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Words by Jesse Serwer—
As you may have heard, Shaggy has been in the studio working on a collaborative, back-to-reggae-basics LP with none other than the Riddim Twins, Sly and Robbie. We already were quite amped to hear what these legends were cooking up together—how could we not. But we didn’t imagine that the first leak would be something as massive as a collaboration with Jamaica’s favorite living singer, Beres Hammond, on the Sitting and Watching riddim made famous by Dennis Brown.
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Words by Jesse Serwer—
This year marks Freddie McGregor’s 50th in the music business, but don’t jump to any conclusions: he got his start at age seven, singing with vocal group The Clarendonians, back when he was known as “Little Freddie.”
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Words by Jesse Serwer—
Stones Throw Records is best known for underground hip-hop staples like J Dilla’s Donuts and MF DOOM and Madlib’s Madvillainy,but recent years have seen the California label branch out into rock, electronic funk and various other frontiers.
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Words by Jesse Serwer—
Bassist, vocalist, composer and lyricist (along with Albert Griffiths) for the great roots reggae band The Gladiators, and a former house musician for Studio One and Lee “Scratch” Perry, Clinton Fearon is truly one of the unsung heroes of Jamaican music. The multi-talented Fearon—these days making his home in Seattle, Washington—recently revisited the Gladiators’ heyday, recording an acoustic album featuring new versions of some of the band’s toppa top tunes. He plays every instrument on the LP, called Heart and Soul: rhythm, bass and acoustic guitars, congas, calabash, cabasa, cowbell and comb, wooden frog, spoons. Although the songs come largely from the reggae era, the new versions have a pre-reggae, mento-like quality to them.
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Words by Jesse Serwer—
Jr. Blender is pretty much the boss when it comes to turning contemporary pop hits into reggae songs. The German remix specialist has had Bruno Mars, T-Pain and Britney Spears sounding as right on roots riddims as Luciano or Gyptian (OK, maybe not that right, but dig our point). The latest tune to emerge from Blender’s blender, his remix of Usher’s “Climax” reframes the Diplo-produced, sexually-charged single in a light that will have it fitting right into your culture sets. (And which also just arrived in our inbox from Diplo’s own camp, for what it’s worth). Stream below, and download here.
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Words by Jesse Serwer—
With his frenetic, nimble chatting style and addictive hits like “Tic Toc” and “Da Style Deh,” Busy Signal has held down a steady place at the front of the dancehall pack for most of the last decade. But the versatile deejay has taken a different path with his fourth full-length album. Reggae Music Again, out today through VP Records, sees “Hott Ed” voicing a full LP’s worth of reggae rhythms produced by longtime collaborator Shane Brown.
