Legendary performance on Jamaican music comes to Miami
In Kingston, Jamaica, the name Perry Henzell is synonymous with the film starring reggae icon Jimmy Cliff.
The Harder They Come is the first film produced in Jamaica that gained worldwide attention. In his lifetime, Henzell completed two films, two novels, a musical about Marcus Garvey and numerous screenplays for other producers.
Major Lazer’s Diplo on his top 10 most influential dancehall tracks
Prince Buster – Hard Man De Dead
People like to think that the old-school reggae dudes were all peace, love and rum punch, but the reality is they were grinding just as hard as today. Prince Buster was battling with guys like Duke Reid and Leslie Kong. Nobody could kill Buster’s sound.
John Wayne – Call The Police
Artists had been copping names like Clint Eastwood for years, but John Wayne is the most uncool western guy you could name yourself after. His voice and delivery are so cool that you’re sold after the first “It’s a robbery!” One of the million good ones on the Sleng Teng riddim.
True to reggae’s spiritual roots
At age 59, Marcia Griffiths says most people would call her brand of reggae “old school,” but she’s quick to add that “it’s the good school. Bob Marley’s work will never go in vain.”
Torontonians will be treated to three of the genre’s best-loved performers at the inaugural Reggae Giants concert tomorrow at Polson Pier’s Sound Academy. Headlining that list is Griffiths, who made her name as a member of the I-Threes, the backing group for Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Jamaican classic: You can see it if you really want
Reggae legend Jimmy Cliff was in a Kingston recording studio when Perry Henzell, a Jamaican director whose company made commercials, came into the session to meet him.
“He said, `I’m making a movie. Do you think you can write the music for it?’ ” Cliff recalls from New York. “I said, `Can I do it? I can do anything!’ ”
Cliff, as it turns out, wasn’t being cocky or over confident. He didn’t just write several now-classic songs for Henzell’s 1972 movie, The Harder They Come: He also became its star.
I like clothes that make me comfortable and sexy — Nyore
Outgoing and fun is the way to describe Oghenenyore Ogodogun popularly known as Nyore. Although not so known, she’s been doing music professionally for over 8years. She has worked with great acts like Wande Cole, Nigga Raw, Kel, Illbliss etc. The environmental engineering student of the university of Benin is currently working on her.
Quite articulate, Nyore has chosen a genre of music that many of her peers won’t tocuh-reggae!Tonight when the Girl Power music concert kicks off at Onikan Stadium, Nyore will show to the world what she s capable of doing. In this interview she talks about her work, why she is doing reggae and her sense of style.
Reggae Singer With a Legacy, a Following and a Mission
LAST month, inside a sprawling new tourist resort on the Montego Bay coast, Tarrus Riley did the near impossible: He and his seven-piece band, anchored by the Jamaican saxophone virtuoso Dean Fraser, transformed an antiseptic, fluorescent-lighted, air-conditioned hotel ballroom into a sweaty reggae dance party. Mr. Riley, a 30-year-old Rastafarian singer-songwriter, was celebrating the imminent release of his third album, “Contagious” (VP Records), a diverse collection of songs that reveal the complexity and richness of a genre often dismissed as monotonous.
Eek-A-Mouse caps off Hot Summer Nights free concert series in Vail
He stands 6 feet 6 inches tall and his stage name comes from a racehorse upon which he frequently bet and lost money. He is also one of Jamaica’s premier reggae stars and one of the early artists to be described as a “singjay.”
And, Ripton Joseph Hylton, better known as Eek-A-Mouse, will help bring down the curtain on summer in the Vail Valley with the season ending free show of Bud Light Hot Summer Nights August 18 at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater.
Dancehall reggae performer Sean Paul doesn’t bother with subtlety on his fourth album. From “Lace It” (“So long me wet in her, straight up sweat in her”) to “Birthday Suit” (“You want the drill, I got the skill”) to “Daddy’s Home” (“My style is timeless, dem gal deh gimme vaginas”) the 36-year-old makes it clear the party has moved from the club to the bedroom.
Oh, there’s a dedication to mom and a few bona fide love songs but the focus of the self-described sex technician” is explicit, repetitive tracks such as “I Know U Like It.”
Bunny Wailer shows diversity on new albums
Bunny Wailer has started the digital reissue of his extensive catalogue with the famed Blackheart Man, but he is not resting on the musical laurels he has long earned.
He is coming out with a trio of new albums, each with a different focus. Wailer tells The Sunday Gleaner that Cross Culture is “a little of this and a little of that, as far as the international marketplace and the flavour that the people have been accustomed to where R&B is concerned and rap is concerned and a little hip-hop is concerned”.
Gramps Morgan moves 12,000 units first week of album release
Reggae artiste Gramps Morgan moved over 12,000 units of his debut album 2 Sides of My Heart Vol 1 on the Dada Son Entertainment label in the first week of its release. Morgan is a key member of acclaimed reggae group, Morgan Heritage, and this album represents his first solo project.
2 Sides of My Heart Vol 1 showcases 16 roots reggae and lovers’ rock tracks that are mostly self-produced but have input from Buju Banton, Kurt Riley and Kemar ‘Flava’ McGregor. The album is currently the #5 disc on the Weekly Star Album Chart in the USA, while the lead single Wash the Tears Away has already earned Gramps the #1 spot on the Canadian Reggae and Dancehall Charts (Radio Dubplate) for three consecutive weeks on CHRY 105.5 FM.