Jr. Gong rings the reggae bells It’s been three years since Damian Marley totally blindsided mainstream America with the unapologetic reggae street salvo “Welcome to Jamrock.†Those in the know could smell it coming.
Leader of the New School There’s plenty of fuss made at times by journalists (like myself) about the negative direction reggae music seems to have gone in the past ten years. But for all our boo-hooing, certain artists like Tarrus Riley know how to rise up and silence the critics. The popular singer of the [...]
Rooted in reggae
Jimmy Cliff Still Has More Rivers to Cross When a musician finds out that a musical featuring their songs is in the works, the sensible thing is to follow Take That and David Bowie and disown it as quickly as possible. Veteran reggae star Jimmy Cliff has other ideas. His tunes from the classic 1972 [...]
The songs of Ecclesiastes “A man’s gift will make room for him” is one of the many promises of the Bible that gospel hip/hop and reggae recording artiste Mark Bailey knows to be so true. Bailey, who 12 years ago gave up a lifestyle – which included selling drugs – to serve God, said he [...]
Marshall’s True Story for a June release Dancehall star Wayne Marshall is currently putting the final touches to his highly anticipated compilation CD, True Story (to drop in June), which the artiste reveals is well worth the wait. “It’s going to be crazy. It features a mix of my new music but also includes many [...]
Review: Pure Reggae Mention reggae and certain names come to mind. The likes of Bob Marley, Burning Spear, Black Uhuru, Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff are just some of them. Unfortunately, because of the label issue, most of them are unrepresented on this three-CD compilation (which only has two songs by Tosh). Some might then [...]
Buju pleads for other artistes to …CLEAN UP YOUR MUSIC Popular deejay Buju Banton has issued an emotional appeal to his fellow entertainers to clean up their lyrics in order to help Jamaica to recover from its present social decay. The deejay, who posted a message in his newsletter, The Gargamel Gleaner, said that the [...]
JFlying fun with Audrey She is not the typical ‘dancehall queen’ but her popularity soared with the release of the 1997 internationally successful film, Dancehall Queen, in which she played a lead role. She later starred in another popular Jamaican film, Third World Cop. Audrey Reid’s acting career began to soar when she joined the [...]
Uptowners gaining credibility Attaining street credibility for the average artiste is a lyrical battle that many labour over. In the dancehall, one’s area code can make or break an artiste, as uptown artistes, especially, may find it difficult to make it initially in the streets.