Middle Class Dub. So much music, so little time. Here is a mixture of UK and Jamaican tunes that gathers together some of the threads that make up what is, for us, ‘Middle Class Dub’. Shocks ’71 – Charlie Ace Charlie Ace ran Swing A Ling, a mobile record shop and label that toured the [...]
DJ Sep DJ Sep, whose birth name is Sep Ghadishah, is the founder of Dub Mission, a Sunday mainstay at Elbo Room. She says she fell in love with Dub while DJing at KUSF and later decided to start this dub dance night. She has continued to work in radio, as the host of “Off [...]
The Business of Bob Marley In late 1979, a mustachioed “60 Minutes” correspondent named George Negus asked Bob Marley if he was a rich man. “When you say ‘rich,’ what you mean?” the reggae superstar replied with a poker face. Do you have a lot of possessions? Lots of money in the bank?
No one watching Sasha on stage with Turbulance performing Natty Pon The Frontline would guess that inside she was deeply dissatisfied with the direction her life was going. The girl who grew up in a Christian home, mastered the art of hiding her true feelings, put her reservations aside and went to make one hit [...]
Downloading music illegally – A Jamaican pirate speaks <img src=”http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/assets/5805946/cds_w370.jpg” width=”150″ hspace=”8″ align=”left”> INTERNET pirates including those in Jamaica couldn’t stop the six per cent rise in global digital music sales to US$4.6 billion ($395 billion) in 2010. Vernon, a Jamaican musician and computer scientist, has over 10,000 illegal songs enough to continuously play for [...]
Dreadlock diaspora These days, the stoned ski towns of Colorado just might be more receptive venues for reggae rhythms than the genre’s ancestral shores of Jamaica. A case in point is Fort Collins’ own dub purveyors, DubSkin, who stay true to reggae’s roots, selling out strings of shows in places like Crested Butte, Breckenridge and [...]
Following the jerk trail in Jamaica With the exception of reggae music, jerk cuisine is probably Jamaica’s best-known cultural export. That’s why the Jamaica Jerk Trail is such a big deal for the Caribbean island. Jamaica is the birthplace of the jerk cooking style, in which a variety of meats are dry-rubbed with a fiery [...]
Buju steadfast as 2nd drug trial draws closer Davud Oscar Markus, the attorney representing beleaguered Jamaican Reggae icon Buju Banton, has hailed his client’s resolve and sense of purpose during his times of trouble. Banton, registered at birth as Mark Anthony Myrie, was arrested and jailed by Florida police in December 2009 on drug-related charges. [...]
Vybz Kartel Defends His Newly Bleached Skin Jamaican Reggae and dancehall artist Vybz Kartel has resurfaced as a much lighter skinned man. Although his transformation has caused much backlash from fans and critics, the musician (born rather dark-skinned) compares his decision to fairer people getting a tan. “This is my new image,” Kartel said. “You [...]
Marley jury hears closing arguments Bob Marley’s children don’t want to see the reggae legend portrayed as a bobblehead or a plush toy, a lawyer representing the family said Thursday.”They brought this case to protect the legacy of their father,” Los Angeles attorney Jill Pietrini told a federal jury in Las Vegas.