JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates dancehall legend Shabba Ranks’ 60th birthday.
Tag: dancehall
New Video: A!MS and ArrDee Team Up on Breezy and Soulful “Need Somebody”
Currently based in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, A!MS is an emerging and rising artist, who has developed a sound and approach that he has dubbed “Global Street,” which is informed by his multicultural background and blends hip-hop’s spirit, street culture, global sounds and digital-era creativity. The Cyprus-based artist sees this new, hybrid sub-genre as a home for artists beyond traditional scenes, that will unite voices from overlooked corners of the globe with a “as street, as it is worldwide” ethos.
His forthcoming album Peak Season will feature the previously released Antaeus-produced “Light & Love,” feat. Julian Marley and Hypertone while reportedly cementing his Global Street sound. Peak Season‘s latest single, the Golden Boy-produced, Stjge co-written “Need Somebody” feat. UK-based rapper ArrDee is a hook-driven, summery bop which continues a run of material that effortlessly blends Afrobeats, dancehall and hip-hop.
Throughout the song, the Cyprus-based artist and the UK-based rapper trade verses that deliver a much-needed message of escape, safety and uplift in our mad uneasy time.
Directed by WALKMNS, the accompanying video for “Need Somebody” is a slick and stylish visual that features some playful moments, including a young girl, who’s missing her two front teeth smiling for the camera.
New Video: Cyprus’ A!MS and Antaeus Team Up With Julian Marley and Hypertone on a Swaggering and Uplifting Dancehall Anthem
Currently based in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, A!MS is an emerging and rising artist, who has developed a sound and approach that he has dubbed “Global Street,” which is informed by his multicultural background and blends hip-hop’s spirit, street culture, global sounds and digital-era creativity. The Cyprus-based artist sees this new, hybrid sub-genre as a home for artists beyond traditional scenes, that will unite voices from overlooked corners of the globe with a “as street, as it is worldwide” ethos.
The Aiya Napa-based artist’s latest single, the Antaeus-produced “Light & Love,” features Julian Marley and Hypertone, on a swaggering dancehall/reggae anthem that includes subtle and brief nods to Anatolian music and house music, anchored around club rocking tweeter and woofer rattling beats, twinkling and arpeggiated keys, a sultry dance floor friendly groove and a remarkably catchy hook and chorus. While being a fun, summery bop, each vocalist delivers a desperately-needed message of love, unity, uplift, and cultural exchange and understanding through music — in a fraught, uneasy time.
“Light & Love” is the lead single to the Cypriot-based artist’s forthcoming album, slated for release next month, which will reportedly see him firmly cementing the Global Street sound.
The accompanying video captures the swaggering, attention grabbing energy of the song while being remarkably stylish.
New Video: The Legendary Calypso Rose Teams up with Carlos Santana and The Garifuna Collective on “Watina”
Born Linda McCartha Monica Sandy-Lewis in Bethel Village, Tobago, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to a religious, fisherman father and a stay-at-home mother, the legendary Calypso Rose first started writing her own songs when she was 13. In the 1960s, the Mother of Calypso emerged as the epitome of Caribbean music: Her first commercial successes included 1966’s “Fire In Me Wire,” which she performed with Bob Marley & The Wailers in New York the following year.
Throughout her lengthy almost 60-year music career, the Mother of Calypso has written more than 1,000 songs and recorded over the 20 songs — all while being the first major female calypso star. Her lyrics frequently tackle issues like racism and sexism: in fact, her towering influence on calypso forced the renaming of the Calypso King competition to the Calypso Monarch, which she won in 1978.
Since 2015’s Far From Home, which featured multiple collaborations with Manu Chao, Calypso Rose’s career has seen a resurgence — with booming attention internationally. She has been busy spreading calypso around the world, playing around 200 shows in a four year span including sets at Les Vielles Charrues, We Love Green, and WOMAD festivals, as well as Paris‘ Olympia Hall. In 2019, the calypso legend played at Coachella, becoming the oldest artist to ever play the festival.
Throughout her career, the calypso legend’s work is rooted in a remarkable and infectious optimism: While she continues to tackle issues like feminism, sexism, racism and the fight for a better, fairer world for individuals and for everyone, her work has always seen her bring up hedonistic subjects like partying, sex, the energy of youth and the like with a playful, knowing sense of wisdom and humor, which continues on her forthcoming album Forever, which is slated for a an August 26, 2022 release through Because Music.
