Tour Life Is The Best Life
Reggae star I-Octane gives us a glimpse into everyday tour life. The video give us a look at his recent shows at #InDiDancehall show with Elephant Man in Delaware and Irie Jamboree at Barclays Center, Brooklyn featuring appearances from Beenie Man, Diva Nikki Z, Camille McDonald, Damian Marley, Lady Saw and some other familiar faces. Video After The Jump… (more…)
The Award Show’s First Ever Dancehall Showcase
Year in and year out, the BET Awards have become known for show-stopping performances. But the water-cooler talk this year isn’t about the latest hip-hop posse cut, it’s about the awards’ first-ever mashup of reggae and dancehall superstars. Opening with Dawn Penn’s Studio One classic “No No No” the set segued into Chake Demus & Pliers’ “Murder She Wrote” which had the venue of rap and R&B superstars skanking and raving as Jabba punctuated their precise singer and DJ routine with his energetic exhortations. Next up was Beenie Man doing “Who Am I” and “Rum and Red Bull” and then Elephant Man came through in a zebra-print jacket to shut the whole show down in true Energy God style and fashion. As Elephant Man put it: “Feel good fi know seh BET Awards a request Elephant Man U have a million artistes dem can call but dem call Ele.” Witness history in the making. Video After The Jump… (more…)
Some Boy Only Feel Bad, But Elly Real Bad
You already know Truckback and Payday Music do their thing a little bit different. Like this new tune from Elephant Man—it’s not a song; it’s a flippin’ movie. So it doesn’t come with a video, it comes with a preview. When their pretty blonde agent gets kidnapped, Elly and his team have to parachute in and extract her. And of course they brought along some tall-up guns with red and green lasers on top. Get the picture? Yup—bare badness. Video After The Jump… (more…)
Let’s Run Down RiRi’s Ragga Roster
Call us reggae conspiracy theorists, but isn’t it strange how folks forget that the world’s biggest pop star started out asa Bajan bashment gyal? Rihanna stepped on the scene during the summer of Diwali, flinging patois hooks and collaborating with Elly and Adi on her debut album. So why are people surprised that she stays tweeting Sizzla and Beres lyrics? “My favorite artists are all reggae artists,” Rihanna explained when her single “Man Down” dropped back in 2010. “I’m super inspired by reggae music… It’s been a part of me since I was born, and I grew up listening to it… I live that culture. I never get tired of it. I can listen to reggae music all day long, and it was exciting for me to do a song like this, especially with the lyrics being like that.” Although she still hasn’t taken up Lady Saw’s invitation to do what would surely be a crazy collabo, Rihanna has repped her island roots to the fullest over the years. Let’s take a minute to run down some of Rihanna’s best reggae songs (so far). List Begins After The Jump… (more…)
Epic Two-Part Video Takes Elly & Crew From The Swamp Around The World And Back
You’ve gotta love the new Elephant Man video from Terminal 4 Media. Not just because it’s hilarious seeing Elly and Ding Dong and Keiva and the Ravers Clavers crawling in the primordial ooze like a bunch of swamp creatures. And not just because they so clean up in the second half of the video, trash and ready and bush to the bone ready to floss around the world in yet another dancehall version of Psy’s runaway hit “Gangnam Style.” And not just because it’s great to hear Elly singing a ridiculous dancehall instructional video all hoarse and off-key and not giving a frack like in the good ol’ days. It’s a little bit of all those things, actually. “How dem say Ding Dong stop dance?” Elly asks, outraged. “A lie dem ah tell!” As silly as these songs are—and make no mistake, they’re pretty silly—there’s a serious subtext behind the whole thing. “Mek we bring back the dancehall,” Elly sings on the delightfully ear-splitting hook. “Mek we show dem how it used to be.” Which means you’ve got to come with a new style. Even if it means making up your face like a reptile and crawling in the mud. And of course “Badman Style” isn’t exactly new. Psy did it first. Then Mega Banton, Singer J, and G-Loc brought it into the dancehall. But theirs was more of a bad man badman thing. And you already know Elly’s thing is a dancing thing. As in not taking oneself too seriously. As in embracing the inherent silliness of the whole thing. As in having fun again. Just like it used to be. Video After The Jump… (more…)
Elly & Beenie’s Latest Release Hits Harder Than Hurricane Sandy
You know those soothing songs that increase your sense of inner peace and make you feel like life is good and all your troubles are a thing of the past? Well this is not one of those songs. Elly and Beenie got with Suku to build one of the wickedest bad man tunes to come this way in a hot minute. Sample lyric: “We ah plant bullet inna head like we do farming.” Get the picture? OK—good. Audio After the Jump…
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Shabba Ranks, Junior Gong, Beenie Man, Lady Saw, R. Kelly, Trey Songz, Bunny Wailer, U Roy, and More…
After months of waiting and anticipating, the 20th anniversary edition of “The Greatest Reggae Show on Earth” is all set to kick off in Montego Bay tomorrow night. Check out the full lineup and promo videos after the jump… (more…)
Backshot Did Nice, But Nothing Sweeter Than When She “Sidung Pon It”
Elephant Man and Lady Saw have joined forces for a crazy combination called “Sidung.” When it comes to slackness, nobody can touch Muma Saw, and she’s definitely been on a roll after tearing up not one but two tracks off Truckback’s “Sex Tape” riddim. Sounds like Elly’s hanging on for dear life on this blazing track produced by Jazzwad. Selectors take note—”Sidung” is the song to get the party started, or maybe the after-party.
2Hard Productions And DJ Engine Room Present A Three-Ring Megamix
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@MisterHarding previewed the latest 2Hard riddim last week, and this one bangs a little harder and faster than the City Life. Clocking in at 112 bpm, the Circus is packed with big-top names—Sean Paul, Elephant Man, Beenie Man, and Serani all take a turn at the mic—but don’t sleep on newcomers like and Chan Dizzy the delightful miss Denyque (aka Superwoman). (more…)
Sweet New Singer On The Scene Defends His Position
“My life soon sort out,” sings G Whizz on the slow-rolling Moodswing riddim from TJ Productions. And now that his tune has topped the Hype TV Top 20 chart for two weeks in a row, his words are coming true. But the competition isn’t sleeping… (more…)
Beenie Man Mashing Up On Da Reggae Tip Hammerstein Ballroom
Shout To LonestarSound. (more…)
Remembering Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson Aug. 18, 1962 – Sep. 1, 2009
Two The Hard Way: Steely & Clevie did it real big during dancehall’s digital era.
Even after reading the sobering words of his musical sparring partner Cleveland “Clevie” Browne in this Sunday’s Jamaica Observer, the untimely death of ace Roots Radics keyboardist and pioneering dancehall producer Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson still comes as a terrible shock. The 47-year-old musician, composer, and groovemaster has played such a vital role on so many classic reggae recordings—from Gregory Isaacs’ immortal “Night Nurse” to the ubiqitous Punany riddim to “Sorry” (by “the other Foxy Brown”) to dancehall blasters like Tiger’s “When” and Shabba Ranks’s “Ting a Ling” even soulful cuts like Beres Hammond’s “Double Trouble” and the hit remake of Dawn Penn’s “No No No”—that it’s hard to imagine Jamaican music without him. [UPDATE: V.P.’s new Reggae Anthology pays tribute to Steelie & Clevie] (more…)