Category — interview

Di Genius Stephen Mcgregor gets up with teh Jamaican Star to talk about duplicating older classic riddims. Stephen Mcgregor’s latest riddim The Day Rave is available on Episode 26 of One Drop Radio.

Remaking a rhythm or duplicating it does not necessarily mean that a rhythm was not good enough but it might be a testament that the first was exceptional.

There have been some memorable dancehall rhythms over the past two decades, and recently, there have been remakes of these older rhythms on the airwaves.

One of the most popular and recent rhythms to grace the dancehall is Unfinished Business by TJ Records, which features several songs like Serani’s No Games, Mavado’s So Special and Assassin’s Jah Guide And Protect Me.

Unfinished Business is actually a remake of producer, Dave Kelly’s popular 1998 Showtime rhythm. TJ Records also did another variation of the Showtime called Show-off last year which featured Bounty Killer’s Bullet Proof Skin and Beenie Man’s Bullet Proof.

This is no surprise because Dave Kelly provides musical inspiration for owner and producer of TJ Records, Linton ‘TJ’ White.

The full story is available at The Jamaican Star

Sara C from Vibez FM always brings the best interviews, this time she sits down with the real fireman Capleton. He talks about his inspirations and his David House camp.

Sara C // Capleton Interview

Brothers David and Craig Harrisingh and their friend and musical partner Craig “Serani” Marsh combined letters from their respective names and dubbed their dancehall production studio Daseca (for David-Serani-Craig). Located on Red Hills Road in Kingston, Jamaica, Daseca has quickly established a radio, club, and chart presence by producing hits for Mavado (“Dying”), Busy Signal (“These Are the Days”), and their signature artist Bugle (“Doh”). But the trio has resisted categorization, adding hip-hop, R&B, and even techno influences to their original Jamaican sound. Now, as Serani and Bugle tunes rule the international charts and bigger deals loom with American major labels, the crew says they’re not in a rush to bust out big, but instead seek to organically build their brand. Oh, and they want to make another thing clear: They don’t use AutoTune or samples! XLR8R caught up with Craig Harrisingh to get the lowdown on Daseca’s methodology.
XLR8R: Where is your studio located?

Craig Harrisingh: It’s in a plaza, with lots of shops in there. We share a vocal booth with another studio in the same building run by Razz and Biggie from Bembe Squad.

What are the crew members’ different roles?

Everybody does everything, basically. We share the work. Even if just one or two of us builds a beat or a riddim, everyone gets credit as Daseca.

How did you come up with the Airwaves riddim?

We build most of [soundsystem owner and producer] Fire Links’ riddims, [including] Chaka Chaka, Clear, Drumlane, and others. We and Links have a good vibe and a good chemistry. Serani was in the studio and [Airwaves] just happened, it was a natural vibe. We were just playing the keyboards and played a lead riff and Links just say, “I need that!” But we’re not really juggling riddims anymore; we’re concentrating on producing individual singles.

Full interview available at XLR8R.com

Three generations of the Chin family are now represented at VP Records, the New York City-based reggae powerhouse founded by Patricia Chin and her late husband Vincent (a.k.a. “Randy”) in 1979. While her sons Christopher and Randy took over most operations from their parents some years ago, Ms. Chin–known affectionately by VP staff and artists as Miss Pat–is still a daily, grandmotherly presence at the company’s headquarters, overseeing aspects like the Riddim Driven clothing line.

2008 marks Chin’s 50th year in the record industry. It’s also been three decades since she and Vincent left Jamaica, West Indies (where they had run Kingston record shop Randy’s and the famed Studio 17) for the similarly named (but less tumultuous) Jamaica, Queens. In that time, VP has grown from a distributor and record store to an artist-friendly label responsible for launching Sean Paul, Beenie Man, and Mavado onto the world stage. And now, with its acquisition of Greensleeves Records (formerly VP’s largest competitor), the label that touts itself as “miles ahead in reggae music” may actually be the only game in town when it comes to giving reggae, dancehall, and soca artists a worldwide platform. XLR8R recently visited Miss Pat at VP headquarters for a discussion about her family, reggae’s place in the new digital marketplace, and whether the label’s new monopoly-like dominance is a good thing.
XLR8R: How many people from the family are now involved in VP?

Patricia Chin: My three kids are involved, which is my two sons and my daughter [Angela Chung] and also my stepson [Clive Chin], and maybe about five grandkids. My sister had a branch in Florida but she’s closed it about a year now.

Clive’s career as a producer predates VP, but how did everyone else find his or her niche within the company?

Joel, Clive’s son, is on the production side, and my daughter does retail and distribution [in Florida]. My granddaughter Stephanie is helping me with Riddim Driven, our clothing line. The rest are just seeing what they like best. My 15-year-old grandson is into fashion, and he’s the one I bounce things off of regarding clothes. He knows all about what’s going on, what colors people are wearing. Sometimes he comes in to [VP’s retail store in Queens] on the weekend and arranges the clothing displays for me.

The full article available at XLR8R.com

Morgan Heritage catch up with Sarah C to talk about their history, their latest album, Mission In Progress for VP Records and their plans for the future. One from the archive, recorded in April 08 just before the release of thier latest album. Check it out and enjoy…