Forever‘s material in particular conveys strong messages about the status of women in the various neighborhoods across the world she’s come to know well and love: Jamaica, Queens, NYC; her homeland of Trinidad and Tobago; Paris; and Belize. Each of these places have influenced and nourished her work — and in each, was where portions of the album were recorded. Unsurprisingly, the global spanning nature of its recording, allowed for so many difference influences on its overall sound: The material draws from across the Caribbean Diaspora, including rocksteady, soca, ska, mento — and of course, calypso.
The album sees the calypso legend presenting original material with a distinctly modern approach and revisiting some of her greatest classics. The end result is an album that attempts to speak to everyone — and to transcend all ages. Forever sees the Mother of Calypso collaborating with a diverse and eclectic cast of artists new and old throughout it’s 14 tracks, including Manu Chao, soca king Machel Montano, Jamaican dancehall icon Mr. Vegas, Toulouse, France-based emcee Oli, electronic duo Synapson and a lengthy list of others.
Forever‘s first single, the shuffling, genre-defying “Watina” which sees the Queen of Calypso collaborating with Belize’s The Garifuna Collective and the legendary Carlos Santana, who contributes some fiery and lysergic guitar licks effortlessly meshes dancehall, ska, soca and calypso in a crowd-pleasing, accessible and celebratory fashion — while telling a larger story of the ills of colonialism and slavery that’s familiar throughout the region.
With “Watina” in particular, Calypso Rose and company pay homage to the Garifuna, a Caribbean people scarred by slavery, excluded from history and memory but whose population is spread across the US, as well as the coasts of Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and the Calypso Rose’s beloved Belize, which has been a part of her life in some fashion for over 40 years. “Watina” was originally a local hit for The Garifuna Collective, founded and led by Andy Palacio until his death in 2008.
Interestingly, “Watina” was produced by Calypso Rose’s longtime, Belizean-born producer Ivan Duran. Duran worked with Palacio and The Garifuna Collective and according to Duran, the legend was the only person, who could recapture the frenzy and impact of the song while respecting Palacio’s legacy.
By recording and re-imagining the song with many of the same casts of musicians sees the Trinidadian legend reaffirming her ties to Belize while continuing to exploit the dichotomy between the song’s upbeat, festive spirit and its social — and historical — message.
Directed by Andrés Arochi Tinajero, the gorgeously cinematic, accompanying video was shot in Hopkins Village, Belize. The video lovingly captures Black and Afro-Latino joy, dedication and love in a way that makes my heart sing — and is infectious.
New Audio: Emerging Artist Mighty Koba Releases a Summery Club Banger
Mighty Koba is an emerging and somewhat mysterious Cameroonian-American singer/songwriter. His latest single “Whine Poko” sees the emerging artist seamlessly bridging multiple cultures and styles with a slick and breezy dance floor friendly production featuring elements of Afrobeat, Afropop, reggae, dancehall and soca paired with an infectious, razor sharp hook.
With the temperatures dropping a bit here in the Northeast as we push further into Fall, “Whine Poko” at the moment is simultaneously, a nostalgic blast of summer and the sort of song you want to wine down with that pretty young thing at the club.
Featuring an accomplished array of players including former and current members of Antibalas, The Easy Star All-Stars, The Skatalies, Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaries, The Far East and others, the New York-based collective Combo Lulo initially was conceived a studio project that convened to record a handful of cuts for New York-based label Names You Can Trust (NYCT), including their debut single, released in May 2018. That single, which featured a hybrid of cumbia and reggae helped to quickly establish their sound — a sound that effortlessly draws from and bounces around the Caribbean, finding common threads between cumbia, rocksteady and dub.
Their debut single sold out in a few months, through good, old-fashioned word-of-mouth. Adding to the growing buzz surrounding the collective, the B-Side single “Canto Del Sol” was featured on NPR’s Marketplace in 2019. 2019 also saw the release of their second single, “The Sieve & The Sand,” which found the members of Combo Lulo incorporating elements of Ethiojazz and Afrobeat while maintaining a spacey, Roots Radics sort of groove.
