0 Comment(s)
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.
0 Comment(s)
Words by Tasha Brown—
After Omar “OMI” Pasley released his smooth, do-right, do-good single “Cheerleader” last year, we warned you to be on the lookout for the Jamaican crooner in the coming months. We even put him at No. 2 on our Top 10 artists to watch this year.
0 Comment(s)
Words by Eddie STATS Houghton
As we mentioned yesterday in our “Superthruster” Throwback, Sly & Robbie have some big works in the pipeline. Like, globally big. Once in a century big. To be specific, next year Jamaica celebrates it’s 50th anniversary of independence (1962-2012) and besides going into the 2012 Olympics as the overdogs (and big events being organized by JA-to-the-world ambassador Shaggy) the occasion will see the release of a unique documentary on Jamaica. Producers Justine Henzell (daughter of Perry Henzell of The Harder They Come fame) and Zac Harding (brother of super-producer Jeremy Harding) have teamed up with director Kevin MacDonald (filmmaker behind the excellent Last King of Scotland) to make a “collaborative documentary” called One People. Taking the official Jamaican motto of Out of many, one people as their guiding principle, Henzell and MacDonald have put ego aside and crowd-sourced the film-making to the world at large, asking people to film themselves on the subject of what Jamaica means to them, to be edited into a 90-minute film premiering on August 6th, 2012 (Jamaica’s Independence day).
0 Comment(s)
Words by Jesse Serwer
No reason to reiterate how much Rihanna’s and Lady Gaga’s present-day aesthetics are indebted to Grace Jones–it’s been duly noted. Those two ladies might even deserve some credit for the fact that the Jamaican-born Jones’s musical oeuvre is being discovered by a generation that previously only knew her as “Strange” from the movie Boomerang, if at all. Nearly three years after it was released overseas by Britain’s Wall of Sound, the 2008 album Hurricane—her first release since 1989—will finally get a US release September 6. The CD will also be issued with a bonus dub version of the album, which saw Jones reunite with Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare (with whom she made “My Jamaican Guy,” “Pull Up to the Bumper,” “Private Life” and pretty much the lion’s share of her best records). Despite its absence from stores here, Jones performed in several US cities in support of the album two summers ago, so a return visit could be in order. I personally witnessed the unfathomable spectacle that is Ms. Jones’ live show at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, and the word of mouth after that show alone could probably fill a venue twice the size of that one.
