Back 2 Da Future – How Do you get Delroy Wilson to shelter under the same umbrella as Martin Lawrence?

There is a song that is in current rotation on some airwaves near you called ‘Rain From The Skies’ by one Calton Coffie. It is one of those songs that has become a perennial Reggae standard that elicits gasps of surprise when the realisation dawns that it was actually a cover. Originally penned by famed pop composers, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, it is known by many in Reggae circles from a version by the late Delroy Wilson. However it couldn’t be a standard with just one version as it was also covered by the likes of Slim Smith, Horace Andy, George Nooks, Barry Brown, Sanchez and it was also featured on UB40’s ‘Labour Of Love’ album. The current name added to the list of artists unsure of whether the water on their cheeks is from the heavens or from their own tear ducts, Calton Coffie, is not one that will roll off of the tongue of even the most ardent of Reggae fans. His voice however, is most definitely one that everyone will know.
After the premature passing of Jacob Miller in a 1980 car accident, Inner Circle disbanded only to reform again a couple of years later. By 1986 they’d found a vocalist strong enough to take on the mantle left by Miller in the form of Calton Coffie. Now embarking on a solo career, Coffie was the Grammy award-winning lead vocalist of the Band until 1995.
This was at the same time that they scored an international hit with the annoyingly catchy ‘Sweat (A La La La La Long)’. Taken from the album, ‘Bad To The Bone’, it also listed the single ‘Bad Boys’. ‘Bad Boys’ was in turn the signature tune for the TV series, COPS, as well as the Martin Lawrence/Will Smith Cop-Buddy Movie of the same title (Bad Boys), in 1995. The movie was critically panned but it worked well enough in the Box Office for a sequel to be made in 2003!!!!!!

Anyway, that is how you get Delroy Wilson to shelter under the same umbrella as Martin Lawrence – via Calton Coffie and Inner Circle.






On This Day.......

1986 – Audrey Hall was enjoying a three week run at the top of the Reggae charts With ‘Smile’ the follow-up to ‘One Dance Won’t Do’. Amazingly, ‘Smile’ reached six places higher in the pop charts than the anthemic ‘One Dance’!





This week’s number one’s around the Reggae world.

‘Call On Me’ – Jah Cure & Phyllisya /Caribbean Hot 30
‘Chocolate Fudge’ – Conadoor – Germany
‘Far Away’ – Queen Ifrica – Hype TV, JA
‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ – Tarrus Riley & Konshens - Outaroad.com, JA
‘Hallelujah’ – Elephant Man – Jamaica Music Countdown (Dancehall)
‘Heaven In Her Eyes’ – Gappy Ranks - Choice FM, London/BBC 1xtra
‘Mind On My Mind’ – Vybz Kartel - New Style, Birmingham, UK
‘So In Love’ – Hezron – Jamaica Music Countdown (Reggae)/Virgin Islands (Pictured)
‘Still Waters Run Deep’ – Maxi Priest & Richie Stephens - South Florida, USA/New York







On Air:

Fridays – 10pm -12 Midnight – Aston FM 89.1/www.astonfm.com with Chicken George
Saturdays – The Back 2 Da Future Show 7pm – 9pm – www.playvybz.com
Sundays – 10pm -12 Midnight – The Archive Selection on Choice FM as part of Natty B’s Reggae Top 20 Countdown
Mondays – 7pm -9pm The Music Business Show with Elayne Smith on www.colourfulradio.com (Monthly)

Live:

Weekly:

Saturdays – Prezedent @ Moonlighting Nightclub, London, UK



July
30th – Self Taught Beats @ Yoyo, Notting Hill Arts Club, London, England
31st - Bongo Chilli @ The Trojan Rooms with Ital Guidance Sound System, Whitley Bay, Tyne And Wear, UK
- Mr Williamz in Ipswich, UK
- Rodney P @ Ocean Spirit Festival, Santa Cruz

August
1st – Bongo Chilli @ Unity Day, Hyde Park with The Root One Band, UK
- Captain Barkey @ Bushnell Park, Hartford, Connecticut, US
6th – Prezedent @ Lovers Rock Lounge with Carroll Thompson and Black Slate, London, England
7th – Dennis Bovell @ The Big Chill Festival, Brighton, UK
8th – Bongo Chilli @ Moorsfest with The Root One Band, Ilkley, UK
- Rodney P @ Ocean Spirit Festival, Conwy, North Wales
13th – Sexy Thursdays @ , Sky Club, The Prince Albert, Wolverhampton
14th – Winston Reedy with Dennis Alcapone @ The Chiemsee Festival, Germany
15th – Rodney P @ Sikula Reggae Festival, Sicily
17th - Payday Music with The Alliance in Tokyo, Osaka, Faukuoka, Japan
22nd - Payday Music with The Alliance @ Brixton 02 Academy, London, UK
- Rodney P @ Beautiful Days Festival, Escot Park, Devon
- 23rd - Payday Music with The Alliance @ Platinum & Gold, Coventry, UK
28th - Bongo Chilli @ Uprising Festival with Roots Survival, Bratislava, Slovakia
- Sept 20th Alan Weekes in The Harder They Come – The Musical tour in Miami and Toronto
29th – Rodney P @ Ride Again Festival, Bomasco, Italy
30th – Rodney P @ Vale Earth Fair, Guernsey

