Chronixx Hails His Empress
The Bad Boys of Reggae Link With J Boog
Fresh off a successful tour with SOJA, California-born and Hawaii-based reggae artist J Boog, releases a track with reggae’s “Bad Boys” Inner Circle and their late great vocalist Jacob Miller. Having topped the reggae charts for consecutive years with his 2011 full length release Backyard Boogie, J Boog has since graced the world stage with some of reggae’s most popular talent. In this track he updates a classic Heptones selection alongside the voice of the “Killer” Miller. Audio After the Jump…
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…)
Yaadcore Back In New York City By Popular Demand
Receiving world-wide acclaim in the reggae and the general music community, Rory Cha aka Yaadcore was invited by three different venues to have a musical Ethiopian Christmas in New York City.
Interview After The Jump…
Multi-genre Playlist of Songs That Are Already Moving the Massive Internationally in 2016
The start of the New Year could not be any better. This playlist highlights ten notable releases between the end of last year and the beginning of this year, that are stirring up the musical anticipation for the rest of 2016.
More After The Jump…
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…)
RDX Gets The Whole World Dancing
RDX is an abbreviation for Research Department Formula X, a high explosive developed by the U.S. military that’s more powerful than TNT. But today we’re talking about RDX the Jamaican dancehall duo, aka Renegade and Delomar, whose explosive catalog of high-energy tunes has made them a favorite of the island’s street dance scene. Their latest release, produced by Juss Kool, is a worldwide dancing anthem with visuals gathered from around the planet. The song is called “Foot A Talk” and Mass Appeal just premiered the music video. Run it! Video After The Jump… (more…)
Ten Years After Daseca’s Breakthrough Riddim, Serani Reflects
Multi-instrumentalist and producer Serani (former one-third of Jamaican producers Daseca) reminisced on the creation, influence and legacy of Anger Management riddim on its 10th anniversary. Though officially released towards the end of 2004, it buss (a.k.a. impacted) in 2005. Made on a PC via a Triton keyboard in not much time (approximately 15mins), it went on to become one of the most memorable, gun finger-raising (critically-acclaimed) riddims of the noughties. The era-defining riddim spawned hits by legends Bounty Killer (“Gun Heaven”) and Sizzla (“No Way”), an establishing star in Vybz Kartel (“War Nah Talk Over”) and kick -tarted the career of a young talent from Cassava Piece by the name of David Brooks, better known as Mavado (“Real McKoy”). Everything was light prior to Anger Management. And things in the dancehall became a helluva lot darker after it ruled the airwaves and the streets. Audio After The Jump…
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St. Paul Spitter And Spanish Town Stepper Join Forces In a Quest for Truth
When Kanye West features you on a track alongside Paul McCartney and Theophilus London, that’s what is known as a “good look.” Just ask Allan Kingdom, a Canadian-born African youth (mom from South Africa, dad from Tanzania) who’s now based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Yesterday he celebrated his 22nd birthday by gifting fans with a free album called Northern Lights. Features include D.R.A.M, Jared Evan, Gloss Gang—and, of special interest to the Boomshots massive, Chronixx di General. The misty, atmospheric song is all about misinformation, whether spread via church pulpit or tellers of tall tales. “I could kiss the ocean floor; I could dangle from the heavens; you a danger on the low,” Kingdom raps before Chronixx burns out “Stereotypes and all your labels” and pledges to “read with his three eyes wide open” in order to discern the truth. We already know Chronixx is a big Yeezy fan (see video below for proof); now he’s got a strong collab with one of Ye’s favorite youngsters. It’s only right—one good look deserves another. Audio & Download Link After The Jump… (more…)
USVI x JA x TNT x TDot Link Up On This Mega Refix
Over New Year’s weekend, Shaggy & Friends annual fundraiser went down in Kingston, Jamaica with the usual star-studded guest list—hailing from yard and abroad—all to raise funds for Jamaica’s Bustamante Hospital for Children. (That “one ticket = one life” slogan is no joke.) Amongst the headliners was R. City (formerly Rock City), the songwriting duo responsible for smash hits by the likes of Rihanna, Usher, and Chris Brown who now have some pretty big tunes of their own since dropping their debut album What Dreams Are Made Of last August. Although they’ve always been known as stars in their U.S. Virgin Islands homeland, Timothy and Theron Thomas only recently stepped in the international spotlight as performers and recording artists. Their Adam Levine–featuring single “Locked Away” had the pop charts on lock last year, and just in case you didn’t notice the tune’s dancehall drum pattern, they’ve dropped a remix featuring Assassin, Popcaan, Kardi and Bunji. The Thomas brothers stay repping the Caribbean all day long. Legal shot! Salute! Audio & Download Link After The Jump… (more…)
The Puku-Poo Posse Bugs Out With The Reggae Girl About Town
Last year No-Maddz burst on the international scene with a debut album, Sly & Robbie Presents: No-Maddz, that Billboard magazine (with an assist from Boomshots) ranked as one of the Top 10 Reggae albums of 2015. In fact we’ve been rocking with No-Maddz from long time—ever since we first bucked up Sheldon, Heavy, Birdie, and O’Neil on the set of Better Mus’ Come it was clear that these Bongo youths were destined for greatness. So when we caught their first performance on the big stage at Reggae Sumfest—shortly after the release of their 2012 EP NBO (New Bread Order)—their reasoning with the Reggae Girl About Town was something special. Check out the vibes for yourself. Video After The Jump… (more…)