Marvin Sparks

So a white American reggae band called Soja won the Best Reggae album award at the Grammy's? And you care because? You feel Jamaicans are losing reggae because the Grammy's (a white institution) gave their white American man award to a white American reggae band? You blame the Jamaican government for not showing enough love and support to the music because this is the result? But you don't realise you are giving the Grammy's that much power and don't see where the problem lies? Well let me tell you; the problem is within you. I understand the outrage. Jamaicans built the music and are rarely compensated for all the hard graft. There have been countless examples of the music being used by someone else, often to better results because we live in an ignorant and racist Western world. Historically, white reggae artists like The Police or UB40 are able to achieve better results in the white man's world than reggae artists that are far superior to them. Bruno Mars , J...

Before you continue, I'd just like to let you know I wrote a book about the golden '90s dancehall culture. You can get your copy from nolongstories.com First things first; I want it to be known that this is in no way an attack on the music I love. It’s constructive criticism which I hope is a guide towards a better future. Any good relationship requires communication about the good as well as the bad. Right now, I’d describe my relationship with dancehall music as complicated, strained may be more accurate. For the first time in my life, I don’t feel ashamed to say I’m indifferent to the current happenings. How did I get here? Well it’s due to a series of disappointments over the past decade. But before I explain how I arrived here, I’ll give a bit of background about myself. I’m Marvin Sparks, a mid-1980s born-and-raised Londoner (UK) of Jamaican heritage. I have visited Jamaica fifteen times since my first visit in 1990. My dad plays strictly Jamaican music in the car, mu...

For anyone who doesn't know, Drake - One Dance was number 1 in UK for 14 weeks and 10 week in US. It topped the charts in 16 countries. Drake is known as a hip hop artist but he dabbles in other styles of music such as dancehall, r&b and afrobeats. One Dance is a dancehall song which samples a UK funky classic and features afrobeats superstar, Wizkid. Truth is, if a Jamaican dancehall artist made One Dance in 2016 it probably would've been popular in dances but struggled to break through from the dancehall's to the charts. And that's if it wasn't deemed to pop sounding by core Jamaican dancehall DJ's. It could've been one of those rest of the Caribbean hits that does well in New York and the rest of the tri-state, Africa then hits Jamaica on the rebound. Most of those types of songs aren't worth the risk because many of them float in no man's land; not hardcore enough to fit dancehall DJ's sets, and despite its accessibility to the mainst...

Now I know I'm using mis-appreciation in the wrong context but you're just gonna have to see with me and basically deal with it. I like the title and the sense it makes in my head more than I care about my colonial tongue. This is why I love speaking slang. They stole my language so I'm misusing theirs. Seems like a fair trade to me which is more than can be said for the slave trade... There have been more than a few examples of non-Jamaicans practicing the fruits of Jamaican culture over the past few decades. Something that seems to have risen in popularity over the past 12 months. I don't beat this appropriation drum. I believe the difference between appropriation and appreciation is in the intention of the person using it, in my opinion. I believe most victims of "Appropriation" hounding committed their "crime" from a place of appreciation more often than not. Maybe I don't understand it well enough, maybe I'm naive but I don't see m...

The headline on the Croydon Advertiser read like something I'd have expected happened until the 90s at the very latest: Exclusive: Police accused of racial profiling after ban on 'unacceptable' Jamaican music https://t.co/zue8UD85ft pic.twitter.com/hwdARMrt7C — Croydon Advertiser (@CroydonAd) March 11, 2016 How is that even allowed in this day and age? A type of music that's commonly associated with participants securing a wine, daggering or bussing gun finger is related to crime and violence? That's what they're allegedly saying. The owners of Dice Bar were told “not to play bashman or John Paul”, translation: bashment or Sean Paul. We don't "bash" man, uzimi? And the only John Paul I know was the pope and I swear my man's reasoning with his peer Jesus while Selassie, Peter Tosh, Jacob Miller and Bob Marley bun him out? "We had a flyer which said R&B, garage, house, bashment and hip hop and I was advised to remove the word b...

So, if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know I've been fully hoping for Justin Bieber 'Sorry' to hit number 1 in the UK (it's number 1 song in the world on Spotify too). I was fully annoyed Adele released 'Hello' because it was a sure fire number 1. Well, four weeks into its release it finally reached the summit of UK's best selling singles - without an official video (the online dance video of girls from New Zealand doing dancehall moves doesn't count). Instead of the one week it'll get before Adele reclaims the spot this week, who knows how long it would've held the top for. This is the third time this year a mammoth song has kept a reggae or dancehall pop song off the top spot. R. City (' Locked Away ') were kept at number 2 the week Sam Smith released his boring Bond song, likewise Omi 'Cheerleader' was kept off for about four weeks due to Charlie Puth 'See You Again' featuring Wiz Khalifa (no typo) being a tribu...

