Tasha Rozez On the eve of her Caribana gigs, the Toronto-based queen of soundclash discloses the secret to her success and why dancehall is set to take over the planet. Sugar Lounge is a Jamaican take-out spot in Scarborough that doubles as a dance hall. Tuesday nights, it hosts an event called Fight Club.
Spice dishes out more than just sexual content Jamaica has, for as long as many of us can remember, been at the forefront of Caribbean music with both its reggae and subsequent dancehall genres. From Bob Marley and the Wailers, Peter Tosh and Burning Spear, to today’s Vybz Kartel, Popcaan and female sensation, Spice, much [...]
Reggae Sumfest: The good, the bad and the muddy Reggae Sumfest 2010 has come and gone, but, as expected, there were moments of high and moments yet to be defined. We take a look at some, in no particular order. The year 2010 will go down in history as the year when the mud was [...]
Voicemail cried for Oniel Voicemail’s Kevin Blair and Craig Jackson broke down and wept bitterly on Thursday night, as reality struck that their friend and brother Oniel Edwards was no longer the third leg in their act. The only thing that separated the tears that flowed from their eyes and the large crowd inside the [...]
The oldest swingers: the Jolly Boys Named by Errol Flynn in the 1950s, the Jolly Boys were once the toast of Jamaica. Now, after nearly five decades playing second fiddle to reggae, the band are enjoying a remarkable revival. Will the Jolly Boys finally have the last laugh?
Brooklyn’s ‘Irie Jam’ in limbo A recent press release from organizers of the annual marathon, pre-Labor Day presentation of dancehall and vintage concert talents seemed more like a requiem to the festival than a one-year hiatus from revelry. In announcing reasons for cancellation of this year’s Irie Jamboree, the organizers thanked vendors, the NYPD, patrons, [...]
Japanese Reggae? The Japanese have been making reggae almost as long as Jamaicans have been exporting it. This phenomenon could have started as early as the mid-’70s, when the film “The Harder They Come” grafted the crime drama to Kingston’s reggae scene and became an international cult classic. Or, more likely, it began sometime around [...]
Dancehall artist Busy Signal’s music springs from his roots “I still do gun songs and raw dancehall songs, but, at this point, I don’t need to do a gun song. After what Jamaica — and the world — has been through, I don’t need to sing another gun song my whole life.” I’m in a [...]
Reggae, Sugar Minott and Nahki — the Japanese experience It would seam nothing short of divine providence, a week after the passing of reggae/dancehall kingpin Sugar Minott, that a Japanese professor in music presented a paper in Kingston, Jamaica on the birth and impact of reggae in Japan in which the role of the departed [...]
Howard “Flagga” Duperly Plays Reggae on Florida’s Serious Jazz Radio Jamaican Howard “Flagga”Duperly hosts a reggae show, The Reggae Ride, on predominantly jazz radio WDNA 88.9FM in Florida. The non-profit radio, known worldwide as South Florida’s premier jazz station utilizes two words, Serious Jazz, that, in a nutshell, brands its varied programming. A product of [...]