Reggae’s Civil War

I traversed four Caribbean islands in the past two months and spied one common denominator: graffiti. Scrawled precipitously on a cliff suspended above the lush mountains of Saint Lucia, on the aluminum siding of a rum shop in French Saint Martin, on the concrete walls of a Trinidad office park, on accessible surfaces covering urban and rural landscapes across Jamaica, one of two words made its inevitable appearance: “Gully” or “Gaza.”

No island-hopping tagger is responsible—blame Jamaican music’s latest, scariest personal feud. “Gaza” refers to a swath of the working-class town of Portmore, home of Vybz Kartel, the man voted, in a recent poll, the island’s most popular dancehall artist.

Buju Banton’s attorney seeks details on informant in drug case

The informant who helped federal agents build a drug case against Jamaican reggae singer Buju Banton has been paid $3.3 million for helping law enforcement in numerous cases over several years, lawyers said in court this morning.

An attorney for Banton, whose real name is Mark Anthony Myrie, said he plans to argue that the singer was entrapped by the informant, who pestered him for months to join him in a cocaine deal.

New reggae albums slipping out of Billboard Top 10

New 2010 releases are not remaining in the top 10 of the Billboard Reggae Albums, whilst aged albums hover effortlessly.

Six of the eight new albums that entered top 10 since January were either booted or trending down. Bob Marley and the Wailers Dub 1 debuted at one but quickly slipped out of the top 10 within two weeks. Crucial Times by Sizzla Kalonji debuted at five then bailed out the top 10 within two weeks. Now and Forever by Sanchez debuted at 10 but didn’t last another week in the top 10. Guy With A Guitar by Mishka peaked at four then dropped to 14 the following week.

Does reggae really need a dancehall X Factor?

It has become a cliche of documentary film-making that a project which sets out to capture people’s differences will only end up emphasising how alike we all are. How many times must a western crew have voyaged up the Amazon, hoping to capture footage of an undiscovered tribe who ritually sacrifice their first-born to the monkey god, only to find a bunch of loggers crowded around a TV set, beers in hand, yelling at Robinho to pull his finger out?

When Argentinean-American director Luciano Blotta first travelled to Jamaica seven years ago, he came up with the idea of making a documentary about the local underground music scene. This would be a thorny proposition for any outsider; even more so for a film-maker who admits that before touching down in Kingston, the only reggae artist he could name was Bob Marley.

King Sizzla on mission

The man Zimbabwean promoters have been chasing for the past 10 years is finally here!

Ishe (King) Sizzla Kalonji is in town — it took a personal phone call from the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde Robert Mugabe, for him to make the trip — of course not without support from the sponsors, Shumba Instrumentation, the Ministry of Information and Publicity, and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, to mention just a few.