Posts tagged: Kingston

Visual Culture: Jamaica Reggae Film Festival

April 29, 2011

Words by Jesse Serwer

It’s been a big year for the intersection of Caribbean music and movies, from the smart reggae-and-calypso soundtrack in British director Stevan Riley’s outstanding West Indies cricket documentary Fire in Babylon (not to mention its well-drawn connection between the West Indies cricket team’s ascension and the rise of reggae music) to the recent news that Justine Henzell, daughter of the late The Harder They Come director Perry Henzell, will oversee a remake of Jamaica’s most seminal film. Adding to the momentum, this week the Jamaica Film Academy announced the slate for its fourth Jamaica Reggae Film Festival May 23-27.

Tags:Bob Marley: Making of a Legend, Cabbie Chronicles, Esther Anderson, Fire in Babylon, Jamaica Film Academy, Jamaica Reggae Film Festival, Kingston, Regga Britannia, Rocksteady-The Movie, Room for Rent, Steel Pulse, The Harder They Come

Video: Nas + Damian Marley “Nah Mean”

April 26, 2011

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Words by Jesse Serwer

Nas and Damian Marley continue to promote their year-old Distant Relatives project more vigorously this year than they did when it first came out, with another video filmed on the streets of Kingston. “Nah Mean” begins where their last one for “Land of Promise” left of, literally: the end of that video actually segues into this one. It’s an appropriate tie-in, considering those two stand way out as the most rewind-worthy, high-energy tunes on what was overall a pretty solid album. Out of all the videos that have emerged for the project thus far, “Nah Mean” is the most simplistic—it’s essentially one long shot—but it might also be the most effective, what with its non-stop forward motion and spliced-in crowd audio direct from the shoot. Nah mean?

Tags:Damian Marley, Distant Relatives, Hip Hop, Jamaica, Kingston, Nas

LargeUp TV: Diplo in Kingston, Jamaica

March 30, 2011

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A LargeUp Exclusive Webisode – Words by Eddie STATS Houghton, Photos and Video by Martei Korley.

Diplo kicks it with LargeUp at the Spanish Court Hotel, New Kingston

Unless you been living under an internet-sized rock, you’re probably already aware of Wesley “Diplo” Pentz’s restless, jetsetting activities as a DJ, producer, label-head and laser-equipped cyborg. Since bussing out with his Philly-based party Hollertronix in the early 00s he has established himself as an unparalleled breaker of underground sounds, from Brazilian baile funk to UK grime. Likewise the list of inspiring new artists that he’s had a hand in discovering and exposing–from Baltimore club auteur Blaqstarr to South African rockers BLK JKS–is global in scope and alphabetical in length.

Tags:Blaqstarr, BLK JKS, Dancehall, Diplo, FADER, Florida, Ghe20 Gothik, Greensleeves, hardstyle, Jahdan, Jamaica, Jovi Rockwell, Kingston, Major Lazer, MIA, Mr Vegas, Mr. Lexx, MTV, New Kingston, Ricky Blaze, Santogold, Spanish Court Hotel, Stephen "Supa Hype" Davis, Venus Iceberg X, VMA, Vybz Kartel, Wesley “Diplo” Pentz, “Pon De Floor”

Visual Culture: ‘Lost’ Footage from Bob Marley’s Early Career

March 21, 2011

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Words by DJ Gravy and Jesse Serwer, via BBC World Service

A friend of LargeUp has been telling us about his old friend, Esther Anderson, the Jamaican beauty queen and actress who, in a short span of time in the early 70′s, worked with Bob Marley, Chris Blackwell and starred alongside Sidney Poitier in the movie, A Warm December. This past weekend in London, Anderson (who took the famous photo of Marley smoking a spliff that’s appeared on posters, T-shirts and versions of Catch A Fire) premiered scenes from Bob Marley – The Making of a Legend, a film, still-in-progress, she is making from lost footage shot of Bob Marley and the Wailers for Island Records in the early ’70s. Anderson, who became romantically involved with Marley at the time, recalls her first meeting with him in her interview with Ron Bhola of BBC World Service: “He didn’t smile but he was very handsome with strong features, he reminded me of Jimi Hendrix,” she remembers.

Tags:56 Hope Road, A Warm December, Bob Marley, Bob Marley museum, Bunny Wailer, Caribbean, Catch a Fire, Chris Blackwell, Esther Anderson, Island Records, Jamaica, Kingston, LargeUp, Neville Livingston, Peter Tosh, Ras Daniel Hartman, Rastafarians, Sidney Poitier, The Harder They Come, The Wailers

LARGE UP Exclusive: Drake Threatens to Drop a Dancehall Record

January 27, 2011

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Words by Eddie STATS Houghton

So apparently at 5am the day after New Year’s your dude and mine Drake sat down with the host of Much Music‘s Rapcity for the first interview of the relaunched show (please note: that’s Rapcity, one word, not to be confused with BET’s Rap City). Since the host, T-RexXx, also happens to one of Toronto’s top movers and a core member of Drake’s OVO clique, the early morning conversation feels more like a rambling vibe session between friends than the prepackaged interviews we mostly get nowadays and the conversation eventually turned–as any 5am vibe session naturally will–to dancehall.

Tags:Alliance, Canada, Drake, Jamaica, Kingston, Mavado, Toronto

We Small Kings: New Passa Passa Book, Exclusive Anicee Gaddis Interview

December 20, 2010

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Words by Erin MacLeod, photos by Allessandro Zuek Simonetti.

Last year, just before New Year’s, writer Anicée Gaddis and photographer Alessandro Zuek Simonetti spent an evening at Passa Passa, Swatch International’s world-famous street dance on Spanish Town Road at Bread Lane, in Kingston, Jamaica. They didn’t stay together that night—both collected their own images, Simonetti with his camera, while Gaddis took mental notes. The result is Small Kings, out now from Automatic Books.

Tags:Alessandro Zuek Simonetti, Anicee Gaddis, Automatic books, Jamaica, Kingston, Passa Passa