Beenie Man Catches a Fire 2005-08-03 It took him just shy of a full year, but dancehall titan Beenie Man finally took a Bay Area stage in late July, rocking Berkeley’s Shattuck Down Low for two straight nights despite the best efforts of infuriated gay-rights activists and a hilariously brazen con-man promoter. You may recall [...]

Musical fusion When the Latin hip-hop fusion called reggaeton began popping up on urban stations a couple of years ago, few sensed the start of a trend. If anything, the bouncy but simple Spanish-language music sounded like a novelty: the “Macarena” of the new millennium, perhaps. Then, the Daddy Yankee tune “Gasolina” began flooding the [...]

Reggaeton – The Story So Far.. …If you’re feeling poetic, you could call reggeaton a homage to the first Jamaicans who were taken to Panama in the early 1900s to build the Canal, and paid the price in blood and tears. These canal workers were also the first to bring the sounds of Jamaica to [...]

The queen of reggaeton Known for her brash attitude, distinctive throaty voice and lyrics of female empowerment, Ivy (pronounced Eve-y) Queen has made her mark in the Latin music world as a bona fide reggaeton superstar. The 33-year-old Puerto Rican rapper, a.k.a. Martha Ivelisse Pesante, is the only woman to break into the male-dominated up-and-coming [...]

Sean Paul readies The Trinity The new Sean Paul album will be titled The Trinity. Recorded entirely in Jamaica, The Trinity will be the follow-up to his 6 million selling second album ‘Dutty Rock’.

Sinead O’Connor Reflects on First Reggae Album Sinead O’Connor, who has recorded her first reggae album, “Throw Down Your Arms,” said she has found solace in Jamaican music and the Rastafarian faith. “To me, I have not made a reggae record, I’ve made a Rasta record,” O’Connor said Monday night at a launch party for [...]

Yellowman & the Sagittarius Band The dancehall reggae superstar who once called himself ‘Yellow like cheese,’ Yellowman embodied the best (powerful music, charismatic rapping) and the worst (homophobia, explicit, often crass sexuality, etc.) of his genre. Still, he’s a legend. Flamingo Cantina. — Joe Gross King Yellowman as he is known, is one of the [...]

village voice > music > Our Own Roots ‘n’ Ganja Man Visits Planet Reggae by Elena Oumano Since born rebels see comrades in every other outlaw and country & western’s twang once ran Jamaican airwaves, our own roots ‘n’ ganja man’s reggae album isn’t strange, just overdue. Planet Reggae maintains no tune ever lived that [...]

Bob Marley Coming of Age Story May Stir It Up on Broadway in Near Future Legendary musician Bob Marley may be the next popular artist to be venerated on Broadway, according to The Jamaica Observer. Neville Garrick, the reggae artist’s former collaborator, told the publication “A Broadway play on Bob Marley is supposed to be [...]