catch A Fire” in 1972. The Wailers went on to release more great hits like “Put it On,” “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot The Sheriff,” which was also covered by British singer Eric Clapton. In 1974 the group produced another classic album, <em>Natty Dread</em>, released in 1975, featuring hits like “Talking Blues,” “No Woman, No Cry” and “Rebel Music.”</p>
<p>The group split in 1975, with Tosh going solo, and became known as Bob Marley and the Wailers, with the background harmony provided by the female trio—The I-Threes (Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt, and Marcia Griffiths). </p>
<p>Tosh became a legend in his own night with hits like “Buckingham Palace,” “Legalize It” and “Momma Africa,” while Marley rose to iconic reggae status with hit after hit including, “Crazy Baldhead,” “Who The Cap Fit,” “War,” “One Love,” “Redemption Song,” “Exodus,” and later shortly before his death in 1981, reggae love songs like “Waiting in Vain,” and “Is This Love.”</p>
<p>There are too many outstanding reggae artists to include in this limited space, but special mention must be made of the Third World Band that emerged in the mid-1970s with a distinctive, very professional reggae sound produced by a talented group including, Ritchie Daley, Steven “Cat” Coore, Michael “Ibo” Cooper, Irvin “Carrot: Jarett, Willie Stewart (renowned drummer now stationed in South Florida), and vocalist Bunny Rugs. The groups many hits like, “Now That We’ve Found Love,” “96 Degrees In The Shade,” and “Try Jah Love” were intensely popular in Jamaica and globally. The band is still playing currently.</p>
<p><strong>International popularity</strong></p>
<p><strong> </strong>One of the reasons for the lasting popularity of the genre is its influence internationally. Several international artists had Reggae hits. These artists included First Three Dog Night’s cover of the Maytones’ hit “Black and White in” 1972; Johnny Nash’s hit, “I Can See Clearly Now” and Paul Simon’s “Mother and Child Reunion” also in 1972. </p>
<p>Reggae’s international influence would spread in 1973 onwards with the movie “The Harder They Come” starring Jamaican singer turned actor Jimmy Cliff. The movie was shown in theaters around the world, introducing Jamaican culture, specifically reggae.</p>
<p>Over the years, reggae has grown in popularity in countries like Japan, England, Germany, the U.S., and several African countries, and spawned a hybrid sound called reggaeton with the Latin beat in Latin America.</p>
<p>A powerful indication of the international influence of reggae was that in 1985 the Grammy Awards introduced the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Reggae_Album">Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album</a> category.</p>
<p>In February 2008, then-Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding sanctioned February as Reggae Month in Jamaica, and in February 2008 the Recording Industry Association of Jamaica also staged its first Reggae Academy Awards.</p>
<p>In November 2018, remarkably, the genre was added to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO">UNESCO</a>‘s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO_Intangible_Cultural_Heritage_Lists">Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity</a>, recognizing that reggae’s “contribution to international discourse on issues of injustice, resistance, love, and humanity underscores the dynamics of the element as being at once cerebral, socio-political, sensual and spiritual.”</p>
<div class="td-a-rec td-a-rec-id-content_bottom td_uid_3_619b8a41ba79a_rand td_block_template_1"> </div></div>From Revivalism to Reggae: The Evolution of Jamaican Music and Dance. Part 1https://caribshout.com/blog/from-revivalism-to-reggae-the-evolution-of-jamaican-music-and-dan2021-10-20T13:37:40.000Z2021-10-20T13:37:40.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9718524657,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9718524657,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" alt="9718524657?profile=RESIZE_400x" /></a></p>
<p>Jamaica is traditionally described as the “land of wood and water,” but that description would be more accurate, as the “the land of wood, water and music.”</p>
<p>Music, and dance, have been a part of Jamaica’s history dating back to slavery—serving as expressions of faith, hope, resistance, love, romance, and national pride. Over the years, Jamaican music has evolved from its traditional roots that included gospel, pocomania, quadrill, dinki mini, and Zion revival music. Influenced by the African culture from which enslaved people in Jamaica originated, the music throughout the early years featured heavy use of drums, and wind instruments like bamboo flutes.</p>
<p>As the slaves grew emboldened to seek emancipation from the British colonial masters, and influenced by visiting Christian evangelists, Revivalism grew into not just an appeal to a higher power, but into a movement characterized by passionate, pulsating revival music and dance.</p>
<p>The Revival ritual involves singing, drumming, dancing, hand-clapping, foot-stomping, and groaning along with the use of prayers to invite spiritual possession. It also includes music and songs from orthodox religion. Revivalism still exists in Jamaica, found chiefly in the parishes of Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Catherine, St. Elizabeth and St. Ann.</p>
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<p>After emancipation in the 1860s, another genre of music evolved out of, and side by side with, Revivalism. This genre was called mento—a fusion of African and British influences, which was played liberally during the plantation period providing much-needed entertainment and relief for mostly rural Jamaicans toiling under colonialism.</p>
<h4><strong>Rhythms of Mento</strong></h4>
<p>Mento music placed a strong emphasis on a rhythm created by the combination of drums, banjo guitars, flutes, and horns. </p>
<p>Mento is described as having a “performance mode with a rhythmic impulse, with a response type of singing that is African in origin, while the scale patterns, harmonic concepts, and verse and chorus song types are British.” But, when performed, it was quintessentially Jamaican.</p>
<p>Mento is regarded in some circles as the Jamaican equivalent to calypso. While some of the songs were aired regularly, others were banned as they were thought to be too sexually explicit. Mento was first recorded by artistes such as Lord Flea and Lord Fly and ‘Sugar Belly’ Walker. In the 1960s and early 70s, one of Jamaica’s more popular dance bands, Carlos Malcolm and the Troubadours, featured mento heavily in its repertoire. Among the band’s greatest hits was ‘Rukumbine’ a distinctively mento song with sexual overtones.</p>
<p>In the 1950s and early 60s, the music in Jamaica took on a more populist form. Sound system like Dule Reid and Coxones emerged and played to large enthusiastic audiences and dancers at venues like the Silver Slipper Club in Cross Roads, and Chocomo Lawn on North Street in Kingston. But like music played on local radio Station RJR, and then JBC from 1959, it was mainly foreign in origin.</p>
<p>In the late 1950s, more young Jamaicans emerged as singers and musicians and began recording their music. Around this time a young politician of Lebanese descent, Edward Seaga, who developed a keen interest in Jamaican music and artists, established a modern recording studio that released early recordings of ‘blues’ artists like Higgs and Wilson and the Blues Busters, and a new, extremely popular band, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires. In 1962, Seaga sold the company to Byron Lee, who renamed it Dynamic Sounds which would grow in influence to the development of Jamaican music to be regarded as Jamaica’s Motown. </p>
