Marvin Sparks

1Xtra dedicated 5 hours to Jamaican music the past Sunday. Rodigan dealt with the reggae revival and dub cutting speaking to the likes of Ninja Man, Josey Wales, Protoje and Kabaka Pyramid. Toddla T dealt with the production side (Ward 21, Di Genius and Rvssian) plus Stylo G. Robbo Ranx covered the biggest culture festival in Jamaica, Rebel Salute speaking to Damian Marley, Rodney Price (Bounty Killer), festival organiser Tony Rebel and upcoming roots act Jah Bouks amongst others. In the fifth hour they took over Radio 1 with a live music session at Bob Marley's Tuff Gong studio. See a sample of the performances below. Chronixx - Here Comes Trouble Cham & Damian Marley - Fighter/Ghetto Story Tarrus Riley - Gimme Likkle One Drop 1Xtra have a dedicated section for us to hear what they did. You can do so by clicking here . Big up 1Xtra cos while many stations have cut back on reggae, they've done a special on how great it is. It's mad cos they played more r

Yeah, you read it correctly. Last year I blogged a " Why reggae doesn't need Snoop Lion ?" post inspired by his attention from "please help us break America" in some areas of the Jamaican music community. However, Grammy Awards committee nominated his absolute mockery of a product for Best Reggae album award, so today I'm contributing an appeal for the wankers on the panel to go one step further and give it to him. Hold tight Junior Rodigan who asked me to write about this. At the time (in December), I thought "What for? I don't care about the Grammy's. They never know what they're doing anyway, so why should I criticise them?" It wasn't until about a week ago that it hit me, that's the post! Why does anyone care? Ok, this is coming from an idealistic perspective where in a dream world the factors and end result actually make sense. However, many loud voices within the industry - reggae, Jamaica or otherwise - don't thi

Future legend Tarrus Riley dropped the first single from the forthcoming lovers rock album, Love Situation. Tarrus along with Jah Cure and Christopher Martin are this generations best lovers singers. All three sing interesting love songs. They bring a modern twist to the classic love song style, following on the legacy from the likes of Beres Hammond, Gregory Isaacs, Alton Ellis and John Holt. Speaking of Alton Ellis, this is a rocksteady one. And it's about people who "Wanna see us break up" as the brackets say. To be fair, that's probably a better title. "(Dem A Watch) Wanna See Us Break Up" mi say. Looking forward to the album. I swear this is the first time a Jamaican artists has actually called a song their first single? (It probably isn't but its that rare.) Pre-order the album Love Situations   from here

I envied everyone who attended and tweeted about Rebel Salute in Jamaica this past weekend. Rebel Salute is (probably) the biggest strictly roots reggae festival in Jamaica. Strictly uplifting and conscious songs, no meat or alcohol sold. Ital is vital. This year marked 20 years for the event which was increased to a two-day event last year as it outgrew itself.  As such, the line-up boasted majority of the artists I would like see. Recently, they have been adding dancehall artists, but using their birth name as it's more to do with the person than their alter-ego. Marion Hall (Lady Saw), David Brooks (Mavado) and Moses Davis (Beenie Man) to name most. The most intriguing performance, to me, was the Rodney Price performance. While the name "Bounty Killer" doesn't bring forth images of warm kindness and uplifting "reggae", to those that know his catalogue, he's one of the most conscious deejay's when he wants to be. Lets not forget this is a guy who

This is a big moment. Damian Marley has only been on three songs another artist cut a song on since Welcome To Jamrock fame. Not sure he was on many before. 2 of the 3 times (" One Loaf of Bread " and " The Mission "), his versions were the first out the gate so potentially scheduled as single projects. Both arguably overshadowed by the uprising star at the time, Mavado (" Me and My Dawgs " and " On The Rock " respectively). Third time he featured on a riddim was the remix of Mykal Rose's streets anthem " Shoot Out " on the riddim of the same name. Mavado took that one for me too ( "Life of a G" ). The difference here is Rootsman riddim is almost a year old, so him jumping on an already established riddim hasn't happened at all (if my memory serves me correctly). It's also one step closer to the leader of this current generation acknowledging the reggae revival movement which has been talk of the genre for a goo

I rekindled my relationship with soca in about 2012 (maybe 2011 - time flies). Mainly cos the DJ's don't select the right songs in clubs. Power soca (the really fast uptempo stuff) doesn't suit my settings in a club without water being thrown. The groovy stuff (more mid-tempo stuff) is more my vibe. I tell you when I started liking soca tunes again, "Wotless" by Kes the Band. Songs like that, Antilles riddim et cet. Afrobeats has always reminded me of soca or bashment. The three intersect really well. Following Busy Signal re-touching Sarkodie's bashment song "U Go Kill Me" for "Same Way", soca king Machel Montano brings his lively soca vibe to Timaya's "Bum Bum". "Bum Bum" is a song I can remember hearing in the club and thinking "What song is this ?!" I remember the club, the room, the man dem I was with and who I told the tune is a  banger. Thanks to Akosua Annobil for letting me know the song name