The collective then teamed up with Panamanian soul singer Ralph Weeks for rocksteady ballad-like re-work of his 1969 slow jam “Algo Muy Profundo/Something Deep Inside” to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the original’s release. Much like their debut single, their collaboration with Ralph Weeks quickly sold out — while becoming a stable of DJ sets in clubs across Paris, Mexico City, and Los Angeles.
Building upon their rapidly growing profile, Combo Lulo will be releasing their highly-anticipated full-length debut Neotropic Dream on May 8, 2021. The forthcoming album’s latest single “Culebra Mentirosa” features a collaboration with Alba and The Mighty Lions’ Alba Ponce De Leon is a slick and soulful synthesis of dub, dancehall and cumbia centered around infectious and shuffling riddims.
“‘Culebra Menitrosa’ came about because we’re huge fans of Alba Ponce De Leon and her group, the Mighty Lions (also on NYCT),” Combo Lulo bandleader Michael Sarason says in press notes.”She’s got such a classy and nuanced sound as a singer, I thought it would work really well with our music. We invited her to come to the studio and after listening through some tracks, we spoke about the idea of writing a song in the form of a parable and using the animal kingdom as a device to tell that story. The concept came together quickly and Alba developed her lyrics and melodies on the spot. When we were mixing it, we tried to imagine what it might sound like if the classic Colombian Cumbia singer Leonor Gonzalez Mina had flown to Jamaican to have King Tubby mix her album. As I listen back now, I can hear all of that in the final version.
New Video: Emerging British Artist Shana Releases a Sultry and Self-Assured Banger
Shana is an emerging London-based, Nigerian-British artist. Her second and latest single “No Rainy Days” is a slick and self-assured mix of Quiet Storm R&B and dancehall, centered around stuttering beats, shimmering synth arpeggios, an infectious radio friendly hook, and the rising British artist’s sultry vocals. Coming from — presumably — a new artist, the song is a breezy yet grown and sexy declaration of desire, longing and devotion that feels like a contented sigh.
Filmed and edited by Oliver Brian Productions, the recently released video for “No Rainy Days” follows the emerging artist through her daily life in London while spending time with her beau — and it captures two absolutely beautiful black people in love.
Denzel White · KILLA DEM (feat. AshtnMrtn)
Denzel White is a Brooklyn-born, Elmont, NY-based singer/songwriter, who can trace much of the origins of his musical career to growing up in a musically inclined West Indian family of DJs and emcees, who played a diverse and eclectic array of music. Being surrounded by music inspired a young White to join his high school choir, which helped him develop and hone his own craft as a vocalist.
While attending Binghamton University, White was approached to Join The Koyas, a local jam band as their lead singer. The septet quickly took the campus by storm, performing at a number of school events before winning the school’s Battle of the Bands two years in a row. Upon graduation, White and the members of The Koyas traveled to New York for a handful of live shows, including opening slots for Dwele and A Tribe Called Quest’s Phife Dawg.
The Koyas split up in 2011. Each of the band’s individual members went on to pursue different creative pursuits with White eagerly starting a solo career. For inspiration, the Brooklyn-born, Elmont-based singer/songwriter studied the work of Patti LaBelle, Luther Vandross, and Maxwell, eventually cultivating his own vocal styling, which blends contemporary elements with old school soul.
His debut effort, 2015’s Lehkz, Allen Ritter and Mike Urena co-produced The Prequel found the Brooklyn-born, Elmont-based artist establishing a concrete artistic vision, with the material centered around pieces of his life story — primarily his fears and feelings that would otherwise be left unsaid. Since the release of The Prequel, White has released a handful of singles including 2016’s “Get To You” and 2017’s “Alright,” which has amassed over 150,000 streams. His latest track, “KILLA DEM” is collaboration with AshnMrtn centered around an infectious hook sultry Dancehall riddims, twinkling synths, wobbling low end and swaggering vocal turns from the duo that manages to be summery, club banger with a contemporary, radio friendly production.
Born Mark Anthony Myrie, the Kingston, Jamaica-born and-raised dancehall legend Buju Banton is widely considered one of the most significant, well-regarded and commercially successful recording artists in Jamaican music. Starting his career back in 1987 with a string of singles, Myrie came to national and international prominence with his first two albums, 1992s Stamina Daddy and Mr. Mention — with Mr. Mention at the time, becoming the the best-selling album in Jamaican history. Adding to a breakthrough year, he broke Bob Marley‘s record for #1 singles in Jamaica.
