Boomshots

Category: Reggae

  • Damian Marley, Shabba Ranks, and Burning Spear Speak on the Return of the Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise

    Damian Marley, Shabba Ranks, and Burning Spear Speak on the Return of the Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise

    All In The Same Boat, Rockin’ On The Same Rock


    “All in the same boat, rockin’ on the same rock,” Bob Marley sang on the Wailers’ 1971 classic “    Don’t Rock My Boat.” Produced by the late great Lee “Scratch” Perry, the song is a plea for unity in keeping with the time-honored values of reggae music. “Got to get together,” Bob sang, “loving each other.” Some forty years after its release “Don’t Rock My Boat” became a sort of unofficial theme song for the Welcome To Jamrock Reggae Cruise, an yearly musical excursion created by Bob’s youngest son Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley and his longtime manager Dan Dalton. Of course the official cruise anthem would be Jr. Gong’s Grammy-winning smash hit “Welcome to Jamrock.”

    “How blessed we are to have the opportunity to be doing this,” Jr. Gong said back in 2014 when the first Jamrock cruise set off from Miami to Jamaica, with an all-star lineup of the greatest Jamaican reggae and dancehall stars on board, as well as many of the world’s top reggae sound systems. “All of us who are on the cruise are part of a historic moment,” Jr. Gong predicted. “Both for ourselves and on behalf of the genre of reggae music.” Or as the world-famous recording artist and selector Shinehead put it that first year, “I only fantasized about shit like this. It’s like Rub-A-Dub Disneyland!”


    Over the next six years, the Jamrock Cruise emerged as one of reggae’s premier annual events, hosting historic performances year after year and selling out so quickly the organizers expanded to a larger vessel. As the sixth cruise wrapped up in 2019 with powerful performances by the likes of Koffee, Popcaan, Buju Banton, and Skip Marley, the Jamrock team was looking forward to smooth sailing ahead. But then as the new decade began, the whole world changed. 

    A worldwide viral outbreak shut down the cruise industry and many other aspects of life as we once knew it. Since then two Jamrock Cruises had to be postponed, and cruisers were invited to refund their deposit. “But many of our loyal supporters have held on to their reservations,” says Dalton. “I think people have been yearning for Jamrock more than ever. The community vibe on the ship has always been love and unity and diversity, celebrated under the umbrella of reggae music and Jamaican culture. This cruise is more than a festival to be honest. It’s not just a good time. Jamrock is more like a food for the soul kinda thing. Jamrock brings people together. That’s what reggae music always did.” 

    Today VIBE and Boomshots are announcing the official lineup for the seventh Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise, which includes two legendary first-time performers: Burning Spear and Shabba Ranks. Video After The Jump…  (more…)

  • WATCH THIS: Busy Signal “Cruising” Official Music Video PREMIERE

    WATCH THIS: Busy Signal “Cruising” Official Music Video PREMIERE

    The Turf President Takes A Smokey Robinson Classic To The Dancehall

    Busy Signal is dancehall’s most versatile hitmaker. Ready for some roughneck reality? Cue up “Stay So” and watch every badman in the place buss a blank. When it’s party time, drop “Watch Out For This (Bumaye),” his outernational Major Lazer collab, and watch the whole place tun up. If it’s bar work you want, check “All In One” and watch Busy brutalize a grip of classic hip hop beats like the five fingers of death. And when it comes to some smooth sounds for the ladies, the Turf Prezident knows just how to set a romantic mood. “Some of Busy Signal’s biggest hits have been on the lovers’ records,” says Junior Brown, founder of Nuh Rush Records. Romantic rub-a-dub selections like “One More Night” and “Night Shift” have become a highlight of every Busy Signal performance. Today VIBE and Boomshots proudly premiere the official music video for “Cruising,” a Nuh Rush production which is soon to become another fixture in Busy’s catalog. “This will be one for the books,” says Busy, describing his dancehall remake of the Smokey Robinson R&B staple. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to do such a classic song in my own way and style.” Video After The Jump…  (more…)

  • WATCH THIS: Morgan Heritage ft. Rytikal, Jahshii & I-Octane “Headline Fi Frontpage” Lyric Video PREMIERE

    WATCH THIS: Morgan Heritage ft. Rytikal, Jahshii & I-Octane “Headline Fi Frontpage” Lyric Video PREMIERE

