Turf Prez Style Magnificent Magnificent Magnificent Magnificent
Busy’s newest tune to touch the road is a standout cut off Seanizzle’s new “90s Don Dada” Riddim. The Turf Prez tears up this vintage-feel juggling—the style is magnificent and the damage is perdamanent. “Hotted”! Audio After The Jump… (more…)
The Song That Set Busy On A Next Level Back in 2008
The Turf Prez keeps the streets supplied with new music at such a frenetic pace that sometimes we fail to check the catalog deeply. From the moment Busy Signal “Stepped out” in the dancehall biz it was clear he was a talent to be reckoned with who was “not going down” any time soon. With his 2008 sophomore album Loaded he unleashed a lyrical fusillade entitled “These Are The Days” that made clear this was a youth who was operating on a much higher level than most of his peers in the music industry. Eight years later his fans have gained a greater insight into the angst that fueled these bitter bars, and our appreciation of Busy’s artistry has only grown over time. Lick it back from the top the very last drop. Video After The Jump… (more…)
Turf Prez In The Drivers Seat—KUFF!
Today is Busy Signal’s birthday so we’re repping hard for one of our favorite artistes, the Turf Prez. In case you missed his most recent video, check out Sheik Busy stunting in outrageous whips while ripping up a classic dancehall riddim—Jammy’s “Magic Moment” riddim—inna style made famous by the great Shelly Thunder. The Jamaican national motto is “out of many one people” but this new selection from the Turf Prez feels more like an “out of many artistes I am the one” vibe. Judge for yourself (and let us know in the comments which of these cars you’d prefer to drive). Video After The Jump… (more…)
Tune In Pon This Brand New Heatmakerz Production Because Live Is For Living
“Everybody’s talking about the heartaches in the ghetto, and how it’s rough in the streets—and it is,” says Virgin-Islands born reggae singer Pressure Buss Pipe. “I wanted to turn it around and make people happy. Just make people see life in a different perspective and give thanks for what you have. We’re doing things different with the Heatmakerz.” Linking with the production team responsible for major hits by Lil Wayne and Dipset, Pressure created “Live Life,” his first original release on a hip-hop rhythm track. Video After The Jump… (more…)
New Banger Premieres Tomorrow Pon Boomshots
Pressure Buss Pipe made his name in the reggae industry belting out romantic tunes like “Love and Affection.” Since then the Virgin Islands native has showed his versatility on harder tracks like “Mental Disturbance” featuring Damian Marley and Tarrus Riley. “I got to New York to do some work with Mike P of Smokestack,” says St. Thomas-born singer Pressure. “He said we’ve got a studio nearby where we can work. But he never expressed how huge Heatmakerz were. When I realized who they were I was like ‘What? I know all of these people’s music! I’ve been listening to them for years—from Dipset to Juelz Santana to Jim Jones.’ So I finally got to meet them and they were into my music as well. Rsonist showed me that he was a fan of certain tunes I had done.” The song that resulted, executive produced by Smokestack Recordings, is the first time Pressure has released an original tune over a hip-hop track. “Everybody’s talking about the heartaches in the ghetto, and how it’s rough in the streets—and it is,” he says. “I wanted to turn it around and make people happy. Just make people see life in a different perspective and give thanks for what you have. We’re doing things different with the Heatmakerz.” Video After The Jump… (more…)
New Music & Visuals From Eric & Amp
First things first, this is not a social media song. “There’s two words and no dot com,” says vocalist/guitarist Eric Rachmany (also the frontman for Cali roots band Rebelution) of the latest release from Unified Highway, his collaborative project with renowned producer, DJ, and remixer Amp Live (formerly of Zion I). The duo’s self-titled debut on Audible Collision / Strange Focus Records embodies a fusion of reggae, electronic, hip-hop, alternative, and soul. “This song is kind of like inviting everyone into our vibe, the vibe we were feeling,” says Amp. “Me and Amp got together and we said ‘Let’s do this project’ and that was the first thing that came to mind,” Eric adds. “It just felt like an intimate guitar riff. I felt like the song was just asking me to sing about the mood, about being in my zone.” Unified Highway’s first song, “Stand Proud” ft. Keznamdi and Tahir Panton, premiered on Mass Appeal, who hailed both its conscious lyrics “unification of reggae basslines and dance-ready drum loops.” Since then they say the response has been “overwhelmingly positive” and when the album drops in March there are plans for live shows. “This album is actually pretty diverse,” says Eric. “Every song is a little bit different from the other, so we are excited for people to hear the diversity. Honestly, I’m not saying this to brag or anything but I really feel like this project is groundbreaking. It’s different from anything I’ve ever heard or been a part of… It’s weird, usually I don’t like listening to myself, but I thoroughly enjoy listening to this album. We do this for the fun of it and we want to keep on doing it. It’s a really fun collaboration and we’re really stoked that Boomshots is picking it up and promoting it.” Enough long talking let’s get into that space. Audio & Video After The Jump… (more…)