1993 saw the Kingston-born and-based dancehall artist sign with Mercury Records, who released that year’s Voice of Jamaica. Interestingly, by the mid-1990s his work became more influenced by his Rastafari faith — especially on albums like ‘Til Shiloh and Inna Heights. As a result of his critical and commercial success, Banton has collaborated with a number of internationally renowned artists in a variety of genres and styles including hip-hop, Latin and punk rock, as well as Bob Marley’s sons.
The dancehall legend recently released an appropriately titled 4/20 anthem “Ganja Man.” Fittingly, the track is all irie vibes and strutting riddims paired with Banton’s imitable vocals. Puff, puff pass y’all. And happy 4/20 to those who celebrate!
New Video: Montreal’s Jonathan Emilie Releases an Infectious Dancehall Banger
Jonathan Emile is rising Montreal-born and based, Jamaican-Canadian singer/songwriter. Emile’s latest album, the Paul Cargnello and Christopher Cargnello-co-produced Spaces In Between finds the Jamaican-Canadian singer/songwriter delving deep into his roots with the album’s material borrowing from several styles of Jamaican music, including acoustic and traditional roots, reggae pop, Dancehall, dub and hip-hop. Released through Montreal-based record label, MindPeaceLove Records, the album is the first album by a Quebec-based artist to be distributed through Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong International.
So far two singles off the album have been released to praise by the media internationally — the energetic “Savanna” and the gospel-folk influenced, acoustic ballad “Moses.” The album’s third and latest single is the hook-driven and breezy dancehall anthem “Just A Likkle More.” Centered around bursts of shimmering guitar, thumping beats. an upbeat riddim, and Emilie’s easy-going and mellifluous vocals, the song is a blast of summer warmth — and perhaps more important, an old-school, feel good love song. It’s the sort of song that will make you find that special someone and do that old-school two-step with them.
Directed by Pete Beng, the recently released video for “Just A Likkle More” was cinematically shot in Westmoreland Jamaica. Throughout the video, the viewer gets a taste of daily life in Westmoreland, as we follow its protagonists — a beautiful and madly in love Black couple. And much like the accompanying song, the video is upbeat and playful.
New Video: L’ENTOURLOOP Pays Homage to Classic French Cinema in Visual for Swaggering and Thumping “Bangarang”
L’ENTOURLOOP is a fairly mysterious Saint Etienne, France-based soundystem crew led by founding members Sir James and King Johnny. Inspired by old school soundystem crews, vinyl culture and classic cinema, the duo’s sound is a fusion of reggae and hip hop featuring scratches and samples with a vintage feel.
Building upon a growing profile in their native France, the act collaborated with Jamaican dancehall artist Skarra Mucci on the recently released 6 song EP Golden Nuggets. “Bangarang” Golden Nuggets latest single is centered around tweeter and woofer rocking beats, chopped up vocal samples, stuttering percussion and Skarra Mucci’s swaggering, rapid-fire patois. The track manages to be a club banger with a mischievously anachronistic air — as the song finds the duo walking a line between the sounds of the mid 90s and right now.
Directed by L’ENTOURLOOP, the recently released video for “Bangarang” is a vividly colored and slickly edited homage to classic, French cinema centered, edited to the thumping beats of the song.
Live Footage: Burna Boy Performs “Anybody” for Vevo CTRL
With the release of 2013’s Leriq-produced full-length debut L.I.F.E., which featured attention-grabbing singles like “Like to Party,” “Tonight”, “Always Love You”, “Run My Race” and “Yawa Dey,” Burna Boy, a Nigerian Afro-fusion singer/songwriter, born Damini […]
Born Damone Gervais Walker in Kingston, Jamaica and raised in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, Jamaica,the up-and-coming emcee, songwriter and dancehall artist, best known as DeeWunn can trace the origins of his music career to roughly 2006 when he had his first child while working as Medical Records Clerk at Kingston Public Hospital. Never one to be satisfied with the mundanity of the 9-5 life, he found himself creatively bursting at the seams. Feeling as though he lacked the freedom he needed to truly required to attain his dreams, the up-and-coming Jamaican dance hall artist made a leap of faith by quitting his day job to start a music career. At one point, he was an in-house writer for GeeJam Studios, writing songs for Mystic Davis, Charly B., A-Game, Nailah Blackman, Nordia Baker, Lily Allen and others.