<p>The explosion of singers, musicians and recording studios in Jamaica in the late 50s produced a new Jamaican musical genre – Ska. </p>
<h4><strong>The birth of Ska</strong></h4>
<p>Ska, a combined musical element of mento and calypso with some infusion of American jazz and rhythm and blues, featuring a strong bass line with upbeat rhythms from guitar, saxophone and even the piano, or keyboard. </p>
<p>In the early 1960s ska was insanely popular and was the dominant music genre for Jamaicans of all classes. The music was definitely made for dancing. Bands like Byron Lee and the Dragonaires, and the Skatalities, pulled large crowds wherever they played. One of the more popular clubs to dance the ska was the Glass Bucket Club on Half-Way-Tree Road in St. Andrew, where Jamaicans, including many overseas visitors, came to dance the ska; bending low, swinging their arms upwards and downwards, side by side, backwards and forward, while lifting their legs bent at the knees alternatively to the beat.</p>
<p>Traditional ska bands like the Skatalites featured bass, drums, guitars, keyboards, horns with sax, trombone and trumpet being most common. Individual members of the Skatalites like Don Drummond on trombone, and Jackie Mittoo on keyboards stood out as outstanding ska artists.</p>
<p>The lyrics of ska were often about the prevailing socio-economic commentaries of the less privileged in the society at the time. Popular songs of the ska era included Count Ossie’s “Oh Carolina,” Prince Buster’s “It’s Burke Law” and Desmond Keer and the Aces, “Shanty Town.”</p>
<p>The music and dance were so popular that two Jamaican dancers, Ronnie Nassralla, who died recently, and his partner Jeanette Phillips were invited to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City, along with acclaimed Jamaican musicians, where they performed this new Jamaican dance to great acclaim.</p>
<p>Ska hits popularized by Jamaican artists like Prince Buster, Stranger Cole, Toots and the Maytals, Desmond Dekker, and Deryck Morgan got heavy airplay on Jamaican radio. When JBC-TV went live in 1963, some local entertainment programs featured ska bands and dancers.</p>
<p>Ska gradually gained popularity overseas, especially in Jamaican diaspora communities in the U.S., UK and Canada. It was the first real exposure of Jamaican music to the rest of the world.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, ska set a musical standard for genres that followed it such as rocksteady, reggae and dancehall. With ska, Jamaican music secured its niche, replacing American rock and roll and R&B as the main attraction at Jamaican clubs and house parties. </p></div>Triple S: Spice, Sean and Shaggyhttps://caribshout.com/blog/triple-s-spice-sean-and-shaggy2021-05-28T12:59:56.000Z2021-05-28T12:59:56.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lZizLbWxr_E" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>The biggest dance craze across the world, Go Down Deh has spawned multiple choreographed videos all over YouTube. Another hit from Jamaica's hottest Reggae and Dancehall Stars.</p></div>Beres Hammond - Love From a Distancehttps://caribshout.com/blog/beres-hammond-love-from-a-distance2021-03-01T14:02:27.000Z2021-03-01T14:02:27.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1ms3ihZ2xPs" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>Beres Hammond performed in a live virtual concert from Harmony House studos in Kingston, Jamaica. A virtuoso performane from the Reggae Icon you will watch over and over again. Beres performed hit after hit and had had some special guests who underscored the richness of Jamaican music. I watched it live and it was simply on fire!!!!!!</p></div>Stephen Marley - Bob Marley 75th Celebrationhttps://caribshout.com/blog/stephen-marley-bob-marley-75th-celebration2021-02-16T15:08:03.000Z2021-02-16T15:08:03.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sJfk-4fs5Us" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p></div>Maluma - 7 Days in Jamaica.https://caribshout.com/blog/maluna-7-days-in-jamaica2021-02-10T00:52:10.000Z2021-02-10T00:52:10.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_zUlf_BeY38" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p></div>Maluma’s Jamaican Co-Star: Davina Bennett in ‘#7DJ’https://caribshout.com/blog/meet-maluma-s-jamaican-co-star-davina-bennett-rocks-locks-and-car2021-02-10T00:31:38.000Z2021-02-10T00:31:38.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p>
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<p>When former Miss Jamaica Davina Bennett landed the part as the love interest in a Maluma music video, she thought she’d be taping a regular four-minute music video. Instead, she was cast as the Colombian star’s muse in #7DJ (Siete Días en Jamaica – Seven Days in Jamaica), companion film to the seven-song EP of the same name that tracks Maluma’s trip to Jamaica, in search of a spiritual rebirth.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And Bennett’s role became something far more significant than mere screen time or high-profile exposure.</p>
<p>“There are other music videos, but few consider, ‘Let us merge cultures, let us merge Black and white,'" says the 2017 Miss Universe runner-up. "To see Latin, reggae, dancehall, Black and white come together and create something epic like this is a whole other level." </p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_zUlf_BeY38" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><br /> For Bennett, proudly representing Caribbean and Black culture is not new. In 2017, she made headlines when she took the stage at the Miss Universe pageant with an afro, her natural hair, becoming the first Black woman to be crowned among the top three to do so. In “7 Días,” she wears dreadlocks, emblematic of Jamaica, and is a constant player in a visual work that went to great lengths to stay true to the island’s roots and traditions.</p>
<p>“She’s not just beautiful, but a big ambassador of her own culture,” says Maluma.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8536729092,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8536729092,RESIZE_584x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="8536729092?profile=RESIZE_584x" width="450" /></a>Davina Bennett and Maluma<br /> Phraa<br /> Bennett spoke to Billboard about the significance of Black presence in a Latin music video, especially coinciding with Black History Month. “I hope we become a domino for others to follow,” she says.</p>
<p><br /> I’m making an effort to think of videos where you have a white Latin superstar with a beautiful Black woman as the model, and I can’t think of many…</p>
<p>I’ve never seen it. I think that’s why social media is eating it up. It’s an immense sense of pride. It’s also very overwhelming, because sometimes I think, "Is this real?" I’ve been in this position once before, representing Jamaica in Miss Universe, and being the first woman to rock my Afro -- and that was a big thing for my country, and for Afro and brown girls. To be in the same position, rocking another hair style and showing unity between two countries and two cultures… I don’t have words to express it.</p>
<p>You’re opening a big door. It’s amazing there haven’t been more instances, right?<br /> It feels the same as when I did Miss Universe. This pageant is over 60 years [of history] and you’re telling me there has never been a Black woman with an Afro in the top three? And there are other music videos, and they have never considered: Let us merge cultures, let us merge Black and white. It’s mind blowing. But, someone has to do it first. Someone has to be the first domino on that table.</p>