    The Truth Must Reveal

    It’s been a long time since we’ve heard new music from Morgan Heritage, but today the Grammy-winning brothers Peetah, Gramps and Mr. Mojo came through with a hard-hitting new track featuring guest verses from some of the freshest young voices in the dancehall. Rising stars Rytikal aka Puryti—fresh off his victory in court—and the born fighter named Jahshii join veteran dancehall star I-Octane aka the Hot Ras to hold up a mirror to the ills of society and burn a hotter fire on the news media that pushes mindless clickbait while refusing to report the real story. This is what the late great Fela Kuti had in mind when he said “Music is the weapon of the future.”  Video After The Jump…
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  • WATCH THIS: Jo Mersa Marley “Eternal” Visual Mixtape PREMIERE

    WATCH THIS: Jo Mersa Marley “Eternal” Visual Mixtape PREMIERE

    A Day in the Life of a Young Lion

    “I don’t really walk around bragging about what I can and can’t do,” Jo Mersa told us the first time Boomshots interviewed him, during a London studio session in 2013. “I don’t talk about it,” he said. “When you hear, you hear it — and you get weh you get.” Since that first conversation, the young lion has demonstrated his “action speaks louder than words” approach to the game, heating up the streets with tunes like “Bad So.” The Comfortable EP would soon follow in 2014, and subsequent scorchers like “Rock and Swing” as well as standout cuts on various Set Up Shop compilations from the Ghetto Youths Camp in rapid succession. And let’s not forget those guest appearances on Stephen Marley’s Revelation Part 2: The Fruit of Life and Morgan Heritage’s Grammy-winning album Strictly Roots. Earlier this year, Jo Mersa stepped it up to another level with his Eternal EP.  “No more will I roam,” Jo Mersa states on the EP’s opening track, “Guess Who’s Coming Home,” meaning he’s staying close to home. Stylistically the project roams freely amongst varied sounds and styles. The first two singles from the project are the dancehall-flavored “Yo Dawg” featuring Busy Signal and “Made It” featuring rootical DJ Kabaka Pyramid. “I love dancehall just how I love reggae,” Jo told us from early. “Well, not just like — me love reggae more… But I still have a love for dancehall which I can’t ignore.” That love comes to the forefront today with as Boomshots proudly premieres the Eternal Mixtape, a collaboration with Bashment, Disco Neil, and Silent Addy, and hosted by Supa Hype. The Mixtape features songs from Jo Mersa’s critically acclaimed Eternal EP as well as exclusive freestyles and dubplates with guest appearances from Damian “Jr Gong” Marley, Kabaka Pyramid and Black Am I. Check out the world premiere of the visuals—shot and edited by Disco Neil—right here. Video After The Jump… 

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  • Rygin King and U Roy Collab on “Stop That Train”

    Rygin King and U Roy Collab on “Stop That Train”

    New Generation Meets Foundation

    “Me get a dream last night,” Rygin King sang, flashing across the stage at Reggae Sumfest 2018, “and the dream tell me things ah go change.” At that precise moment, three years ago this July, the young reggae star’s life changed forever. Rygin was chosen as one of three Montego Bay artists to headline Dancehall Night at Sumfest, Jamaica’s premiere music festival. To see his face on posters all over his hometown meant so much, especially in a year when MoBay was placed under a state of emergency due to an upsurge of violent crime in the city known as a picturesque tourist mecca. “A long time man a suffer,” Rygin sang in the early morning sunshine and the people felt it. “And all now, tings still a di same / Mi just wan’ yuh have faith fi mi / When mi touch di road Daddy pray fi mi.” Following that landmark performance, Rygin emerged as one of the hottest new artists in Jamaica, flooding the streets with big songs like “Powerful,” “Star Life,” and “Clean,” and booking lucrative gigs in the U.S. and Europe. On his 2021 release “Stop That Train,” Rygin collaborates with the late great Daddy U Roy, a dancehall pioneer who took sound system slang to the top of the charts back in 1970. Besides showing the power of his vocals on the historic collab, Rygin also connects dancehall’s new generation with its foundation. “It’s a great feeling to collaborate with a legend like Daddy U-Roy,” says Rygin King. “Not many people end up on a track with one of their elders, so I want to give thanks to everyone who made it possible… big up Trojan Jamaica and U-Roy. ‘Stop That Train’ is a classic song that is part of our culture.” Video After The Jump…  (more…)

