Jamaica: Cool in the Caribbean “No other island in the Caribbean is as beautiful or as productive,” said Grace Elmore from behind the bar at Richmond Hill Inn, a colonial lookout-cum-eyrie owned by her family since the 1960s. It rises high above Jamaica’s Montego Bay. “There is so much to see and do: beaches, mountains, [...]

Ele wants $5m to clash with Flippa Elephant Man says he is willing to clash Flippa Mafia at Sting if promoter Isaiah Laing is willing to pay him $5 million. At the launch of Sting on Tuesday night, Laing said Elephant Man was running from a lyrical face-off with Flippa Mafia and, as a result [...]

Toots brings authentic sounds to Tahoe Calling Toots Hibbert’s music old-school reggae would be an understatement. He the inventor. Toots and the Maytals 1968 song “Do the Reggay,” was the first time the word defining the style of music was used in a recording.

Jah Works just keeps going on

Is Jamaica losing reggae? Few Jamaicans chart in Japan, US and Europe signalling, as pundits suggest, that international reggae doesn’t need Jamaica. The charts in Japan, Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand, up to yesterday, had only one Jamaican-born artiste – Bob Marley – in the top ten. The US and France were also low at [...]

Ky-Mani Marley gets personal in autobiography Although he is the son of music royalty, Ky-Mani Marley says life has not always been a bed of roses. The 33-year-old singer/actor tells his story in Dear Dad, his autobiography to be released February 6. Marley is best known for minor hit songs like Dear Dad and Warriors [...]

Echo Minott asks ‘What the Hell the Police Can Do?’ With a consistently high murder rate, guns coming in from Haiti on fast boats and a surprise police commissioner resignation, many a law-abiding Jamaican citizen may jut be asking, ‘What the hell the police can do?’ Doubtless many were asking the same thing in 1986. [...]

Reggae album sales plummet It has not been a good year for Jamaican pop music. Sales tracker, SoundScan, reports that music buyers in the United States showed little interest in what Jamaican artistes had to offer in 2009. SoundScan has released sales figures to the end of October. It said, collectively, reggae/dancehall music sold just [...]

Blakk Rasta, Asem perform at Face of Ghana Holland 2009 grand finale Ghana’s reggae music sensation Blakk Rasta has flown out of the country to Amsterdam to perform at the 2009 Face of Ghana Holland pageant grand finale. Blakk Rasta’s show follows a recent performance he did at Holland’s biggest reggae festival. Although the show [...]

Remakes, rests and a ‘Stern’ performance After he recorded Every Nigger is a Star, Boris Gardiner used to perform the song regularly with his band, The Boris Gardiner Happening. He tells The Sunday Gleaner that people loved it and would dance to it. These days, though, Gardiner no longer performs the song, the last occasion [...]