<p><br /> READ MORE<br /> Every Song on Maluma's '#7DJ (7 Días En Jamaica)' Ranked: Critic's Picks<br /> The album is called 7 Días In Jamaica, and it truly is an homage to Jamaica, showing so much of the island. Did it surprise you to see how prominently Jamaica is featured?</p>
<p>What makes it even better for me is there’s the combination of two cultures: Latin from Colombia and reggaetón and dancehall from Jamaica, and that makes it even greater. Maluma incorporates people like Ziggy Marley, Charly Black. For you to not just come to our country, but also use Jamaican creatives, a Jamaican girl, Jamaican artists -- it’s not cultural appropriation, but literally paying homage. It’s not, “I’m coming to your island, taking credit and leaving.” It’s about us. It goes in-depth in terms of our culture, how we portray ourselves. Even down to the drink we have in our hand, Red Stripe, is unique to the Caribbean. </p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8536727859,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8536727859,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="8536727859?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="600" /></a>Davina Bennett<br /> Eve Harlowe</p>
<p>Your hairdos are incredible. Tell me about them?</p>
<p>We decided to do locks [dreadlocks], which is a great representation. We are Rastafarian. Mellisa Dawkins, my hair stylist, would come up with these ideas on the spot. This woman just transformed each look into something amazing. It was such a great representation in my country. Locks are discriminated [against] in many places. And to show locks can be styled, they can be elegant, flirty -- it’s something I’m extremely proud of.</p>
<p>There was a highly publicized case of locks and discrimination in Jamaica recently, right?</p>
<p><br /> Last year there was a discrimination case in Jamaica, because a little girl went to school with her locks and she was sent home. This is a big slap in the face. We are known for our locks. If you’re going to send a girl home for wearing locks, you might as well spit on us. So to be able to be on a [major] platform and use locks is a big deal, not just as a Jamaican woman but as a Caribbean woman. I hope this will tell people: “It’s not OK to discriminate against natural hair.” Because it is natural hair. And it’s a disgrace that today you would tell someone you can’t wear your hair like that.</p>
<p>Normally, how do you prefer to wear your hair?</p>
<p>Afro. It’s more relaxed. I’m someone who doesn’t comb her hair every day. So my Afro is my every day hairstyle.</p>
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<p>Ky-Mani Marley, Davina Bennett, Julian Marley & Rohan Marley<br /> Courtesy of Davina Bennett</p>
<p>You also shot in Colombia, in Medellín, but also in Barú, a beautiful beach close to Cartagena. How was that experience?</p>
<p>I’ve never experienced anything quite like that, where they appreciate Black beauty [to that degree]. It had nothing to do with being Miss Jamaica. In Barú, people would walk up to me and say, “We have the same skin. We’re family. We don’t even speak the same language, and just because of our skin there’s a connection.” I was in awe of the fact that these people were appreciative of who I am, my beauty and my color.</p>
<p>Did you talk to Maluma about these things?</p>
<p><br /> I asked Maluma why he decided to do Jamaica. And he said, "Our cultures are so similar. There is a lot of diversity in Colombia. Our cultures intertwine." He just wanted to connect the two. And it’s amazing someone as big as Maluma can come to small Jamaica and find the uniqueness and the things that make us one. To be able to create an entire album paying homage to that is an iconic and very brave move. And it was executed in a way that both sides should be very proud of. I am, anyway. It’s a white guy from Colombia falling in love with a Jamaican woman with dreadlocks.</p>
<p>How did you meet Maluma?</p>
<p>I first met him in Jamaica. I was a little bit nervous. But I think it’s because I had to kiss him. It was in the script. I thought, "Oh Lord." I don’t want to make a fool of myself. But, yes he’s a very good kisser. And the kissing scene was quite a delight.</p>
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<div style="right:0;width:86px;height:250px;"> </div></div>The Evolution of Reggae: Are Jamaica’s Biggest Stars Leaving Reggae Behind or To The Next Level?https://caribshout.com/blog/the-evolution-of-reggae-are-jamaica-s-biggest-stars-leaving-regga2020-12-31T17:30:06.000Z2020-12-31T17:30:06.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8369905298,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8369905298,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="8369905298?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Photo via (L-R): Fernando Hevia; Yannick Reid; Sameel "samo Kush I" Johnson
By: Patrice Meschino - Daily Beast
<p>Jamaica’s first reggae radio station, IRIE FM, debuted on the island’s airwaves in August 1990. In Jamaican Rastafarian parlance, “irie” means good, cool, nice, and the station utilized a simple jingle to announce its content: “Reggae in the morning, reggae in the evening, reggae at nighttime on IRIE FM.” Thirty years on, IRIE still plays the original jingle. But it’s no longer quite true.</p>
<p>Some of the biggest stars featured on IRIE FM are playing a hybrid style that would’ve been unrecognizable as reggae when the station began. To many fans, it’s unrecognizable now. The new sound of Jamaica owes as much to trap, EDM, Afrobeat, and contemporary R&B as it does to dancehall or the original roots of reggae. It’s a style that doesn’t have a name yet, at least not one that’s stuck (although it’s sometimes referred to as trap dancehall) and you can hear it all over Jamaica.</p>
<p>“Reggae and dancehall continue to influence and contribute to the birth of various genres, as we’ve seen with hip hop, reggaeton and tropical house; now we are experiencing the birth of trap dancehall. Listeners to IRIE hear reggae and dancehall but also their offspring in a bid to further propel the art forms,” comments Kshema Francis of IRIE FM.</p>
<p>Three marquee names—Tarrus Riley, Protoje, and Dre Island—released outstanding albums this year that embody this evolutionary sound. All have incorporated influences and teachings from their Rastafari way of life, yet numerous tracks on their new albums bear little resemblance to the reggae of a generation ago. “I love the authentic reggae and dancehall sounds, but there are mixtures of other influences within those sounds,” Tarrus Riley, whose album <em>Healing</em> dropped on Aug. 28, told The Daily Beast in a recent Zoom interview.</p>
<p>Tarrus, 41, is an unlikely poster child for this new movement. He ascended to reggae stardom in 2006 with “She’s Royal,” a beautiful roots tribute to women and one of the decade’s most popular Jamaican singles. Tarrus’s breakthrough was part of the ‘00s mid-decade resurgence in roots reggae. Another roots movement appeared in Jamaica in the early 2010s, referred to as the Reggae Revival, which saw the emergence of several charismatic young talents including Chronixx, Jah9, Jesse Royal, and Kabaka Pyramid. Tarrus sees himself as the middle child in the reggae family.</p>
<p>“<a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/buju-banton-walks-like-a-champion-with-long-walk-to-freedom-concert-in-jamaica" target="_blank">Buju [Banton]</a> and Sizzla were before me in the 1990s and Chronixx is after me so, I understand the roots and I understand the youths,” he explains. “When I was young, me and my father (the late Jimmy Riley whose singing career began in Jamaica’s mid-’60s rocksteady era) never liked the same music. It’s a new decade now, new things are happening so while the people from before want to hold on to music that had its time, the youths want to give you something new.”</p>
