Category — Reggae News

Busy Signal is set to release his new album on VP Records, “LOADED” on September 23rd.

VP Records is proud to announce the release of Busy Signal, arguably the hottest and most versatile lyricists currently in dancehall. On his groundbreaking sophomore album Loaded, in stores September 23rd, the leading Jamaican deejay unleashes an arsenal of progressive hits that could ultimately redefine dancehall.

This eagerly awaited landmark contains #1 smashes like “Jail”, “These Are The Days”, “Unknown Number” and “Wine Pon Di Edge” that are dominating the dancehall scene worldwide despite their obvious difference in style. This is one of Busy’s trademarks and displayed throughout Loaded. His sense of fun and mischief is allowed full rein on tunes like “Wine Pon Di Edge,” “Hey Girl”, hip hop/dancehall hybrid “Tic Toc” and “Cool It Baby,” which Busy programmed himself.  Yet it’s his powerful commentaries on the ghetto lifestyle, like “These Are The Days” that have lent Busy Signal’s art its raw edge, and made him into such a potent mouthpiece for the disenfranchised youth of Jamaica and beyond. “Knocking At Your Door”, “People So Evil” and “Curfew”, are the latest examples of this, whereupon real life and his talent for storytelling combine to often spine-chilling effect.

Download:

Tic Toc – Busy Signal

Hear the album sampler:

Loaded – Busy Signal

Jah Cure has a new album on the way through Danger Zone and Sobe Music.  

Siccaturie Alcock, better known as roots singer Jah Cure, drops his anticipated new album, The Universal Cure, September 9 on Danger Zone/SoBe. The album is his first recorded work since his release from prison in 2007 and includes collaborations with Sean Paul, Busta Rhymes, Enrique Iglesias, and others. Album track “Journey” is also on the Journey Riddim compilation, available via iTunes on August 19.

Via Pon Di Wire

You can check out his latest single “Journey” via The Fader

When Buju Banton came to Madison Square Garden a couple weeks back, he had me shaking my head when he said that black people around the world don’t own anything of importance. So nods go out to Buju for putting out his own music on his own label:

Gargamel Music is very proud to announce that our newest compilation, Buju Banton Presents: Jamrock Classics Vol. 1 (GGM 0164), will be available in stores and online in the US and Canada tomorrow — Tuesday June 3rd.

Produced by Banton at his Gargamel Music studio in Kingston, Jamrock Classics Vol. 1, features stellar guest turns from the legendary Pinchers, George Nooks, Terror Fabulous, Ghost, Jah Cure, Yami Bolo, Tony Curtis and Lutan Fyah. The boss actually blesses the album twice – with Gargamel artist New Kidz on the deadly combo “Curfew” and also with the timely anti-gun tune “Cowboys,” which has been receiving outstanding reviews at home and abroad.

Jamrock Classics Vol. 1 is the third compilation from Buju Banton’s blossoming Gargamel Music label. The project will be officially released on June 30th in Jamaica and the Caribbean, the UK and Europe. Hear tracks from the album @ www.myspace.com/gargamelmusicinc

Courtesy of The Canadian Press 

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Barack Obama has won what could be an influential endorsement among reggae fans: Jamaican singer Cocoa Tea, who’s backing the Illinois senator in a new tune.

“This is not about class nor colour, race nor creed,” the veteran dancehall crooner sings in a version posted on the video website Dailymotion.

“It’s about the changes, what the Americans need.”

The song goes on to call Obama a “trendsetter” and urge Americans “to unite as one” behind him.

Cocoa Tea, whose real name is Calvin Scott, said Sunday the tribute song “Barack Obama” will be released this week by New York’s VP Records.

“The young people who are supporting him want change – and that’s what he represents,” said the singer, whose laid-back lyrical style made him a local star in the 1980s.

He becomes the second major Caribbean musician to endorse Obama in song, joining Trinidadian calypso star Mighty Sparrow who recently recorded a track titled “Barack the Magnificent.”

Cocoa Tea “Barak Obahma” (sidebar: not my spelling)

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Another great new artist in the game. You can check him out on my Culture Mix Vol. 5.

When reggae artiste Humble released his debut album Hard To See, he never imagined after the success of the album that he would be in Jamaica working on his second album with top producers and artistes.
Born Simon Jonathan Vassell in England to Jamaican-born parents, Humble was exposed to music at an early age. Humble moved with his family to Toronto when he was three. It was when he was in college that he explored his love for music. “When I was in college I bought a guitar and I started from there teaching myself the chords” he said.

For the full interview check out the Jamaican Gleaner Online.