Once again, I'd like to say mainstream approval is not the be all and end all, however it provides a very important cog in getting my favourite artists the ears they deserve. If a reggae song has the quality and steam to go forward and benefit from the exposure a national radio station, the biggest radio station UK can give, why shouldn't it be taken advantage of? As long as they hold their rights, own their stuff and aren't manipulated out of shape by the industry, I'm all for it. Give them their dues. Why hold everyone in a corner? It ain't for everyone, but for those who can benefit and help shine a light, go bring that light, bruv. I'm much more against making good music have to jump loads and loads of obstacles because of dated thinking, lack of resources afforded to independents and lack of opportunities given to non-US/UK/EU/AUS music. Fix that. I'd also like to take a moment to say I gave Protoje his first mainstream mention in 2012  (alongside ...

So, it was announced that Major Lazer 'Lean On' broke the record for most played song in Spotify's history . Small feat in that it's only one platform, but massive feat in that its still the most played song ever on a huge platform. But what does this mean? Well, what I get from it is confirmation of something I've always known. A dancehall song  can rule the world.

This is for those who said "We dont support each other in the UK" and the "We don't need US to rate us" crews. You lot don't know what youre talking about.This is inspired by them. But anyway, while the essence of the "We don't need US" statement is truth, it isn't wholly. Reason being, the fassies amongst us ("us" being those who believe the statement to be true) wouldn't be shouting about it without it. Let's be honest, until Krept & Konan charted without help from the corporations, media or the aforementioned fassies, UK rap was a road man thing. It wasn't a viable genre. It existed on YouTube, got high figures but so did " Charlie bit my finger ". It didn't really mean much beyond that.

So what I'm saying is, I know the success of "Cheerleader" by Omi is a major deal, but please, please, please, learn the right lessons from it. I noticed people only started cheering it on when it first touched the US charts despite it topping charts in 17 countries before. Typical, but very problematic issue that's happening in Jamaican media and filters to Jamaican music makers. Nobody seems to care even a little bit about the Jamaican music success outside of Billboard chart. I seriously have to ask "If a song is a hit outside of US, was it actually a hit?" We live in a digital age, information is easier to access than ever before, yet I get the impression that some are only slightly more knowledgable than when foreign distributors only communicated with producers they licensed from and the artists had no idea a big hit sold a single copy.

A compilation called Dancehall Reggae Anthems was released the other day, topping the iTunes album chart for four of the seven days in week of release and entered the official UK compilation chart at number 3. Of course, I was on hand to give daily updates - obviously. But then certain responses made me think: why do people make say "Yeah, but…" and "It's only because of…" type responses when reggae and dancehall does well? Is it just a lack of faith based on various reasons, lack of historical knowledge or a lack of faith because they lack historical knowledge?

Disclaimer:  This post is inspired by a conversation . One  of the people quoted in this post is someone I believe is a symptom of, not the problem so please understand this isn't a personal attack - it's addressing a wider issue. They were quoted for context so readers could fully understand wah gwaan. Also, they are knowledgable in certain aspects of black American and black British culture.   If you don't feel like you fit the category, you probably don't.  Bless up. Before we proceed, I'd like to start this post by quoting BDL founder, Big Narstie. "Black man can't fool again, my lard." This is a history lesson outside of Black History Month *gasp*. That's about Black American history anyway, so you wouldn't get this kind of stuff anyway. Also, make sure you understand the disclaimer before you get worked up or start drawing your own conclusions. A tweet I posted sparked a reaction yesterday. So much so, a long conversation followed ...

Now let me set this off right, I've felt away about the reaction to this for a while but I didn't have the right words to say at the time. Now I've formulated all my thoughts, I present this post to you. I'm not late, I'm on Marvin's time. And there's no time like Marvin's time. So if you aren't familiar with the story, Chronixx posted this the day everybody got a boner 'cos Obama said "Greeting's massive. Wah gwaan, Jamaica?" The picture was deleted not long after. Loads of people got really upset by this. And I mean, REALLY UPSET . Like, ABSO LIVID, MATE! The young artists page was inundated with comments ranging from "How dare you call Obama a waste man" to "Your VISA should be revoked".  Woah, woah mate, slow down innit. Funniest comment was in response to said "revoke visa" comment, which said "Revoke yu madda…" Mi laugh so til. (Basically, Jamaican artists require a visa to perf...

Hear what, yeah, I said it. And I ain't taking back no talk. And I ain't a post-Kanye West and Drake co-sign Skepta fan. Nor am I a deeper grime fan so I'm not gonna go into bere specifics. Nor do I feel its necessary to go into grand detail. I'm just here to talk about the greater cause. Skepta has helped bring back what it means to be a black Londoner expressing him/herself through music and that good stuff. When it comes to lyrics, Ghetto does a madness nearly every time he touches microphone, but best MC for me is Skepta. — Three Finger Sparks (@MarvinSparks) November 14, 2013 He balances studio & performance bars. Skepta can bun a rave with nuff sing alongs and I can listen to a tune in my yard — Three Finger Sparks (@MarvinSparks) November 14, 2013 @FunkButcher Internet is borderless so "we're the same". This is why Skepta/BBK's moves are so important. They're like the last ones left. — Three Finger Sparks ...