<p>Tarrus’ impressive catalogue showcases his finely tuned expressive vocals, which are adaptable to a range of styles from soft rock (“Jah Will”) to traditional Rastafarian Nyabinghi drumming (“Lion Paw”) to energetic dancehall (“Good Girl Gone Bad”). Then there’s the EDM power ballad “Powerful,” a certified gold single produced by Major Lazer, featuring Tarrus and Ellie Goulding.</p>
<p>Jamaica went into its coronavirus lockdown in late March. Tarrus abruptly ended his touring, returned home, and began writing and recording the songs that would become <em>Healing,</em> produced by Tarrus with co-production by Shane Brown and legendary saxophonist Dean Fraser.</p>
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<p>Several tracks offer what Tarrus calls “experimental sounds”: over spatial dub and trap effects, Tarrus and rising trap dancehall artist Teejay trade quickly rhymed bursts referencing current racial and political sparring on “Babylon Warfare.” “Connect Again” with dancehall star Konshens anticipates a post-quarantine world and offers trap with a subtle reggae reverb while the spiritually fortifying “My Fire” (featuring singer Dexta Daps) is quintessential trap-R&B. The album’s biggest hit “Lighter” blends trap, EDM and dancehall into a catchy pop nugget, featuring female dancehall powerhouse Shenseea and is produced by (Jamaica born) Rvssian, well-known for his dancehall hits and Latin trap and reggaeton international chart toppers<em>.</em> The “Lighter” video has received over 32 million YouTube views since its release on Sept. 6. A fearless creative, Tarrus says the only thing to expect from his music is empowering messages.</p>
<p>“Don’t watch the tempo,” he cautions, “because I like doing new things. People are concerned with names, labels, trap, rap, hip-hop, dancehall, I can’t bother with them things. I have always been doing different kinds of sounds and I will continue. Music is going through a change right now, people are blending and fusing, everybody wants to call it a name, but I just call it good music.”</p>
<p>Reggae, like its direct Jamaican forerunners, ska and rocksteady, is an amalgam sound. In the late 1950s the ska beat was developed in Kingston recording studios by singers and musicians influenced by American doo wop, early rock and roll, gospel, rhythm and blues as well as Jamaica’s mento and Trinidad’s calypso. Rocksteady followed in 1966 with a slower tempo that allowed vocalists to fully showcase their talents while the basslines grew steadier and more pronounced. In 1968, the drum and bass led a faster, more complex rhythm called reggae. Experimentation on reggae tracks by Jamaican engineers and producers led to the birth of dub shortly thereafter. Dancehall reggae, reggae’s digitized strain, was created in 1984.</p>
<p>Over the decades, reggae has undergone organic stylistic changes and intentional adaptations aimed at reaching wider audiences. Island Records founder Chris Blackwell strategized marketing The Wailers’ 1973 <em>Catch A Fire</em> as a rock album, overdubbing guitar riffs and keyboard flourishes on the trio’s Jamaican recordings. Seeking to connect with an African American audience Bob Marley incorporated disco influences on his 1980 single “Could You Be Loved.” Esteemed rhythm section and production duo Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare brought the aggressiveness of the rock influences they absorbed while touring as members of Peter Tosh’s band opening for Santana and The Rolling Stones.</p>
<p>“As we did a couple of tours with these rock bands, we were wondering, how can we get that power, that energy, behind the reggae groove?” Dunbar told The Daily Beast. “So Robbie and I changed the sound of what we were playing, it was reggae but with a different attitude. The first experiment was (vocal trio) Black Uhuru, one of their first songs was “Shine Eye Gal” and people were like what is this?”</p>
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<p>Sly and Robbie’s modernizations earned widespread attention, yet some protested they were changing the music too much. In the 21st century their sonic advances continue to inspire another generation of artists and producers. Stephen and Damian Marley sampled Sly and Robbie’s production of singer Ini Kamoze’s “World-A-Music” for Damian’s 2005 Grammy winning blockbuster “Welcome to Jamrock,” a profoundly influential consolidation of hip-hop, dancehall and reggae elements. In 2012, Protoje, deeply inspired by Marley’s “Jamrock,” sampled Kamoze for his provocative hit “Kingston Be Wise,” written about the Jamaica Defense Force’s incursion into the city’s Tivoli Gardens community in search of wanted drug lord Christopher “Dudus” Coke, which resulted in an estimated 100 deaths.</p>
<p>Earlier this year Protoje sampled another Sly and Robbie rhythm for his production of singer Lila Ike’s single “Thy Will.” “Sly personally sent me the Baltimore riddim,” Protoje shared with The Daily Beast via Zoom, “and he told me, I love how you sample and lick over these riddims but now I want you to add something and move it forward.”</p>
<p>Protoje, 39, was born Oje Ken Ollivierre, the son of Jamaican lawyer (and former singer) Lorna Bennett and Mike Ollivierre, a former calypso king from St. Vincent. He was a core member of the Reggae Revival movement of the 2010s; since his initial impact on Jamaican music with the 2011 single “Rasta Love,” delivered in his mesmeric spoken/sung/patois-rapped vocals, Protoje has made tremendous strides in moving the island’s industry forward. He has signed three young female singers (<a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/jamaican-reggae-star-lila-ike-on-why-her-songs-of-survival-and-resistance-hit-home-in-america" target="_blank">Lila Iké</a>, Sevana and most recently Jaz Elise) to his Kingston based label In.Digg.Nation Collective and made history as the first Jamaican artist to have his label contracted to an American major, RCA Records. <em>In Search of Lost Time</em>, released on August 28, is his premiere album through that deal. Throughout the album’s 10 tracks, Protoje’s broad based influences including classic dub, 80s dancehall, grunge guitars, trap, hip hop, and electronica are intricately woven into a multi-layered sonic.</p>
<p>The album opens with “<a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgU8WNkP7LE&ab_channel=ProtojeVEVO" target="_blank">Switch It Up</a>,” blurring hip hop, R&B and a touch of roots, as Protoje and 20-year-old Jamaican sensation Koffee (who cites Protoje as a significant career influence) impressively change their flows, singing together then trading blistering verses. Incorporating a mash up of classic dancehall and hip-hop, Protoje reimagines the 1991 hit “Strange” by veteran Papa San into “Strange Happenings.” “Weed & Ting” is an unexpected take on a ganja song that also muses on life’s blessings and is set to a transcendent trap-one drop reggae fusion; the album’s other marijuana tune, “A Vibe,” featuring Wiz Khalifa, is straight up trap. Protoje wrote the motivational “<a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFxyPB_LcBA&ab_channel=ProtojeVEVO" target="_blank">Like Royalty</a>” (featuring dancehall superstar Popcaan) after attending the 2019 Grammy Awards (he was nominated for Best Reggae Album for <em>A Matter of Time</em>); wreathed in hip hop, funk and soul, the song’s complex patois rhymes acknowledge the sacrifices made by a few close friends and especially his mother to advance his career.</p>
