Boomshots

Tag: Tivoli Gardens

  • Marlon James Interview: “I Might Stay Away From Jamaica for a Little Bit”

    Marlon James Interview: “I Might Stay Away From Jamaica for a Little Bit”

    The Author of A Brief History of Seven Killings  Has Had No Reaction from the Marley Family

    Marlon James was born in Kingston, Jamaica, the son of two police officers. After earning a living designing album covers, he developed his interest in creative writing via the Calabash Literary Festival writer’s workshop. His debut novel, John Crow’s Devil, was published in 2010 by the Brooklyn-based indie press Akashic Books. His second, The Book of Night Women, about a slave rebellion on a 19th century plantation, won several awards, while the third, A Brief History of Seven Killings, published this October by Riverhead Books, has been hailed by the New York Times as “epic in every sense of that word: sweeping, mythic, over-the-top, colossal and dizzyingly complex.”  Interview after the Jump… (more…)

  • Gunman World: Inside Jamaica’s Shotta Culture

    Gunman World: Inside Jamaica’s Shotta Culture

    Exclusive Excerpt from Mass Appeal Mag Cover Story by Rob Kenner, Photography by Ruddy Roye

    Jesquan Spence was not quite two years old when he saw the police kill his father. “The soldiers come in and take ’way the phones and say everybody fi sit down,” says the child’s grandmother, Michelle Davis, recalling that fateful Monday, May 24, 2010. “Then some police come in. Them say, ‘How many man in here?’ And them point ’pon me son.”

    Jesquan’s dad, Errol Spence, was 22 years old, the only adult male in the Tivoli Gardens household where 17 family members and neighbors had been waiting out a government-imposed state of emergency for a week. Michelle Davis and Jesquan’s mother Jesean Williams will never forget the cops’ chilling words: “Them turn to us and say, ‘You know the good haffi suffer for the bad.’”

    “But me no badman,” Errol Spence protested as three heavily armed police officers ordered him out of his seat and walked him into the kitchen. “Dat you say?” one of them replied. “You gwan dead today.” Continues After The Jump… (more…)

  • Tivoli Gardens Massacre Was Caught On Tape

    Official Documents Reveal U.S. Spy Plane Was “Filming Continuously”

    An article in The New Yorker magazine titled “A Massacre In Jamaica,” states that an American spy plane monitored the incursion into Tivoli Gardens on May 24, 2010—a failed attempt to capture Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, the Tivoli don facing drug and weapons charges in the U.S. At least 74 people were killed during the joint police/military operation. (more…)

  • HEAR THIS: Damian Marley “Just Ain’t The Same”

    Jr. Gong Switches Up His Flow, Kicks The Half That’s Never Been Told

    From birth, Damian Marley has been exposed to real situations that most of us could never even imagine. But every once in a while he lifts the curtain and lets his fans glimpse the innermost thoughts of a champion in action. His remarkable new tune “Just Ain’t The Same,” is as real as it gets, treading on all sorts of touchy topics with righteous abandon. (more…)

  • Vivian Blake Sets The Record Straight

    Trying To Live Peacefully But… “They keep mixing me up in politics.”

    The former Shower Posse boss as he appeared on BET’s American Gangster.

    This past week, rumors that Vivian Blake had been killed in Kingston were running wild. Ever since the former Shower Posse leader returned to Jamaica this past January after serving time in U.S. Federal prison, he has kept a low profile and focused on writing and taking care of his health and his family. When reports of his death began circulating on the evening of September 21, U.S.-based film producer Curtis Scoon reached out to Blake, who granted this exclusive interview in hopes of separating fact from fiction. (more…)

  • HEAR THIS: Vybz Kartel “Sup’m Ago Happen”

    One of the realest tunes to touch the road in a long while.

    “Some question Di Teacha woulda ask…” Class is in session. (more…)