  • WATCH THIS: Skip Marley “Let’s Take It Higher” A Boomshots Documentary

    WATCH THIS: Skip Marley “Let’s Take It Higher” A Boomshots Documentary

    Awards Are Nice, But This Two-Time Grammy Nominee Answers To A Higher Calling

    “Live if you wanna live,” Bob Marley declared at the outset of his landmark album Rastaman Vibration, released almost 45 years ago, in April 1976. In the years before Legend, Bob Marley & the Wailers’ 1984 greatest hits collection, which remains the best-selling reggae album of all time, Rastaman Vibration was the record that broke Marley to American audiences, becoming the first Marley LP to reach the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

    On the second track, “Roots Rock Reggae,” Marley took new listeners by the hand and introduced them to a new sound from the faraway island of Jamaica. “Play I some music,” Bob sang, and the I Threes—Rita Marley, Marcia Griffiths, and Judy Mowatt—replied in unison, “This is reggae music.”

    At the start of the second verse, the Tuff Gong pleaded with industry gatekeepers and radio programmers. “Play I on the R&B,” he sang. “I want all my people to see. We’re bubbling on the Top 100 just like a mighty dread.” Bob’s prophecy was fulfilled when the song reached No. 51 on Billboard’s Top 100, but R&B radio would prove harder to penetrate. The top R&B song of 1976 was “I Wish” by Stevie Wonder, who had performed with Marley at Jamaica’s National Stadium the year before. But even white groups like The Steve Miller Band, The Bee Gees, and Hall & Oates were getting more love on American R&B radio than Bob Marley at the time. By 1980 Bob was booked as an opening act for The Commodores at Madison Square Garden, and famously upstaged the headliners but Marley’s earthly mission was soon cut short, to be continued.

    In May 2020, Bob’s grandson Skip Marley reached the top of Billboard’s Top Adult R&B Songs airplay chart with a gorgeous duet called “Slow Down” featuring R&B superstar H.E.R. The artists’ creative chemistry and song’s video made the track a fan favorite. “Slow Down” is nominated for Best R&B Song at the 2021 Grammy Awards this weekend. Skip’s debut project Higher Place is also nominated for the Best Reggae Album Grammy, a milestone in the 24-year-old singer/songwriter/musician/producer’s career.

    In “Let’s Take It Higher,” a new Boomshots documentary premiering today on VIBE.com, Skip reflects on the honor of being nominated for the prestigious awards and of carrying on a mighty legacy in his own unique style. Video After The Jump…
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  • WATCH THIS: Yaadcore “Tension” Official Music Video PREMIERE

    WATCH THIS: Yaadcore “Tension” Official Music Video PREMIERE

    Ask Nuh Question, Nuh Badda Mention

    Did you ever notice something about this journey called life? Funny how sometimes your moment of elevation is the same moment people around you start to feel you gone past your place. When things come to bump, you may be surprised to know who might end up praying for your downfall. More time you find the situation can lead to tension. Like just this morning, Yaadcore forward with a. big new tune. Caan say you never know—it’s been all over social media all weekend. In case you never get the memo, the top rootsman selector of this generation has his own label imprint 12 Yaad Records—because who better to curate some serious sounds? Elevation we say. And yes, he’s an artist too because why not?  Video After the Jump…  

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  • Watch The Documentary ‘Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes’

    Watch The Documentary ‘Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes’

    New Doc Tells the Truth About Jamaica’s Recording Industry

    Lee “Scratch” Perry has seen it all. The notoriously eccentric reggae producer, vocalist, and visionary has created classics with artists ranging from Bob Marley & The Wailers to The Clash and The Beastie Boys. A literal living legend, he may be the only person on earth to have collaborated and quarreled with such iconic Jamaican producers as Coxsone Dodd, Joe Gibbs, and King Tubby—and outlived them all. When he burned his own Black Ark studio to the ground in 1979, people called him a madman, but Scratch just has his own way of doing things.

    One rainy night in the English countryside, the British filmmaker Reshma B sat with Scratch in a spooky old mansion, interviewing the man who’s also known as The Upsetter, The Super Ape, and Pipecock Jackxon for her film Studio 17: The Lost Reggae Tapes, which has its worldwide debut today on Quincy Jones’s Qwest.TV and Jay-Z’s Tidal. Video and Full Story After the Jump…
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  • Buju Banton’s ‘Til Shiloh’ Marks 25 Year Milestone