Dancehall act Ward 21 scooped up Walker as a songwriter and vocalist in 2010 — and while as a member of Ward 21, he spent time penning songs for labelmates like Timberlee, Natalie Storm and others. In 2013, Walker’s Kunley McCarthy-produced “Mek It Bunx Up” featuring Marcy Chin became an unexpected smash-hit that received attention internationally from the likes of Diplo, BBC 1Xtra’s Seani B, ZJ Johnny Kool, Hot 97′s Massive B and others. Adding to a growing profile, “Mek It Bunx Up” received spins in some of the world’s hottest nightclubs.
Interestingly, in 2015 “Mek It Bunx Up” sparked a viral dance craze after Parris Goebel recorded an impromptu performance to the single alongside students from her Urban Dance Camp class, which she later uploaded to YouTube. Since Goebel’s upload, there have been a countless numbers of independently made videos from dancers all over the world — all of those videos have amassed several million views. Additionally, the track landed at #30 on the Bulgarian Top 40 Radio Charts and reached #95 on Shazam’s World Charts.
Since then, DeeWunn has released his full-length debut debut Bunx Up — The Official Street LP, toured across Europe twice and collaborated with Parris Goebel on “Dynamite,” which appeared on her full-length debut Vicious. He’s also collaborated with renowned producer TJ Records for “Tun Suh.” And earlier this year, his single Back It Up, Drop It” was featured in an ad campaign for the Samsung S10.
Building upon the momentum of “Back It Up, Drop It,” DeeWunn’s latest single is the dance floor bop “Jaw Jump,” a track centered around Walker’s rapid-fire hip-hop influenced flow, tweeter and woofer rocking beats, wobbling synths and an infectious hook. Simply put, it’s an irresistible track that will set dance floors around the world on fire.
New Video: Thievery Corporation Teams Up with Notch on a Soulful, Old School-Inspired Reggae Track
Comprised of DJ and production team Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, the internationally renowned Washington, DC-based act Thievery Corporation have developed a reputation for a globe spanning, genre-defying sound that features elements of electronica, dub, bossa nova, acid jazz, reggae, Indian classical music, hip-hop, Middle Eastern music and others, and for collaborating with a diverse array of artists across a variety of genres and styles, including Rob Myers, Loulou Ghelichkhani, Natalia Clavier, Frank ‘Booty Lock’ Mitchell, Mr. Lif, Jeff Franca, Ashish Vyas and a lengthy list of others, who have contributed lyrics in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Romanian and Hindi.
Now, as you may recall, the duo’s chart topping 2017 effort, The Temple of I & I was deeply influenced by Jamaica’s sounds and rhythms, and as a result the album may have arguably been their most reggae and dub-influenced album to date — and perhaps, their most straightforward as well. Interestingly, the duo’s latest album, Treasures from the Temple is a companion album to their 2017 album, and it features both original material and remixes from the Temple of I & I recording sessions at Geejam Studios in Port Antonio, Jamaica — with guest spots from LouLou Ghelichkhani, Mr. Lif, Sitali, Racquel Jones, Natalia Clavier and Notch.
Treasures from the Temple’s latest single “Waiting Too Long” features their long-time collaborator and American dancehall pioneer Notch, and the track is a soulful, two-step dub riddim, complete with a strutting horn arrangement, and while it sounds and feels warm and familiar, it’s a sweet love song about lovers, who have been through quite a bit, going to the club to dance, to enjoy themselves and forget about the world for a few hours — and how they’re specifically waiting for the DJ to play their song.
The recently released video for “Waiting Too Long” consists of rare footage shot in Jamaica in the late 70s and early 80s, and it captures a night out in a Jamaican club — singles and couples swaying and dancing, some with beer bottles in hand; a DJ making adjustments on his mixer as a vocalist passionately sings; in another room, men gamble and bullshit. It’s a Friday or Saturday night with people being — well, people. All seeking a small measure of joy, a connection with someone else, an escape from the drudgery of every day life.