I wasn't even gonna address this but I had a vibes to so here it is. Everybody's been asking why there weren't any blacks at the Brits, so I thought I'd give a few answers based on what I see happening out there today. Most of the people asking the questions will happily admit they don't follow what's happening in the national charts. How does that even make sense then? In an ideal world, you should have a little bit of knowledge before speaking on things you don't know. Otherwise, you're just spouting ignorance. First things first, the Brits is there to celebrate the best of what's happening in the charts for a particular year. How they measure that, I don't know, but that's what it's meant to do. I also don't know the criteria for nominations, but whatever. Black artists accounted for a grand total of two nominations. George The Poet for Brits' Critics Choice and FKA Twigs in the Best Female category. Neither won. The bett...

First off, big up Red Bull. Bigging up the sponsors usually means this is a sponsored post. However, this isn't a sponsored post. They put on a big show and shoved 20,000 people into one place to experience Jamaican culture even if the music wasn't explicitly Jamaican. So big up Jamaica cos none of the music yesterday would exist in the way it does without it and there wouldn't be a format. Jamaica changed the way music was made and consumed. Both were on full display yesterday. Keywords:  Dub/dubplate/special = song cut specially to either big up your sound, kill another sound or both. Most "dub plates" are pretty much extinct - they're just specials - but everyone understands the term dubs. A$AP Flop = A$AP Mob First round = normal juggling/playing music Second round = hosting Third round = Sleeping with the enemy (playing other teams genres of music) Fourth round = dub for dub/five minutes to play songs I will update the post with videos as and ...

Came across this tweet today, (big up @MervinMartin_) the kinda songs I listen to on a daily basis. pic.twitter.com/HZNlKJUQAb — Zeena Xena (@ZeenaXena) September 11, 2014 Memories. The date was week commencing 20/August/2004. I remember these times because I was in New York when these songs were everywhere. Took me back to the year Sean Paul was nominated for Best New Artist Grammy. When dancehall videos by the likes of Elephant Man, TOK, Wayne Marshall etc., were all over MTV Base and Channel U. When Elephant Man was on every remix. When hip hop videos had dancehall dances and dancers. When r&b songs had a  dancehall groove. Number 1 on the US chart as pictured above, Fat Joe "Lean Back" Dancehall-friendly groove + dancehall dance (the rockaway). Elephant Man said "Them thief all me rockaway... cos we just dance it down [here]" referring to the above on "Father Elephant" Number 4: Kevin Lyttle "Turn Me On" This song is...

Yep, you read correctly. Bob Marley's thirty year old greatest hits collection, Legend, sits in the top ten both sides of the Atlantic. "How?" I hear you ask. Well, that's mainly down to Google Play selling the album for 99¢ in US . Not sure what happen but I'm guessing 99p in England? "Oh, that's obvious then," well, kinda but not really. Two questions I ask, why Bob Marley's album and why now? Is it the "Rude" effect ? "We love to celebrate artists like Bob Marley whose music is timeless and beloved," says Google Play head of global music partner management Gwen Shen. "Our hope is that this promotion ... will introduce his music to the next generation of fans and continue his legacy." For the record (pun intended), the set already peaked at #29 over here in the UK without any such promotion and has spent the last couple months in the top 75 (as it does every April to Sept/Oct when big guns come out). It is the...

Please note: this will go off on tangents. Work with me though. Firstly, I don't give too much of a damn like everybody else about American approval, but for what it's worth, this is a step in an interesting direction. A) Jimmy Fallon is a big American chat show and B) Chronixx has no rights being on there when you evaluate his stature in the grand scheme of things. Now let's get into the hype. Chronixx DELIVERED!!! He performs his most popular song in America (based on the #2 US reggae iTunes chart position), "Here Comes Trouble". When he kicked into Jesse Royal's " Modern Day Judas ", gun finger in the sky. Chucked in a little of Jah 9's " Reverence " too. I'm guessing the success of "Rude" opened the door for something like this to happen, and having a popular song, good social media numbers, touring schedule and credible press talking about you will clock these things into your favour. Plus, people in the rig...

Yeah I said it. That statement may come as a surprise to narrow-minded folk that believe it's impossible for someone who loves bashment (like me) to give an afrobeats artist that accolade. Maybe that's the case for some, but I have no qualms, mate. Here's why: He makes the truest music of any black artist in the UK on a known level right now (no bedroom guys/girls). His music is relevant to what's happening here in the UK - with the proliferation of house music in charts and dance floors - and his home country, Ghana, at the same time. There's very little compromise in what he's doing too. He's still the same guy we first knew to now - both lyrically and musically. And it works across generations. Kids love it, teens do and grown ups too. See, the reason why what he's doing stands out a whole lot more is mainly due to the rest of these guys out here replicating what goes on in a country we're already exposed to. Not to cuss 90s babies, but crit...