Rub A Dub Bar in Kyoto, Japan

Hadley Tomicki 12.23.05

When the masters of Japan take on some new aspect of a foreign culture it isn’t long before they are doing it better than the originators. This appears true in cuisine, film and music, and a supreme example is the Mighty Crown Sound System. A crew born and bred in Yokohama , Nippon , the selectors consistently dominate reggae sound clashes, beating out all participants including actual Jamaican soundboys from Kingston to MoBay.  Read more... (496 words + 3 images)

Haitian Rapper Justeece

4/9/04

Justeece

Tagged as the Caribbean’s most impoverished and troubled nation, Haiti has seen all the ferocity its streets have to offer. Poverty has reigned simultaneously with President Aristide, dragging with it the usual desperate costs of violence, starvation and struggle that recently led to the revolt that drove him out.  Read more... (485 words + 1 image)

CD Review: Peter Tosh, I Am That I Am

Peter Tosh
[JAD Records]

This all-acoustic Peter Tosh live set is a necessity–another gem in the swelling catalogue of rare Wailers recordings that keep surfacing from some shady and forgotten corner of Jamaican studios past. Never just a retread of the familiar, the songs of Peter, Bunny, and Bob attain a simplified urgency when stripped down to six-strings, becoming tender, yet more soulful, burning and classic. I Am That I Am features some of Peter’s most fiery songs and two new ones, plus interviews from the reggae star, from two mid-70′s radio recordings in the U.S.  Read more... (276 words + 1 image)

Stephanie Black’s Documentary, “Life and Debt”

“When you come to Jamaica as a tourist, this is what you will see…”  Read more... (1001 words + 2 images)

Pleasant Discovery Found In Music of French Reggae Band, Mr. Gang

As a fan of Caribbean music, how often have you felt like a hostage in a club or friend’s party, soldiering through hours of bubblegum top 40 and electronic noise, when all you need to really lift your soul are the heavy island sounds of some burning reggae?  It was on a recent trip to obscure Corsica that I found myself yearning for some thundering bass lines and rub-a-dub bubblin’.  I was in the middle of the Mediterranean, in a foreign land with no French speaking abilities of my own and a growing weariness of remixed American pop tunes.  The hope seemed hopeless to find any reggae about the massive island until a group of guys known as Mr. Gang came to my rescue.  Read more... (483 words + 1 image)