Lily Allen: More than a girlie girl

Lily Allen is the kind of rising star everybody knows, but not too well. Music snobs have been alternately fawning over and dismissing the 21-year-old singer since last summer, when she hit No. 1 on the British pop charts with the lilting kiss-off ballad “Smile” after posting it on her MySpace page… “As a teenager, I got into hip-hop and jungle and ragga,” she said. “I desperately wanted to be a dancehall queen. I was so jealous of M.I.A. when she came out [with her dancehall-influenced sound]. That was what I wanted to do! But I couldn’t, being a middle-class white chick. So it was about finding what was acceptable, but still staying true to what I believed in. With ska, and bands like the Specials, there were always white people attached to it.”

Reggae, dancehall put pep into ‘pop’ contest

The Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) is getting a musical facelift. According to Keneshia Nooks, marketing and promotions co-ordinator at the JCDC, they are trying to move away from the worn look of the Popular Song Competition to include fresher reggae and dancehall features. “People usually know the popular song as a festival song.

Jamaica – tacky and tasty

To consider Jamaican jerk chicken gourmet may be a lonely stand to take in the minds of culinary critics. For that matter, Jamaica’s draw in general for many travelers may have waned in recent years. Between tales of violence and harassment, crime aimed at visitors and an overdependence on the tourism that once thrived there, the country can have the feel of an amusement park gone bad.

‘Good Carnival’ for Roving Tent

Calypso and Chutney tent promoter, Nirmal Massive Gosine, of the Roving Tent, has reported the tent’s best season to date. Massive started off promoting his own tent for calypsonians and chutney artistes five years ago. In the previous years, he strongly criticised the PNM for not supporting East Indian art in TT.

‘Venom’ for UTech students

Although patrons were slow in turning out for ‘Venom’, at the Students’ Activity Centre, UTech last Friday night, selectors and artistes who passed through the event ensured that the party stayed afloat. The venue was still scantily occupied when The STAR team arrived at minutes after 12 a.m., as the majority of patrons there were quite content with standing on the periphery, leaving a massive space in the middle of the venue.

Jamaica’s quiet side

It’s a starry night, a nearly full moon lighting our path through the lounge chairs scattered on the beach. Splashing into the Caribbean Sea, there’s no shock of cold to slow our steps across the sandy bottom. The water is warm as a baby’s bottle. We walk out, and out some more, farther than you think you should go. Still the water is only chest deep.

Johnny says piece on DJ peace

With the peace meeting between Vybz Kartel and Mavado coming a few hours before Backyaad Crack-Up’s 2007 season opened on Tuesday evening, Christopher ‘Johnny’ Daley had something to say about the process. And, although coming after hilarious comments about the need for wide angle shots to bring out the best of Noddy Virtue in his video, it was not said in a very funny way, the audience chuckling away still.

Spice, Ele, Missing in action

After much controversy surrounding the inclusion of deejay Spice in the line-up of performers at Magnum Follow Di Arrow and the subsequent omission of Beenie Man, fans ended up seeing neither of the two perform. Earlier, ‘the doctor’ had declared that he would not be performing if Spice was on the show.

Punky Reggae Party

It’s festival time in South Florida, so break out the lawn chairs and coolers. Every weekend in March has a blowout concert lined up. For lovers of all things related to Rastafar-I, the best place to hang out this weekend is the 14th-annual Bob Marley Movement Caribbean Festival, which features not only a host of red-hot Jamaican artists but also most of Bob Marley’s male lineage performing on stage as well. We caught up with Miami resident Ky-Mani Marley on the eve of his 31st birthday to talk about the festival, his family, and upcoming releases.

The man behind the beats

Trying to get in contact with one of dancehall’s most renowned producers, Donovan ‘Don Corleon’ Bennett, was no easy task. The star producer is a very busy man these days, working with major players in the industry such as Sean Paul, Bounty Killa, Vybz Kartel, Beenie Man, Sizzla, Capleton, Wayne Wonder, Morgan Heritage, Jah Cure, and just about everybody who is anybody in the reggae-dancehall business today.