On top of Rihanna’s myriad other business endeavors—she sings, she’s a cosmetics mogul with her own Fenty Beauty brand, she’s a lingerie tycoon and fashion designer—the “Umbrella” crooner is also a budding real estate mogul, with five multimillion-dollar homes in Los Angeles alone. And if you’ve got an extra $80,000 burning a proverbial hole in your [...]

After a recent rise in COVID-19 cases, Jamaica is tightening its testing restrictions for visitors. Starting March 10, anyone arriving in Jamaica will be required to present a negative COVID-19 test, taken within three days of their arrival. Previously, tests were accepted from up to 10 days before. The order applies to all travelers aged [...]

Neville O’Riley Livingston, the Jamaican vocalist better known as Bunny Wailer, died on March 2 at Medical Associates Hospital in Kingston, Jamaica, at age 73. A founding member of The Wailers alongside Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, Wailer went on to become a reggae icon in his own right. Wailer traveled and performed sporadically, each [...]

Of the many innovations Jamaican music has offered to the world over the past 50 years, the lyrical art of “toasting” has had perhaps the most profound and long-lasting impact. A stylised, poetical form of chatting and scatting, it was brought to prominence in the early 1970s by the reggae deejay U-Roy, who has died [...]

Calypso historian and ethnomusicologist Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool describes Theophilus “Spoiler” Philip as the epitome of humour.” Humorous calypsoes existed before Spoiler, but Spoiler is credited with making it part of the calypso tent when picong and calypso wars served as the most common form of humour. Spoiler entered calypso in 1946 and he could hold [...]

Here’s one more reason to love Black History Month: It coincides with Reggae Month, a global celebration of the music and culture deemed an “an intangible cultural heritage” by UNESCO.In 2008, Jamaica declared February as a monthlong recognition of the genre its country created and cultivated; as well as acknowledge the birthdays of two of [...]

As a child, the festive season for celebrated drummer Sly Dunbar was really the happiest time of the year. I t meant going shopping for new shoes and buying cloth to take to the tailor to make a brand new ‘Christmas’ suit. Then, come Christmas morning, he would be dressed to the nines and his [...]

Here are a few things I didn’t know about Shaggy, the chart-topping Jamaican reggae-ish singer behind hits like “It Wasn’t Me,” “Angel,” and “Boombastic,” prior to prepping for our interview: He served in the Marines, achieving the rank of lance corporal, and fought in the Persian Gulf; he honed his singing voice during his Jarhead [...]

Music industry veteran Copeland Forbes believes it will take more than one year before Jamaica’s reggae product recovers from the coronavirus fallout.He made the ominous prediction with uncertainty surrounding European summer festivals, which have provided a solid payday for many Jamaican artists over the years. Forbes, who has booked reggae tours for over 40 years, [...]

If you’re engaged and thinking of having a destination wedding, chances are Jamaica has landed somewhere on your list of locations. After all, who could say no to an island full of picture-perfect beaches, unforgettable sunsets, and beautiful Black people? The problem is, planning a wedding on a tropical island thousands of miles away is [...]