A battle is brewing over the man from Mars, Tony ‘Mentally Ill’ Matterhorn and the rights to his Dutty Wine song. According to Matterhorn, the sale of his mega hit song, Dutty Wine to VP Records by producer Supa Hype of Hyperactive Entertainment is now causing problems with him getting a deal with Atlantic Records.
This week the world commemorated the lives of the 3,000 people who were senselessly and unjustifiable murdered in New York’s World Trade Center by suicide terrorists on the 9th of September, 2001. This date is now often referred to as 9/11. The music world adds to those been commemorated an afrocentric soul born Hubert McIntosh but popularly known as Peter Tosh. He was also murdered on September 11 but 14 years earlier than the World Trade Center attacks.
‘CP’ cops major soca award in NY
Antigua’s soca darling, Claudette “CP†Peters has become the world’s soca darling with her capture of the 4th annual International Soca Awards’ title of Best New Female Soca Artiste.
Reigning Antigua Party Monarch Peters, was told of her victory over competitors like Destra Garcia, Machel Montano and Alison Hinds over the weekend. CP was nominated in four categories for this year’s awards for her 2005 soca hit All I Know.
Culture’s train bound to glory
Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller yesterday promised to live up to the expectations of late reggae stalwart Joseph ‘Culture’ Hill, who some years ago in an interview on one of his overseas tours predicted that Jamaica would have a woman prime minister.
Tony Matterhorn rides a ‘blue streak’ to dancehall’s peak
His feisty attitude has kept him at or near the top of the sound system game for many years. Tony Matterhorn has now found new territory as a dancehall deejay with a handful of hits pounding the dancehall both locally and overseas.
Dubbed ‘Mr. Fully Loaded’ for his intense battles at the annual beach event, Matterhorn has captured a new fan base with the globe-trotting Dutty Wine single which spent 13 weeks at number one on the RETV Dancehall Chart, and eleven weeks at the top of the UK’s BBC 1Xtra Dancehall chart.
Icons fade, but music’s popularity lives on
Walk through any mall and you’ll see stores filled with racks of clothes in the red, green and gold of Jamaica. Stroll through any college campus and you may hear the sounds of Bob Marley’s Legend drifting from the dorms. Even Southern California diva Gwen Stefani is modeling the logo of her L.A.M.B. clothing line after the Lion of Judah, a symbol of Rastafarianism.
A short but spicy set on stage, a quick change of clothes and a race across town to get to the second show before the sun is up is like a natural routine for our present crop of dancehall artistes. It has beceome a common trend in dancehall circles for acts to perform on two or three shows in one night that are miles apart from each other.
Recently, international stars, especially from the United States, have been coming to Jamaica more frequently, making special appearances on stage shows or shooting music videos for songs on which they have collaborated with Jamaican performers. This stems from the increased popularity of Jamaican music on the international stage, along with more collaborations between Jamaican artistes and those from other countries.
No limit to the K-Queens’ future
The Francis Sisters or the Singing Twins, are other options Kerrine and Kaydine might have utilised in branding themselves – but the twin sisters instead opted for K-Queens. They have been singing since they were 11 years of age – when they were being guided by the Jamaica Federation of Musicians (JFM) president, Desmond Young, under whose tutelage they released their first single, Ms Mellow.
Jamaica and Japan see reggae ties
Akihiko Narisawa came to Jamaica two years ago from Japan with one aim in mind – to find authentic Jamaican music produced by Jamaican artists and send it back to his homeland, where love for Jamaican reggae had skyrocketed to almost cultish proportions.