    Buju Banton’s ‘Til Shiloh’ Marks 25 Year Milestone

    Reasoning With The Gargamel On The Making of a Classic

    Before Buju’s landmark album Til Shiloh was released in 1995, he stopped by the VIBE offices to give me a preview. We shut the door of my office, popped a cassette in the stereo, and burned a spliff in the middle of the day while I heard songs like “Untold Stories” and “Til I’m Laid to Rest” for the first time. Songs like “Champion” and “Murderer” were already dancehall anthems, as was the late Garnet Silk’s “Complaint,” which Buju had enhanced with his raggamuffin DJ flow. As we wrapped up the listening session it became clear to me that Buju had created a timeless classic. A quarter of a century later, Buju has gone over many hills and valleys and he’s still standing strong. He appeared on the cover of VIBE in celebration of his long-awaited album, Upside Down 2020, which has since been nominated for a Best Reggae Album Grammy Award. And today Til Shiloh, recently certified gold by the Recording Industry Institute of America, marks its 25th anniversary with a deluxe reissue that features three exciting new tracks. In honor of the occasion, here is the converstion we had on that day back in 1995.  Interview After The Jump… (more…)

  • “Dreams To Remember” Happy Birthday Toots

    “Dreams To Remember” Happy Birthday Toots

    Memories of A Legend On His Earthstrong

     

    “Ready?” asked the drummer. “Yes sir!” Toots Hibbert replied.

    The year was 1968, and Toots and the Maytals were about to make history at Federal recording studio in Kingston, Jamaica.

    The drummer, Winston Grennan of Beverley’s All-Stars, counted off “1, 2…” and the band began to play a brand new sound. The fast-paced ska beat that took Jamaica by storm in the early ’60s had given way to a slower, sweeter sound known as rock steady around 1966. But on this day, the Maytals — a vocal trio comprising Toots and his friends Henry “Raleigh” Gordon and Nathaniel “Jerry” Mathias — were cutting a song called “Do the Reggay.”

    Where rock steady songs were more delicate and romantic, the reggae beat was raw and muscular.

    “I want to do the reggay with you,” Toots sang, his powerful voice cutting through the rhythm.

    “Yeah yeah!” Raleigh and Jerry harmonized.

    “Is this the new dance?” Toots went on. “Going around the town?” As soon as their song hit the streets, everybody in Kingston town wanted to do the new dance too.

    Toots said the name was inspired by Jamaican slang for girls you see on the street. “From streggae to reggae,” he explained.

    If you can sing a song that spawns an entire genre, that’s something. But if that genre goes on to impact global culture for the next half a century or so, you must truly be something special, someone astonishing. “Reggae has gone around the world now,” Toots told me in 2016. “And I never copyright it. If I had charged like a few cents, one cent, I would be a millionaire now.” Full Story After The Jump… (more…)

  • WATCH THIS: Sizzla “Without You” Official Music Video PREMIERE

    WATCH THIS: Sizzla “Without You” Official Music Video PREMIERE

    Some Sweet Love Songs From Kalonji

    “Righteousness will always get a fight,” Sizzla Kalonji once told me, “and that is only to make you stronger.” That conversation took place in 1997, he year Sizzla electrified lovers of reggae and dancehall music with two landmark albums, Praise Ye Jah and Black Woman & Child. Sizzla has gone on to become one of the most prolific artists of his generation, releasing his most recent album, Million Times in September—a collection of 12 sweet love songs, touching on the sounds that made songs like “Just One of Those Days” and “Give Me A Try” so legendary. “Beautiful people want to listen to the beautiful reggae music,” Sizzla told me. “And you know reggae bashes against corruption. It’s not just a music to sing spirituality only and to make you feel good and sing love songs, conscious songs. And it’s good for social commentary, a very good music to be used for social commentary. And any little thing happen to the poor people, we’re quick to express ourselves on dancehall riddims and on the one-drop roots rock reggae riddim. And what we’re explaining and expressing is the total truth. It’s a music that can be used for expressing our innermost feelings and thoughts.” Today VIBE and Boomshots proudly premiere the new music video from the album “Without You.” Big Up Kalonji every time.  Video After The Jump…
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  • Ziggy Marley Votes For The First Time Ever

    Ziggy Marley Votes For The First Time Ever

    Music To Inspire A Movement

    No more long talking from politicians. Today, the people have their say at the ballot box. Judging by the number of voters who showed up early this year, the 2020 election is going to smash all records for voter participation. With a deadly pandemic, wildfires, floods, economic pressure, and a struggle for survival playing out from the tweets to the streets, the stakes have never been higher. All of which goes to show why Ziggy Marley decided to vote this year for the first time ever. Video After The Jump…

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