<p>Working alongside a stellar cast of Jamaican producers including Iotosh Poyser, Supa Dups, Ziah Roberts, Natural High, The Grei Show, Stephen McGregor and longstanding collaborator Winta James, Protoje incorporates live instrumentation, samples, dub reverbs and various effects into a sophisticated tableau that’s beyond genre classification yet retains many distinctive Jamaican elements: the heavy reggae bassline and signature Wailers’ percussion on “Deliverance;” a bassline sampled from renowned (British) dub producer/engineer Mad Professor on “Still I Wonder” and a sample of veteran singer Freddie McGregor’s “I’m A Revolutionist,” that’s flipped into the sultry neo-soul influenced love song, “In Bloom,” featuring Lila Iké.</p>
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<p>“When Bob Marley dropped <em>Exodus </em>people probably said it wasn’t real reggae,” Protoje offered. (Recorded during Marley’s exile period in London, some critics balked 1977’s<em> Exodus </em>was unrelated to what was happening in Jamaica then, rather than applauding the album’s sonic innovations; <em>Exodus</em> was named Album of Century by <em>Time Magazine</em> in 1999.)</p>
<p><em>“</em>I always incorporate indigenous Jamaican elements, but music evolves, and our generation is responsible for what the sound is now. It’s the youths them me check for but me want the elders to respect my music. Freddie McGregor, Papa San, Sly, all them people say them a love what me a do so me nah listen to the others. I just keep making music how it sounds in my head.”</p>
<p>Dre Island’s debut album <em>Now I Rise</em> combines Rastafarian roots reggae’s denunciations of societal injustices underpinned by atmospheric genre-defying beats. Released in May, the <em>Now I Rise</em> <em>Deluxe Edition</em> dropped on July 24, with Dre writing, singing and producing most of the album’s 20 tracks. Born Andre Johnson, Dre, 32, is a classically trained pianist who worked as an engineer/producer before stepping in front of the mic. He made his initial impact with such singles as the jubilant “Rastafari Way” and the poignant commentary on the disparities between “Uptown/Downtown;” Dre’s fan base was further expanded through acoustic performance clips uploaded to the internet and posted on social media showcasing his keyboard expertise and raspy, emotive vocals. His biggest hit to date “We Pray,” featuring Popcaan, a widely embraced hymn of spiritual strength (its video has received over 32 million YouTube views) was released in 2017 and is included on <em>Now I Rise</em>.</p>
<p>Dre skillfully explores a range of styles including EDM (“More Love-Dub Fx Remix”) exuberant funk pop (“Four Seasons”) Afrobeats (“Calling”) and several trap-influenced tracks such as “Run to Me” featuring Alandon. Raised in the volatile Red Hills Road area of Kingston, it’s Dre’s gritty firsthand observations that provide the album’s most riveting moments. Over a hazy trap-inspired rhythm track, Dre’s melancholy, deeply affecting vocals on “My City” deliver a bittersweet love letter to Jamaica’s capital, “where politicians every day dem import a strap and dem no care about the issues weh the voters got.”</p>
<p>“Kingdom” was written in 2014 about the Tivoli Gardens incursion, its sparse martial beat underscores the lyrics’ galvanizing spiritual call to arms: “I was living in a community that was affected dearly by that, a lot of innocent youths died, so I approached the song as we Rasta coming forward with Jah message,” Dre recalled. Equally haunting and likewise rhythmically stark, “Still Remain” remarks on the continual gang war in Kingston’s Mountain View community: “shotta spray like how the fountain spew, your door police will squeeze round ten through, stand over three man and found them blue.”</p>
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<p>“Many artists speak on these kinds of things but because of where I come from, it’s only a few that strike it and let me see that harsh reality where me say, this is what really happen, him not lying,” Dre offers. “That’s why today I can say ‘it was all a dream, I used to read Word Up! Magazine,’” quoting lyrics from Biggie Smalls. “I felt I lived that too, Biggie. Biggie’s long gone in the flesh, but his soul will forever live on because he never lied, he struck in that reality. That’s what Bob Marley did too, he never tried to pretty it up: ‘man to man is so unjust you don’t know who to trust,” Dre adds, quoting from “Who The Cap Fit.” “Bob never tell no lie, that is exactly how it goes today, too.”</p>
<p>Wyclef Jean recruited Dre for the remix to his song “Justice” a tribute to slain jogger Ahmaud Arbery, then offered Dre the remix for <em>Now I Rise</em>. “Bang Your Head” pairs Dre’s mother’s wise encouraging words with producer Winta James’ futuristic EDM meets hip-hop infused rhythm. The impressively sweeping musical scope of <em>Now I Rise</em> won’t outwardly be identified as roots reggae although Dre’s impassioned delivery and provocative statements extend the music’s revolutionary spirit with a sonic update for a new generation. “I don’t watch genre because reggae is not a beat for I,” says Dre, who like Tarrus and Protoje resists categorizations. “Reggae is the music that Rasta use to deliver the message of His Majesty (Ethiopian Emperor, Rastafarian Savior Haile Selassie I) and as a Rastaman, I message say burn (condemn) division, burn segregation, we are one people: I say no race, no color, so how am I going to say genre? As long as the message is speaking righteousness and love to the people, then the music is reggae for I.”</p>
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<p><a class="link rapid-noclick-resp" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/are-jamaicas-biggest-stars-leaving-reggae-behind?source=articles&via=rss" target="_blank">Read more at The Daily Beast.</a></p></div>Lovers Rock gives life to the joyful Black history of blues partieshttps://caribshout.com/blog/lovers-rock-gives-life-to-the-joyful-black-history-of-blues-parti2020-11-30T20:15:14.000Z2020-11-30T20:15:14.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8233640893,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8233640893,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="620" alt="8233640893?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
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<div class="css-1qvfpal" style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:8pt;"><em><span class="css-l6t30p"><span class="css-nsq509">My mum disputes some details of McQueen’s retelling – notably the tactile dancing.’ Micheal Ward and Amarah-Jae St Aubyn (centre) in Lovers Rock. </span>Photograph: Parisa Taghizadeh/BBC/McQueen Limited</span></em></span></div>
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<div class="css-dcy86h" style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:8pt;"><em><label class="css-hn0k3p">Tue 24 Nov 2020 02.00 EST</label></em></span></div>
<div class="css-dcy86h">Story by: Micha Frazer-Carroll</div>
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<p class="css-38z03z"><span class="css-1r9pv9q"><span class="css-1ac5g5w">A</span></span><span class="css-38z03z">t the halfway mark of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/sep/17/lovers-rock-review-steve-mcqueen-small-axe">Lovers Rock</a>, the new Steve McQueen film set at a blues party in 1980, at least a hundred partygoers calmly sing an a capella song for five minutes straight. It is hypnotising and, like other moments in McQueen’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/nov/14/small-axe-the-black-british-culture-behind-steve-mcqueens-stunning-new-series">Small Axe</a> film series, which centres around British Caribbean communities in the 1960s to the 1980s, time feels momentarily like it has been<strong> </strong>stretched. Every person in that jam-packed room patiently sings the slow song from start to finish, and everyone knows the words: “But I’ve got no time to live this lie / No, I’ve got no time to play your silly games / Silly games!”</span></p>
