Marvin Sparks

If you haven't heard of Chronixx, he's the hottest new kids pon di ends, uzeen? One of the most exciting in the new wave of reggae musicians in Jamaica. Very versatile, can deejay, sing or a bit of both. ( Tumblr'd about him so check that song too.) The song we are here for today is "Smile Jamaica". (It isn't a Bob Marley cover.) Chronixx sings about falling in love at first sight with a woman from the tropics called Jamaica who has been abused and taken for granted even though she offered a lot. Sounds like someone or should I say somewhere I know... Hmm... Anyway, check out the potential Jamaica Tourist Board soundtrack and they may as well use the video as an advert too. Knowing JTB and their short-sightedness they won't, but hey, still for us to enjoy. Funnily enough, it's produced by Silly Walks Discotheque, a sound system from out of Germany. And while we're posting sunny songs with sunny videos on a really cold day in London, check ...

Dancehall artist's have a way about these male-female combination songs that no other genre seems to do as well. From songs like Shabba Ranks & Krystal - " Twice My Age " in the '80s, Terror Fabulous & Nadine Sutherland - " Action " in the '90s and Sean Paul & [insert female] - "[insert song choice here]" (we'll say Cecile - " Can You Do The Work? ". And who can forget incredible (and infamous) Spragga Benz & Lady Saw - "Backshot" and Vybz Kartel & Spice - "Ramping Shop"? Female to male conversation songs aren't done on the same scale in any other genre and to this quality. Ok, so now I've set the scene, get those out of your head or your expectations will be too high. Went on a little reminiscing/informative bit there, I wouldn't even say this is a classic jam like the above HOWEVER, the song is a floor filler, bumper-to-front type song. Instantly caught my ear on a mix CD i...

Three things this week showed me the decline in our (influenced but) individual London culture. We know music is a good indication of what's going on in certain regions. Not always 100% correct, but an alright indicator. First thing: So Solid concert In the run-up to the concert, Twitter was awash with people reminiscing on those days, 12 years ago when the southwest London collective were the hottest property on underground and crossed over to the nation through #1 single "21 Seconds" and platinum-selling album, They Don't Know. The 35+ member crew won MOBO and a Brit Award for best video, performing at both. They weren't only trendsetters for music, the movement spearheaded fashion on the ends. We all wanted Avirex jackets and Audi TT's. During the reminiscing sessions, we discuss clothing: Nike TNs to Reebok Workouts on our feet, clima fit hats, cloud Moschino jeans, Iceberg History shirts, Patrick Cox loafers... those were a few things we wore 12 y...

New wave roots reggae artist Protoje drops the video for the third single lifted from second album The 8 Year Affair. Appears as the second track on the album, but it's really the first as the opening track is more an intro. Serious bass line on this one reminiscent of 80s reggae/dancehall produced by cousin Don Corleon. Vibes I love. One of my favourite songs on the album. Review to forward some time soon. I want to fully digest it enough times before I make judgement. My review on first listen would've been a lot different to what it would be right now. May change again, so we'll see. Check back again next week. In the meantime, check the video captured in the beautiful Kingston, Jamaica as Diggy and friends promote his album listening session which was held at Edna Manley Arts college. I think it's all on Hope Road as you will see the crew walking past Bob Marley museum. Catch cameos from fellow new wave artists Chronixx, Jah 9, Kabaka Pyramid, No Maddz and more....

So, I've waited this long to post this entry. I apologise, hopefully you still enjoy it.  Here's last years edition If you wanna read a breakdown of reggae and dancehall from Jamaica, check Erin McLeod's breakdown here Disclaimer: your favourite song may be missed. That's how it goes sometimes. 2012 was Jamaica's 50th year of independence from Britain, so it's only right I follow up last years post. I wrote a series of posts dedicated to how Jamaica has given back to "Mother Britain" since independence through various styles of Jamaican-infected UK music. You can check that out here . I also interviewed grime god father Wiley on how Jamaican and other Caribbean music influences him and shaped our scenes. Click read more below to, er, read more.

This year has been a pretty cool year ya na. Very interesting stuff occurred. Plenty things I will never experience again in my whole entire lifetime. (This post is a thought train written for the older me to look back on. Hopefully it isn't too rambley.) My five fave moments in the order they happened: 1. Top of the year I had a debate on Jump Off's YouTube channel about the origins of grime. Basically saying our scenes are not an American imitation. Hip hop DJ Snips was my opposition. Judging by the comments I was right... We both knew we weren't really arguing on that big a difference, but ultimately, I was right. My maiden appearance on YouTube. 2. Funnily enough, not long after the above debate came out, I got the opportunity to interview Wiley who gave me my favourite interview of the year. The Godfather of grime and I spoke about how dancehall shaped both him as an artist, as well as grime's foundations. Wiley has never and probably will never do an inter...

Yeah, I'm blogging about X-Factor. Normal service will resume on Monday. Just had to get this out there. For previous series' I sat on Twitter during X-Factor copying and pasting tweets for a series of posts for TweeteReviews . However, this year I didn't. The tweets weren't as funny as previous years, mainly because the contestants weren't as interesting. No Misha B, Cher Lloyd, devil woman, big chin chick, JEdward etc. I've been able to actually take in opinions now. First off I think people take the show way too seriously. I stopped being outraged from the first week when judges kept joke act Rylan in. Louis chose to save the chick, before changing his mind to save Rylan, then when Dermot asked him to repeat his answer he said "I wanna take it to deadlock". The only reason I felt outraged is due to the flip-flop blatant fishy movements by Louis. That was the last time I felt any outrage. Think that was the first week of live shows. 1. I th...