Anticipation Builds For The Now I Rise Project
A graduate of Kingston’s Calabar high school—alma mater of both Jr. Gong and Vybz Kartel—reggae/dancehall producer turned performer Andre Johnson aka Dre Island is emerging as a living link between the vaunted “roots revival” movement and the sound of the Jamaican streets. “The revival is really within the people. Reggae music never stop. Reggae artists always been touring. So it’s just the people’s awareness.” On the strength of his growing body of work, Dre has been named one of Mass Appeal’s “16 Artists To Watch in 2016.” More After The Jump… (more…)
New Year New Style New Dance A Lick—Out And Bad
The Mass Appeal massive already knows the deal. You’ve heard it straight from Migos: Dabbin’ is a way of fashion. But as you’ve no doubt noticed, this Dab thing is catching on in a big way—from Dabbin Santa to corny-ass college football coaches. Given Jamaica’s love for new dance moves, it was only a matter of time until somebody busted out a yardstyle take on the dab dance. As if on cue, here comes dancehall star Mr. Vegas—the same dude who gave us dance anthems like “Hot Wuk” and “Bruk It Down”—with a fresh new video shot in T-Dot and directed by Ty Black. In short, the ting tun up again. Video After the Jump… (more…)
The Chef Connects With Baka Over Walshy Fire’s Production— Accurate!
Any time you can get two of the world’s greatest living lyricists on one track for the first time, that’s a win. On “Skew It On the Bar-B” Andre 3000 and Raekwon brought A-Town and Shaolin together and the result was historic. On the fresh cut “Be Inspired,” Raekwon the Chef trades bars with Kabaka Pyramid over a hard-driving breakbeat. (Shout out to our peoples over at egotripland for the link.) If you can’t picture the Wu God kicking it with a dancehall reggae artist, perhaps you forgot about his Clarks game—not to mention that Wu-Tang “One Blood” joint. Let’s just say the homie Walshy Fire has made history with this one. Audio After The Jump… (more…)
Ziggy Stardust Inna Rub A Dub Style
In 1984, after his massively successful album Let’s Dance, and the subsequent Serious Moonlight Tour, the late great David Bowie went to Quebec, Canada to work on a follow-up album. “It was rushed,” he said later. “The process wasn’t rushed; we actually took our time recording the thing; Let’s Dance was done in three weeks, Tonight took five weeks or something, which for me is a really long time. I like to work fast in the studio. There wasn’t much of my writing on it ’cause I can’t write on tour and I hadn’t assembled anything to put out.” The resulting album contained not one but two reggae cuts—both covers of Iggy Pop records. (This was not Bowie’s first foray into reggae; his 1979 album Lodger contained the reggae vamp “Yassassin.”) In “Don’t Look Down” Bowie sang of “that crazy sound, from New York to shanty town” while “Tonight,” a duet with Tina Turner (whose “What’s Love Got to Do With It” was another stealth reggae joint), spoke of love’s power to overcome death itself. Bowie and Turner recorded their vocals sitting face to face. Audio After The Jump… (more…)
Straight Outta Ghana to St. Andrew Park
What’s fun to you? Kicking a soccer ball? Playing with kids in the park? Listening to some tunes? Fulfilling your lifetime dream of traveling from Africa to Jamaica and recording a full album with some of the greatest reggae musicians who ever lived? All those things converge with Allinor, a young singer from Ghana who took a leap of faith and caught a flight to Kingston in hopes of working with the legendary guitarist Chinna Smith, who played with everybody from Amy Winehouse to Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus to Robert Nesta Marley. His is the yard in St. Andrew Park mentioned in Jah9’s “Steamers a Bubble”—a place where serious reggae jam sessions go down on the regular. Allinor made the link with Chinna, sang him some songs, one thing lead to another, and before he knew it, the young African vocalist was standing in Harry J Studios laying down his debut album. The first video from said album dropped yesterday, and it’s filled with words of wisdom about how you can enjoy your life a whole lot more. How fun is that? Video After The Jump… (more…)
New Year, New Style, New Dance A Lick
It’s straaange how the dances are changing, as Barrington Levy observed many years ago. Just the other day our peoples at Mass Appeal made a flex down to ATL where the Migos explained the origins of the dab—the dance that looks sorta like you’re sneezing into your elbow. Trust me, it mash up the whole world. Given Jamaica’s propensity for dance tunes, it seemed only a matter of time until some savvy dancehall star stepped up with a yard-style dab. Now here comes Vegas, fresh from foreign, ready to buss the new dance in Jamaica. Gwan MV Music—Style them with the dab! Audio After The Jump… (more…)