<p class="css-38z03z">When the film aired on Sunday night on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/bbc">BBC</a>, watching the characters sing the 1979 hit Silly Games felt<strong> </strong>very<strong> </strong>close to home, in part because Janet Kay, who sings the song, happens to be my “auntie” – a lifelong friend of my mum’s, rather than a blood relative. Silly Games was therefore a staple of my childhood; when I was growing up, Auntie Kay could always be persuaded to sing her former chart success at any birthday, christening or holy communion.</p>
<p class="css-38z03z">The song was part of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/nov/23/could-steve-mcqueen-small-axe-spark-a-lovers-rock-revival">lovers rock</a> genre, the post-Windrush lovechild of reggae and soul born in 1970s Britain. Silly Games was a hit at family parties when I was growing up, but it was only when I was much older that I learned the song wasn’t just a cultural touchstone in my family – it was one of the most famous lovers rock singles in history. As an adult, I started to understand its reach: I would meet Caribbeans who had grown up in Manchester, Birmingham or Scotland who had all sung the song at their family parties, too – with everyone’s mum, uncle and auntie trying to hit the notoriously hard-to-reach high note at the end of the chorus. I grew up on fables about the blues parties my nanny hosted at her house</p>
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<p class="css-38z03z">Many Caribbeans remarked on social media that seeing such a cherished tradition on screen felt personal – as did the setting of a legendary blues party. Usually hosted in someone’s basement, blues parties sprung up in the 1970s as safe refuges from Britain’s racist clubbing scene. As McQueen depicts, they were a mixture of an underground rave and a house party –<strong> </strong>any cash that changed hands was generally just enough to cover the costs of the makeshift <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/may/31/recording-west-indian-music-history-manchester">shebeen</a>.<strong> </strong>Lovers rock music like Auntie Kay’s often provided the soundtrack to these ritualistic house parties, which were all about sensual slow dancing rather than blowing off steam to pop or disco.</p>
<p class="css-38z03z">I grew up on fables about the blues parties my nanny hosted at her house in Hackney, east London, and those at other people’s homes that my mum spent her teenage years and early twenties attending. It would all begin in the morning: the host would spend the day painstakingly clearing out rooms, cooking for guests and getting a mammoth sound system in. The speakers were of crucial importance – and, after the party kicked off at midnight or 1am, attendees could find the right address by following the vibrations that crept along the street.</p>
<p class="css-38z03z">Once people arrived at the house, they would have to pay a small fee to get in, but it was worth it to find the sounds, smells and flavours of the homesick blues: curry goat, Red Stripe, wallpaper dripping with sweat and a syncopated bass line blasting from an 8ft speaker. Blues parties were places of celebration and togetherness – and crucially, the only place you could hear reggae and lovers rock, except perhaps for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/23/reggae-dj-david-rodigan-my-name-was-adopted-by-a-kingston-gangster-hes-dead-now">David Rodigan</a>’s slot on Capital Radio.</p>
<p class="css-38z03z">Of course, Black spaces have always been threatened by forces outside our control. Blues parties eventually petered out, increasingly falling foul of the police due to noise complaints and licensing issues, while the mainstream clubbing scene opened up to Black audiences. By the late 1980s, they had come and gone – and today, their ghosts haunt areas like Dalston, which were once popular for blues parties but whose large basements are no longer home to Black families.</p>
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<p class="css-38z03z">My mum disputes some details of McQueen’s retelling – notably the accents and the tactile dancing: “The art was to dance as close as possible without touching,” she told me as the film progressed. Others felt that sometimes stereotypes got the better of McQueen, who was only 11 at the time of the story. But it seemed that the millennial generation of Caribbeans in particular relished the plunge into nostalgia;<strong> </strong>and for those who have grown up on the stories of their parents, it was perhaps validating to see a lifelike depiction of historical tradition deeply mythologised yet under-documented in British history.</p>
<p class="css-38z03z">While it may not be perfect, McQueen’s film is a solid contribution to the ongoing project of archiving our histories, which – although it is easy to forget – are characterised by joy as well as struggle. In fact, blues parties perfectly illustrate how the two were intrinsically intertwined. Emerging from an era of “no Blacks, no dogs, no Irish”, Caribbean people carved out meaningful underground spaces to dance their blues away. Although these parties are no longer, the blues spirit lives on in oral histories, in films like McQueen’s, and in a room full of aunties reaching for that high note at the end of Silly Games.</p>
<p class="css-38z03z">• Micha Frazer-Carroll is a columnist at the Independent</p>
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</div></div>From The Bahamas to Jamaica, The Talking Heads’ Caribbean Love Storyhttps://caribshout.com/blog/from-the-bahamas-to-jamaica-the-talking-heads-caribbean-love-stor2020-10-20T11:45:23.000Z2020-10-20T11:45:23.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8054074666,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8054074666,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="8054074666?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
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<p>Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz’s new book, <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209238">Remain in Love</a>, is a <em>billet-doux</em> to his bandmate and wife of more than 40 years, bassist Tina Weymouth, as well as documenting the couple’s musical journey together — first, as part of the most critically acclaimed New Wave band of the late 70s and early 80s, and later as co-founders of The Tom Tom Club, which topped the charts in 1981 with “Genius of Love.”</p>
<p>But there’s another ongoing love affair that Franz and Weymouth have been carrying on all these years, too, and that’s with the Caribbean — the Bahamas, in particular.</p>
<p>Talking Heads are sometimes described as a “world music” band, and Frantz’s introduction to Caribbean beats and rhythms began early: his parents had lived in Puerto Rico and traveled to the Virgin Islands and Trinidad, bringing home 78-rpm records of calypso and mambo songs that Frantz rediscovered as a young musician.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://3j0grh44ocny4a6kcn288izx-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/bahamas-talking-heads-jamaica-2-1024x832.jpg" alt="bahamas-talking-heads-jamaica-2-1024x832.jpg" />https://3j0grh44ocny4a6kcn288izx-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/bahamas-talking-heads-jamaica-2-768x624.jpg 768w, <a href="https://3j0grh44ocny4a6kcn288izx-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/bahamas-talking-heads-jamaica-2.jpg">https://3j0grh44ocny4a6kcn288izx-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/bahamas-talking-heads-jamaica-2.jpg</a> 1200w" alt="" width="1024" height="832" />
Chris Frantz writing at Compass Point in Nassau.
