Becoming Marion……….Lady Saw ‘walks out’ on raunchy past

A few years ago, Lady Saw could have cared less what you or I thought about her vulgar lyrics and X-rated performances. When tracks like Stab Up Di Meat, No Long Talking and Hice [Hoist] It Up were the rage in the dancehalls, she waved off her detractors and even offered a musical rejoinder, What Is Slackness? that detailed certain social ills that she felt merited greater scrutiny than her brand of raunch.

Mission gone from music

If music is truly a religion, as said by Jimmy Hendrix and Ziggy Marley, then reggae music of yesteryear would be a prayer while dancehall is yet to be defined. Reggae music can be heard in any part of the globe, whether it is a little pub in Papua New Guinea or the from the radio of an elderly man in the hills of Jamaica.

Part of what has made the music so great is its ability to tackle universal issues. There are countless examples of how the music transcends colour and creed to point out what is wrong with the world and howto fix it.

Khristopher comes out of the covers

His vocals on the cover of DeBarge’s Who’s Holding Donna Now are so uncannily similar to the original that even industry players have trouble telling them apart.

But the singer, who previously bounced around the dancehalls, slipping in and out of the mainstream is now looking to establish himself as a long-term viable artiste, and while he hasn’t abandoned them entirely, he’s out to prove that he’s more than a covers specialist.

Vegas hospitalised again – Swore career was over

Dancehall artiste Vegas has been admitted to hospital again following an acute case of pericarditis and gastroesophageal reflux. Sports medicine specialist, Dr. Paul Wright, breaks down the disease in simple terms. He says, “The pericardium is tissue that surrounds the heart itself, so if that is inflamed it will apply pressure on the heart muscle, causing pain and it could stop the heart which could lead to very serious conditions…”

Reggae Tempo personality goes for acting boundary

Ahead of Monday night’s premiere of the cricket drama, Hit For Six, at Carib 5, Cross Roads, Jeanille Bonterre was like a cricketer who had finally reached the Test level. Happy to be in the big leagues, but aware of intense scrutiny of every stroke, every catch and even the angle of the cap.

“I don’t get nervous. I have sort of grown up in the industry. Today, in Kingston I am nervous. It is an exciting kind of nervous I have so much respect for the Jamaican film audience … You have to come good to impress a yardie,” she told The Gleaner at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, earlier that day.

Look, up in the ska

‘When I’m on the street postering, people always me what ska stands for,” says Dane Roberts, executive director of this weekend’s Eighth Annual Victoria Ska Festival.
“They think it’s a synonym for something.”

Feeling irie

Old-school roots reggae is going the way of vinyl and CDs, displaced by new-school dancehall. But international audiences raised on Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Toots & The Maytals are still paying for concert tickets.

So, after the financially strapped Montreal International Reggae Festival cut a new deal with the Old Port

Budding Superstar

It may well be a Jamaican export, but reggae music is, of course, by no means exclusive to its country of birth.

Having already spawned German talents (think Gentleman), white English talents (think YT) and Jewish, erm, ‘talents’ (think Matisyahu), reggae’s latest export is a proud representative of Bermuda…

Half Pint brings Unity to Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest

Thus sings conscious crooner Half Pint on his latest release Unity. It’s a theme he has visited several times over the three-decade span of his career, as fans of One Big Family and Level The Vibes can attest. Half Pint’s sense of the spiritual origins of unity is borne out when he sings in Verse 3…

Dancehall veterans stand out at ‘sevens Clash’

Sevens Clash, a party marking July 7, 2007, as well as producer and owner of The Candy Shop, Claude ‘Big Stone’ Sinclair’s 50th birthday, began on the landmark date and ended in the early hours of yesterday morning.

At least, the music started on 7/7/2007, but with very few people at Weekenz, Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew, going up to 1:00 a.m., the guest of honour not arriving until a few minutes before 2:00 a.m. and Paul Elliott not starting the performances until nearly 3:00 a.m., the part that mattered most came on Sunday.