Interview with Edward Seaga (Urban Reggae)
Former Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga (JLP) started his career as a record company owner and producer, but soon turned to politics. Now he’s back where it all started, and he has compiled the historical and genre-comprehensive box set ‘Reggae Golden Jubilee – Origins of Jamaican Music’. United Reggae got a chat with a man that has served Jamaica as a public servant for most of his adult life.
Dancehall Breaks New Ground (The Jamaica Gleaner)
Dancehall music is breaking new ground on the international scene with artistes finding hit records on internationally flavoured beats called rhythmic beats.
Rhythmic beats have an uptempo dance music sound, made popular in dancehall by Sean Paul on singles such as She Doesn’t Mind and Got To Love You.
With the sound of dancehall infiltrating rhythmic beats, David M has teamed up with Beenie Man to create a collaboration called Here Comes Your Life.
Ivorian reggae singers bury rivalry for “peace” tour (Reuters)
As darkness falls over Ivory Coast’s lagoon-side commercial capital a steady thumping cuts through the tropical night.
But where once the thud of heavy weapons set the Abidjan’s residents scrambling indoors for cover, tonight it is a reggae bass line that draws them out.
Here, little over a year ago, supporters of then-president Laurent Gbagbo and his rival Alassane Ouattara were fighting a brief post-election civil war, the final deadly showdown of a decade-long political crisis.
After years teetering precariously between war and peace, the flames of division, xenophopia and anger – fanned in no small degree by some of the country’s most famous musicians – exploded into a conflict in which more than 3,000 people died.
One of Ivory Coast’s leading reggae artists, Serge Kassy, even rose to become a leader and organiser of Gbagbo’s Young Patriots street militia – a group accused of numerous atrocities during the war. Kassy is now in exile.
Reggae in a jacket (The Jamaica Observer)
The unheralded world of reggae art gets the spotlight on November 12 when London’s Soul Jazz Books releases Reggae Soundsystem: Original Reggae Album Cover Art by Steve Barrow and Stuart Baker.
It is homage to the creativity of how art influenced Jamaican popular music going back to the 1950s when the country’s music industry was taking shape.
Emerging Dancehall star brings new ‘Stylez’ to the scene (The Examiner)
With a bag of tricks up his sleeve, it’s not hard to see why one upcoming artiste seeks to prove that he’s full of ‘Stylez’ with substance in his content.
Growing up in Portmore, St. Catherine, emerging deejay, Stylez has music running through his veins since birth. No one recognized Stylez’s abilities more than the one who gave birth to him as his mother encouraged him and his two younger brothers to test their musical skills; later forming a group called the Star Brothers, who soon made their name within their community by singing at church.
For Stylez, his mother’s belief in him was the driving force towards wanting to own the stage.
Mavado, Alison Hinds Colab on new remix (The Jamaica Star)
Dancehall artiste Mavado has collaborated with soca music veteran Alison Hinds for a remix to his JA Productions single Caribbean Girls.
The artiste, who is now signed to DJ Khalid’s We The best Music group, believes it’s important to appeal to the broader Caribbean with local music.
Mavado’s manager Julian Jones- Griffiths spoke to The STAR on behalf of the artiste.
Zimbabwe: Youthful Trio Spices Up Charity Race (AllAfrica)
A bumper crowd turned up at the Borrowdale Race Course on Sunday for a rare dose of Sunday horse racing, courtesy of the Zimbabwe National Army Charity horse race. However, it was the musicians who stole the limelight. The three musicians – Sniper Storm, Jah Prayzah and Sulumani Chimbetu – all added their own military flavour to the day’s proceedings.
Dancehall veteran Sniper is aptly called ‘The General’ while Jah Prayzah is known for donning military outfits, on and off stage and Dendera exponent Sulu is a retired Air Force of Zimbabwe officer.
‘Mwana Wedangwe’, as Sulu is popularly known by his legion of fans, lit up the race course with an electrifying performance that would certainly have made his father, the late Simon ‘Chopper’ Chimbetu proud of his successor.