Marvin Sparks

There isn't even an ounce of hyperbole in the title. Not even a little bit. Sunday night will never happen again for two reasons: you can't have a first performance twice and the questions of how good or popular have been answered. Where to start. Putting it into perspective, London is one of the closest to being Jamaica outside of Jamaica. Our love and appreciation for reggae, historically, surpasses everywhere in the world possibly even Jamaica. Scala was full to the brim. According to Wiki, Scala's capacity is 1,145. I spent at least 10mins trying to find a space where I could see the stage. Meant I spent most of Christopher Ellis' performance searching for this elusive magical spot. Sounded lively though. Hold on, lemme try put into words how packed it was. Scala sold out three times (I'm guessing they gave access to different parts of the venue when they saw the demand) and tickets were still sold on the door. Each time we tried one of (about three/four) th

Scala say they're sold out but more tickets will become available. Not sure when but yeah. I personally think he started it off with the wrong songs. Should've entered with a bang "Here Comes Trouble" and "Behind Curtain" then mid-tempos "Smile Jamaica" and "Ain't No Giving In" followed by "Warrior" ending on "Odd Ras" as he did. Based on what actually happened, it started calm before building to a big end even receiving a forward. He looked a lot more comfortable towards the end too. Big stage for your first performance in a new country though. And on his birthday too. Watch the crowd sing happy birthday

To give a bit of background, the most exciting thing in music is currently happening in Jamaica. Never mind what everyone else is going on about, their talking about something old, something that's here or something that isn't worth talking about cos it's just forced hype. We're not talking about forced hype movement, we're talking about organic music for the soul coming from one of the forefathers of modern day music. A familiar guardian around these parts of the web, Reggae. One thing I don't like about journalistic definitions of reggae and dancehall is they're very lazy, therefore inaccurate and commit an injustice to both sides. It is said reggae is conscious and dancehall is slack which isn't strictly true. Conscious songs are always present amongst the biggest songs in dancehall. And with reggae being known as conscious, people forget many greats from John Holt and Beres Hammond  to Jah Cure are better known for their lovers collection. (They al

Jungle legend Shy FX and female MC'ing empress Ms. Dynamite linked up to drop a Lovers Rock meets Jungle banger that actually equals the look on paper. The way this is the best song I've heard since about July, I pre-ordered it a month ago - almost 2 months before scheduled release. Ms. Dynamite actually performed it for the first time at David Rodigan's Ram Jam at Kentish Town Forum back in about May. Didn't sound nearly as great as the finished version does. See this is what Black British music is missing, mix-and-blending our black culture sounds with contemporary British music. It's what always has and will work for us. All this re-hashing popular American sounds rarely works. Big up So Solid, Craig David, Shola Ama, Chip(munk), Tinie Tempah, Lemar... for showing us the blueprint on how to disappoint after establishing through British producers. Mix it a different, fresh way if you do it please. But yeah, long for that. This is great British music. And if I

I wasn't even going to write a post about the now defunct Choice FM as there wasn't anything for me to say that I hadn't said on Twitter or others (check Gentrification Killed Choice FM and Why We Should Mourn Choice FM ). Howwwever, a few things caused this post. I listened to Dotun Adebayo's show on BBC Radio London last night and a tweet by one of the formerly known as Choice FM's DJ, Max. Choice FM made history & supported urban music to a level nobody else did! It will continue on Capital Xtra but on a national level #excited — MAX (@THISISMAXONLINE) October 4, 2013 The culture & music is more then a name, it's what we do, right! Well that's what I'm about, so lets continue to support urban and kill it! — MAX (@THISISMAXONLINE) October 4, 2013 Starting with the above tweet's... actually, let me start off by saying I have no problem with Max. I wouldn't say I know her, but we are cool. She made sure I got an interview with

One of the most anticipated videos from one of the most talked about artists finally makes it way onto the net for our eyes. Chronixx's Rasta political broadcast anthem "Here Comes Trouble" features the man himself with a bunch of Rasta recruits including many of his fellow next generation reggae artists, Dre Island, Kabaka Pyramid, Kelissa to name a few. You can purchase the song here And catch him performing live in UK at the following 10/10 - Leeds @ Leeds Arena BBC Radio 1xtra Live 11/10 - Bristol @ Malcom X Center 12/10 - Birmingham @ The Drum 13/10 - London @ Scala Google for more info and tickets