This year’s Caribbean Fest returns to its roots. Alright, alright — in years past we’ve been not-so-kind to the annual Caribbean Festival, known in years past as the Bob Marley Fest. But can you blame us? With previous lineups blending thuggish hip-hop elements and random pop music wonders, some local fans grew skeptical. We’re happy [...]
Belize Reggae Fest Kicks off with the King Dancehall’s Royal Highness Beenie Man is headed to Central America next month to inaugurate the Belize Reggae Fest series, which will be held on Saturday, March 7, at the Civic Center in Belize City. The Fest is an initiative of Triple T Productions and Nuff Muzik Productions [...]
Fire on Babylon: Jamaica Bans Sex and Violence in Music It’s like the 1950s all over again. Jamaican lawmakers say they will forbid all lyrical references to sex and violence on their radio stations. The Jamaican Broadcast Commission announced new rules which ban “any song or music video that depicts sexual acts or glorifies gun [...]
Reggae-influenced Skindred ready to rock the Machine Shop While Eddy Grant’s classic early-’80s tune “Electric Avenue” seems to be a perfect fit for the self-described “ragga punk metal” sound of Skindred, the group didn’t have high expectations when they recently knocked out their own version of the song. “We didn’t think anything of it,” vocalist [...]
Live This City: Island in the rain Knee-deep in this purgatorial rainy season of ours, my affection for Sacramento has once again been tested by the perpetual stormy weather. I’m still freezing, but my deliverance has arrived at last (take that, March). I’ll bet you didn’t know there’s an island in downtown Sacramento.
Church wants lewdness stopped The Jamaica Council of Churches has become the latest addition to the ongoing debate surrounding the purification of Jamaican dancehall music, with the organisation calling for a further ban to be placed on street and community dances, which perpetuate the playing of sexually crude and explicit songs. The umbrella church agency [...]
Jamaican prof ‘sounds like he has a vendetta’ St Vincent soca crooner Kevin Lyttle and Bermudan reggae act Colin “Collie Buddz” Harper have both come out in support of soca music, following recent controversy over statements made by Jamaican lecturer Dr Kwame Nantambu during an interview on a Jamaican radio station. Speaking to the Express [...]
San Diego Reggae Sound Systems and Culture Reggae music and culture in San Diego doesn’t stop with the Tribute to the Reggae Legends concert. It continues with the sound systems spinning the tunes, the restaurants creating the Jamaican cuisine and specialty shops providing the culture. A little history, during the 1950s in Jamaica, a speaker [...]
Rapper Lil Jon goes soca Lil Jon is known to the hip-hop world as the King of Crunk, a hit-making rapper and producer. What they probably don’t know is that his musical journey began as a dancehall selector on the now disbanded Four Seasons sound system in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. Now, the entertainer [...]
A Tribute to The Reggae Legends For 28 years San Diego reggae fans have embraced, nurtured and grown the Tribute to the Reggae Legends Festival (formerly Bob Marley Festival). They co-exist as one, united. Reggae concerts were once rare in San Diego, as artists preformed only in major cities populated with West Indian people. Makeda [...]