Marvin Sparks

Once again, Sneakbo on a dancehall riddim. He's making a fair few of these and I love it. Sneakbo has the streets on smash right now. Big him up all day. All the punks that don't usually blog or care about dancehall are fully on him. Sort of thing that annoys me about the music industry, its just bandwagons. The amount of times I've had convo's about tunes that if it has a familiar face on it "That tune's sick", if it doesn't they don't have no time for it. This is why I say the music game is all smoke and mirrors. And it doesn't help that the so-called "real" dancehall DJs don't play these tunes. I featured the Gully Bomb in it's original form last year on a mix CD I made. It was just my favourite tunes 'til that point but it sounds more like a best of 2010 that was made in about October. Sick CD if I do say so myself. Catch the download from here These two tunes on the riddim are big as well T'Nez & 3 Star - No

Shouts to @Newsychick1 and @DanBean for putting me up on these. (sly plug check my interviews with Vybz Kartel, Mavado, Serani, Gyptian, Busy Signal etc here) Yep, you read correctly - new music from Daniel Bedingfield. And on top of that, they're two dancehall tracks! This is a marked change from what seems to be out of nowhere, but it isn't. The UK singer/songwriter best known for UK Garage anthem "I Gotta Thru This" and pop ballad "If You're Not The One" (a heavily played song in Jamaica to this day if you didn't know) has been working on a reggae album since '09 when he was working with Busy Signal. He uploaded two remix tracks to his soundcloud. First is a remix of dancer-turned-artist Ovamarz's "Now You See Me, Now You Don't" on the popular Chimney-produced "Star Bwoy" riddim Daniel Bedingfield Jamaica Run Tings Mix by DanielBedingfld Ovamarz is probably the most successful dancer in recent years; Nuh L

Marcia Griffiths (far right) is a well-known and established reggae legend in her own right commonly referred to as the Queen of Reggae. She began her career as a solo singer, scored a British top 5 with "Young, Gifted and Black" alongside Bob Andy before becoming 1/3 of the I-Threes a.k.a. Bob Marley's backing vocalists, or his three little birds as he preferred to call them. The Wailers were renamed Bob Marley & The Wailers when Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer left and replaced with the I-Threes, recorded what became the transitional album Natty Dread which featured Bob Marley's breakout international hit "No Woman, No Cry" and the rest as they say is history. Well, we are talking Bob Marley where it has become legend. Marvin Sparks had the pleasure of speaking to Marcia Griffiths to celebrate the 30th anniversary Bob Marley's passing. Marcia recalls her first time meeting Bob Marley at the legendary Studio One, how Bob kept a watchful eye over the fe

If this blogspot is starting to look like a Bob Marley fan site, it's because at the root of it, it is. And don't get it twisted, it doesn't take a day like this to make me appreciate Bob. It's a day I know other people are more inclined to so I can rant it out lol This right here is the stuff that makes me want to buy his album. I won't but I have a lot more respect for his vocals than I did. This is beautiful. Truly marvellous. Spectular. Delightfully eargasmic music. Don't think "Jay Sean? Eh" listen and zone out to this acoustic cover of one of my favourite Bob songs.

As you should already know, today marks the 30th anniversary of the legends passing on to a better place. Another thing we all know is his music lives on. I've decided to do a post of hits built on riddims Bob Marley had hits on just to kinda throw out a post I thought would be interesting and a different way of putting up some of my favourite Bob tunes. Selecting them from scratch is hard enoguh. Forgive me if I miss some, I'm drawing for the first 10 that come to mind. Bob Marley "One Drop" - up there with Lord Kitchener's Sugar Bum Bum as one of the songs I had to hear as a youth going to Jamaican family functions. One of my all-time favourite songs ever. Laid the foundations for one of Sizzla's earliest hits 'White God (most die-hard fans know him for Black Woman and Child or this). Listen to the lyrics before throwing racism around please. Also featured on the 1995 recreation is the uplifting 'Never Give Up My Pride' by Luciano Bob Marley &quo

30 years ago, 11th May 1981, ultimate legend Bob Marley lost his battle against cancer in a hospital in Miami, Florida, but as we all know, his legacy well and truly lives on. In my opinion he is the greatest artist ever. Third world superstar that not only brought through refreshing music that broke the concepts of how music was made and structure, through his music we understand a whole culture and different perspective on life not only from Jamaica, but on behalf of the oppressed. Bob gave a voice to the voiceless, hope to the hopeless with an uncompromising attitude that had it's detractors at the time, but I'm sure most will have converted by now. An advocate of the marijuana rappers talk about like it's nothing now, but back then, it was a big deal. His physical appearance was unlike anything seen before. Dreadlocks weren't the done thing in Jamaica let alone musicians in the Western world. Rastafarian beliefs were shunned by colonial Jamaica. It's crazy how u

You may not know the name, you may not know the voice, but I guaran-damn-tee you'll love this song. Cleo Sol has been around for a while, featuring on Tinie Tempah's pivotal song 'Tears' (lead to him signing a deal I think), Davinche's extremely popular 'Riding For Love' which also featured Bashy. Basically, if you have a reasonable amount of interest in UK music, you will have heard of her. I'm going on record to say this is the best r&b single by a female from the UK since Keisha White's 'Weakness In Me'. I guess that wasn't even an r&b record - it was a ballad. Anyway, take a listen and tell me I'm lying. Thanks

Yes, you read correctly. Jennifer Lopez featuring Lil Wayne is straight reggae/dancehall. I wanna see some dancehall moves to this when JLo performs this. I don't even care, I'm feeling this song. Produced by professional dancehall rippers Stargate. I don't even mind them biting because to be fair they do it well. If they start hooking up features with our artists we'll be even - can't keep taking from the earth and not replacing. Written by UK's very own Taio Cruz (genuine surprise). Listen to his demo below Seems to me as if reggae is fully back in the minds of the suits in the top of the music industry building similarly to '03-'04. Well, they were biting from before that but they finally accepted our dancehall music to the public's ears in full vibe at them years. I like this movement. I tweeted about this happening last year On a similar note, this song "Hypnotico" by JLo Was originally Tami Chynn's Reminded me of this Jennifer Lop

In the post below, I updated with a bunch of new dancehall videos (and some Protoje feat Ky-Mani Marley "Rasta Love" This has been floating since last year, but I didn't feel it at first, and since then I haven't blogged that much. But yes, good old song this. Don Corleon's protege, Protoje teams up with one of Bob's sons, Ky-mani Marley. If my memory serves me correctly, Kymani appeared in cult-classic Jamaican movie Shotta's. The first line of the chorus outlines the topic "She didn't know how to tell him she was in love with a rasta man". Etana "People Talk" Another big tune out right now courtesy of the strong one, Etana. Empowerment is what Etana does best and this is another example. "People Talk" talks fighting against gossipers and back-biters. Richie Spice "Black Woman" This has to be one of my favourite songs for the whole of 2011. In fact, the first line is arguably the best line of any love song for t