<p>When Jimmy Cliff helped introduce reggae to the United States with the 1972 film, <em>The Harder They Come</em>, it caught the attention of Frantz and Weymouth, who had recently met and fallen in love as students at the Rhode Island School of Design (where they also would meet Talking Heads singer David Byrne)</p>
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<div id="pa-unit-1" class="pa-unit-global pa-pl-2614">“Tina had this Plymouth Valiant that we drove up to Boston to see the movie, and we loved it so much that we immediately went and bought the album, and then went the next weekend to see the movie again,” said Frantz.</div>
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<p>As a drummer, Frantz — who counts The Mighty Sparrow, Toots and the Maytalls, and “Funky Nassau” performer Ray Munnings among his favorite Caribbean musicians — incorporated the syncopated beats of Caribbean music into his playing for Talking Heads, particularly after the band traveled to Nassau in 1978 to record their second album, <em>More Songs About Buildings and Food</em>, which included the hit song, “Take Me to the River.” The Brian Eno produced album was the first to be cut at Compass Point Studios, established by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell.</p>
<p>Everyone from AC/DC to David Bowie and the Rolling Stones would end up making albums at the studio, which operated from 1977 to 2010, but, “I think we recorded more albums there than any other artists,” said Frantz. In addition to Talking Heads’ <em>More Songs About Buildings and Food and </em>1980’s<em> Remain in Light and </em>1983’s<em> Speaking in Tongues,</em> Frantz and Weymouth utilized the studio on the west end of New Providence Island to make the first three Tom Tom Club albums.</p>
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<p>The Tom Tom Club was loosely inspired by Peanuts Taylor’s Drumbeat Club, a nightclub in downtown Nassau. The band included members of the Compass Point All Stars, the de facto house band at the Nassau studio.</p>
<p>Being in the orbit of Blackwell led to some interesting experiences — “We used to live in the same building as Sean Connery, but Joe Cocker kept coming into the driveway and yelling, ‘Sean, give us a drink,’ so he moved,” Frantz recalled — but also some remarkable collaborations, including with pianist Tyrone Downie of the Wailers, percussionist “Sticky” Thompson, keyboardist Wally Badarou, and King Crimson singer Adrian Belew, among others.</p>
<p>Frantz and Weymouth loved the Bahamas so much that they became part-time residents of Nassau. “We bought an apartment (near Compass Point) that we still have, and the roof still leaks,” said Frantz. “That’s part of life down there. We still go down there, and hope to do so again in the not too distant future” — post COVID, that is.</p>
<p>For years, the couple and their family also took extended trips through the Out Islands on their 48-foot sloop, <em>Katrinka</em>, helmed by Tina’s father, a former U.S. Navy vice admiral.</p>
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<div id="pa-unit-3" class="pa-unit-global pa-pl-2614">“The Bahamas are 700 islanders in the sun, and we loved to sail from Nassau to Staniel Cay in the Exumas, and to snorkel in the Thunderbolt grotto,” said Frantz, who also recounted day trips from Nassau to deserted Allen Cay to visit the iguanas and to Big Major Cay, home of the Bahamas’ famous swimming pigs.</div>
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<p>Other favorite stops include Lyford Cay, Cat Island, and out to the Exumas for the annual Family Island Regatta. “We had 22 years of bliss surrounded by a few hours of sheer terror,” laughed Frantz — a sentiment that will be familiar to anyone who sails.</p>
<p>Frantz and Weymouth’s Caribbean travels aren’t limited to the Bahamas: the couple traveled to Barbados in 1991 to produce an album with the British band Happy Mondays, explored the mountains of Jamaica during a stay at Blackwell’s Goldeneye hotel, and decamped to the legendary Oloffson Hotel in Port au Prince, Haiti on an art-buying trip.</p>
<p>Visitors to Nassau will find little trace of Compass Point Studios or the world-famous musicians who once inhabited its halls, but the vibrant <a href="http://www.compasspointbeachresort.com/">Compass Point Beach Resort</a> (originally founded by Blackwell and sometimes used by visiting stars) still welcomes guests to Love Beach and its popular beach bar. Frantz also is a fan of the <a href="https://nagb.org.bs/">National Art Gallery of the Bahamas</a>, located in downtown Nassau.</p>
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<div id="pa-unit-4" class="pa-unit-global pa-pl-2614">“A lot of people go to Paradise Island and stay at a big hotel,” said Frantz. “We never go to those places. We prefer the Out Island experience, and the west end of New Providence is like that.”</div>
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<p>“We love the easygoing, you-can’t-rush-life attitude of most people in the Caribbean,” Frantz added. “The people of the Bahamas are so happy to see you. It’s all about hospitality and equality’’</p>
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</div></div>The Interview: 'Every black man have to fight': Buju Banton on prison and liberationhttps://caribshout.com/blog/the-interview-every-black-man-have-to-fight-buju-banton-on-prison2020-07-02T23:37:38.000Z2020-07-02T23:37:38.000ZCaribShouthttps://caribshout.com/members/CaribShout<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}6536157869,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}6536157869,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="6536157869?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
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<p>Jamaica’s reggae megastar received a hero’s welcome when he came home after seven years in a US jail. ‘No guts, no glory – that’s my genesis,’ he says in a rare interview</p>
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<span class="inline-triangle inline-icon hide-until-tablet"> </span>Reggae’s elder statesman … Buju Banton. Photograph: Shawn Theodore
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<p><span class="drop-cap"><span class="drop-cap__inner">A</span></span>t the end of 2018, the <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/reggae">reggae</a> star Buju Banton returned to Jamaica after almost seven years in a US prison, and Norman Manley international airport was mobbed. His flight was delayed, the chants of “We want Buju” ramped up, then after a brief prayer huddle in the customs area, he pushed into the arrivals hall to pandemonium. It took a phalanx of hi-vis-wearing airport workers to hustle him through to the waiting police motorcade, a task not helped by the workers’ attempts to get selfies with their charge.</p>
<p>It was a hero’s welcome because, despite being convicted in the US of intention to distribute cocaine, Banton is a Jamaican hero. For his first post-prison concert, at Kingston’s National Stadium, about 30,000 people were packed in with many more enjoying it from outside.</p>
<p>The love Banton gets from the Jamaican people is the sort of deep cultural bond that goes way beyond his considerable achievements. <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.allmusic.com/artist/dennis-brown-mn0000242861/biography">Dennis Brown</a> had this relationship, as do <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.kingyellowman.com/">Yellowman</a> and <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/nov/12/usain-bolt-feel-good-because-know-done-it-clean">Usain Bolt</a>, because they represent and celebrate the Jamaica that doesn’t make it on to tourist-board literature – as Banton himself drily puts it, “without any redaction or Photoshopping”.</p>
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<h2 class="rich-link__title"><a class="rich-link__link">'Man is a king': controversial star Buju Banton comes home to Jamaica</a> </h2>
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<p>“I don’t know how many people turned out that night,” he says. “The numbers don’t really matter – it’s the celebration that matters, the gathering of the people. I love my people, they know that, just as I know my people love me – they know a grave injustice took place. There was a magnetic energy generated by the people in the National Stadium that night. If you had a meter you could have measured it!”</p>
<p>After two trials – the jury was unable to reach a verdict in the first – Banton was found guilty of illegal possession of a firearm and conspiracy to possess 11lb of cocaine with intent to distribute. He was sentenced to 10 years, reduced by two when the gun charge was dropped. The case rested on recordings made by a Drug Enforcement Administration informant who received $50,000 for his services; one video played to the court appeared to show Banton sampling the drug. He denied any involvement in any drug deal itself, maintaining it was all talk, and the prosecution accepted he had no financial involvement. But conspiracy <em>is</em> talk – it only needs somebody to be talking to somebody else about something illegal.</p>
<div class="u-responsive-ratio"><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><img class="gu-image" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/fa8f76f908dabb101cdc6073cb4c3b33d73a5a73/0_0_1024_1024/master/1024.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=bd503bc0124d1d3bacb3765fb48ecd3a" alt="The cover for Buju Banton’s new album, Upside Down 2020" /> Cover Art for new album</div>
<p>In the 18 months since his release, Banton has never talked about the conviction or his time in jail. When pushed, he calls it “an improvised hell” he got through by reading, meditating and reflecting on life – his own and in general. “Time and space is relative,” he says. “You have to shield your mind, and as a man of hope and a man of faith I can see the world is right there and I am right there, but can absent myself from the mundane existence.” He seems untouched by the experience, physically and mentally, the same amenable, generous and humorous person I have met on previous occasions.</p>
<p>He has long disavowed <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.vibe.com/2019/03/buju-banton-why-he-removed-boom-bye-bye-from-catalog">Boom Bye Bye</a>, the murderously homophobic single he wrote and recorded as a 16-year-old and which was released without his knowledge when he hit big. To remind people, he issued a statement on his release from prison: “I recognise that the song has caused much pain … I am determined to put this song in the past and continue moving forward as an artist and as a man. I affirm once and for all that everyone has the right to live as they so choose.”</p>
<p>Banton shares a background of extreme hardship with so many Jamaicans – “standpipe poverty”, he calls it, as the houses in his part of Kingston had no running water – but his particular affinity with his homeland is due also to his <a class="u-underline" href="http://www.discoveringbristol.org.uk/slavery/against-slavery/black-resistance-against-slavery/the-maroons-of-jamaica/">Maroon</a> ancestry. He can trace his roots back directly to the rebel coalition of runaway slaves and indigenous people who, in the 18th century, retreated to the mountainous interior and waged a 10-year campaign against the British. The Maroons’ guerrilla tactics were so successful that they were granted their own land and autonomy from colonial rule. Today the Maroons’ <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/feb/21/jamaica.accompong">Accompong village</a> remains apart from the government and plays a big part in the black Jamaican psyche: rebels who refused to bow down.</p>
<p>“My Maroon heritage is very important to I, because it kept I close to my roots and my origins,” Banton says. “I think about it every day. It kept me solid through the recent years, because I know how my people suffered long and they fought hard for freedom. It puts my struggles into perspective and shows why every black man have to fight.” In the grounds of his comfortable Kingston home, Banton has a circular Maroon hut. “The tabernacle! It’s built of thatch and wood and it’s a place of meditation and contemplation, a place appropriate to my roots and how I relate to the world.”</p>
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<p>On a more prosaic level, Banton’s closeness to the Jamaican people comes from his sound system days in the late 80s, at a time when the island’s dancehalls were assuming fresh cultural currency as a generation of artists prioritised domestic over international audiences. From the age of 15, Banton apprenticed on the Rambo International sound system, which travelled all over the island.</p>
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<div class="ad-slot__content">“I used to ride on the back of the truck, all around the Jamaican parishes. We’d set up anywhere we could gather the people. And those audiences could be demanding! Every night you had to have a new song or you’re not going to last. No guts, no glory – that’s my genesis. It kept you always creative and stylish, and fearless.”</div>
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<p>Recording was an obvious next step. “I record my first song when I was 16 years old. [Dancehall star] <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw4samqEo34">Clement Irie</a> had taken me up to the Blue Mountain studios in Kingston, I thought just so I could see what a recording studio look like. Straight away I became very nervous because I’m seeing all these people I only know from on record and they’re all wearing gold chains as big as a car rim – or bigger! Then they put me in the booth with headphones on, and told me when the red light comes on, that’s my cue. I started doing the number and I didn’t stop until the three minutes was up.” This became <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMi-UuN7Reg">The Ruler</a>. “I couldn’t really remember doing it, I just remember how they was all impressed because they’d never seen someone sing from top to bottom of a tune and not make a mistake.”</p>
<p>Within a couple of years, Banton was the island’s top recording artist; by 1992, he had beaten Bob Marley’s record for Jamaican No 1s, and Donovan Germain, the boss of Penthouse Records, gave Banton the run of the studio. There, together with the producers Dave and Tony Kelly, confidence met musical intelligence to create the <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/mr-mention-mw0000101871">Mr Mention</a> album.</p>
<div class="u-responsive-ratio"><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><source /><img class="gu-image" src="https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6a4c304cec94a16758ae0906f3bdfc9dd16b3387/0_297_4427_2656/master/4427.jpg?width=300&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=501d2e6de964e2b2b1716c080042ce9b" alt="Buju Banton performing in Kingston in 2003." /></div>
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<span class="inline-triangle inline-icon"> </span>Buju Banton performing in Kingston in 2003. Photograph: David Corio/Redferns
<p>This was an experiment born out of “wanting to come to the dancehall with a complete body of work. We was young men fresh out of school and we had the studio at our disposal, our brains bubbling, bursting. We wanted to make music that would work in the dancehall. We had a genuine interest in going on a journey.”</p>
<p>Mr Mention became the bestselling album in Jamaican history. Its 1993 follow-up, <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/voice-of-jamaica-mw0000619675">Voice of Jamaica</a>, made a broader statement still, shifting between love songs, dancehall bangers, hip-hop flavours (Busta Rhymes features) and social concerns. Then came <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/n3cg/">’Til Shiloh</a> and <a class="u-underline" href="https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/buju-banton-inna-heights">Inna Heights</a>, stunningly crafted albums of melodic Rasta reggae conceived during his conversion to Rastafari. “Those were tremendous bodies of work, messages I received when I was going through my awakening: Rastafari and reggae music are together.” The music aimed to “re-educate the masses” about the religion and culture: “We have shared our music with the world and we see many people wearing dreads, but they don’t understand the teachings.”</p>
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<div class="ad-slot__content">This restless creativity earned him five Grammy nominations before winning him best reggae album for <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.allmusic.com/album/before-the-dawn-mw0002029439">Before the Dawn</a> in 2011 – the ceremony came days before his incarceration and he couldn’t attend – and is still evident on his first post-prison album, Upside Down 2020. Featuring stars such as <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jun/19/john-legend-bigger-love-columbia">John Legend</a> and Pharrell, it mixes up past and present styles of Jamaican music, nods to hip-hop and R&B, and on a couple of occasions ushers country into the dancehall. The latter shouldn’t be that surprising – <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jun/27/30-minutes-with-kenny-rogers">country was once huge in Jamaica</a> – but Banton’s breadth of influences is still remarkable.</div>
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<p>“You have to move forward – it’s liberation,” he says. “There is no future in the past. Let it serve as a guiding force, but that’s all. Music is in my blood. I can’t lock myself in a single room; evolution is what you’re supposed to do.”</p>
<p>At 46 and free from the hell of the last few years, Banton has earned his place as reggae’s elder statesman, and is a genuine inspiration for the broadminded generation of Jamaican artists coming through, the likes of <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pXUCgWQwEE">Chronic Law</a>, <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKxbp_TrC0liu7tl0xsmdoA">Jaz Elise</a> and <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.largeup.com/2019/10/08/burro-leno-banton-better-days/">Leno Banton</a>, son of star deejay Burro Banton, to whom Buju’s stage surname is a tribute. He is keeping reggae’s roots where the ground has always been most fertile: the regular Jamaican people. According to culture minister Babsy Grange, they “would have loved him just the same even if he’d come back in handcuffs”.</p>
<p><span class="bullet">•</span> <em>Buju Banton’s new album, Upside Down 2020, is out now.</em></p>
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