September
5th – Chevelle Franklyn @ House On The Rock, The Refuge’s 10th Year Anniversary Conference, Abuja, Nigeria
13th – Rodney P @ Bestival, Isle Of Wight
19th – Lloyd Brown, Dennis ‘Matumbi’ Bovell, Sylvia Tella, Winston Reedy & Prezedent @ The Giants Of Lovers Rock @ The O2 Indigo2, London, England
23rd – 30th – Anthony Brightly @ Dejam Festival, Antigua, WI
25th – Bongo Chilli @ Vibrations with The Root One Band

October
31st - Womens Conference – Step Out & Step in to your destiny, Johannesburg, South Africa

November
16th - Lloyd Brown ‘For Your Consideration’ Album Launch, London, England
23rd - Lloyd Brown ‘For Your Consideration’ Album Tour, San Francisco, California

December 31st – Lloyd Brown @ English Pound Radio’s New Years Eve Show & Dance, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Back 2 Da Future – How Do you Get Mykal Roze into the same Restaurant As Will Smith, Bernie Mac and Sidney Poitier

Back 2 Da Future – How Do you Get Mykal Roze into the same Restaurant As Will Smith, Bernie Mac and Sidney Poitier

It’s the beginning of July and you look through your forthcoming Birthday list and realise that it’s Mykal Roze aka Mr “Tu-tu-tweng”’s birthday this month! Then you start thinking about what you’re gonna say on the radio about him.

Somewhere in this ruminatory process you remember that he is the man who started the ‘Water House’ style of singing that has propelled the likes of Junior Reid into the Hip Hop Stratosphere. Then you might remember that Mr Rose started his career as a solo artist but is best known as the most successful lead vocalist of the seminal roots band, Black Uhuru.

Heavily touted as the natural successors to Bob Marley’s hallowed position as premier international Reggae ambassadors, they were the first ever recipients of a Grammy for best Reggae album. Holding off the likes of Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Steel Pulse and Yellowman, they ensured that their place in music history was forever sealed. A similar-ish fate befell Will Smith in his Fresh Prince guise with his DJ partner, Jazzy Jeff, when in 1989, they walked away with the very first Grammy for a Rap Performance. This award however, did not meet with the same universal approval as Uhuru as the other nominees included Public Enemy who’s ‘It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back’ had literally “demolished” the whole hip hop movement and awakened Black consciousness amongst the young that hadn’t been seen since the heyday of Rastafari in the nineteen seventies.

Talking of Rastafari, Mykal Roze penned one of the biggest Rasta anthems when he likened the struggle of the dreadlocks man in the 70’s to the plight of the young Black man in America of the 60’s as in the movie, ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’. Starring the legend of an actor that is Sidney Poitier, it examined the prejudices of a liberal white family whose daughter was about to marry a Black man. The roles were reversed in 2005 when the late Bernie Mac updated the story in ‘Guess Who’. In Roze’s tale, the unexpected guest is “natty dreadlocks”. As Bunny Wailer’s album title informs, the Rastaman used to be referred to as the ‘Black Heart Man’ and was used in some quarters as the proverbial bogeyman to scare children.

As such, if your daughter was inviting a “dreadlocks” to dinner, the “good” middle class folk of uptown Kingston would not be best pleased shall we say.

The most recent exploration of this theme can be found in the video for Etana’s break-through hit 'Roots’.

And that my friends is how you Get Mykal Roze into the same Restaurant As Will Smith, Bernie Mac and Sidney Poitier.

On This Day.......

1983 – The original dancehall king, Yellowman, was ruling the roost with the nonsensically titled

‘Zunguzunguzunguzeng’. Don’t get it twisted though, cos the title might look a bit wonky written down but it made for an instant anthem as “King Yellow” was at the height of his powers at this time being the first dancehall artist to phenomenally conquer the rest of the Caribbean and subsequently the world.

This week’s number one’s around the Reggae world.

‘Call On Me’ – Jah Cure & Phyllisia - New Style, Birmingham, UK/ New York/Caribbean Hot 30 (Pictured)

‘Dallaz’ – Vybz Kartel – BBC 1xtra

‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ – Tarrus Riley & Konshens - Outaroad.com, JA

‘Hallelujah’ – Elephant Man – Jamaica Music Countdown (Dancehall)

‘Heaven In Her Eyes’ – Gappy Ranks - Choice FM, London

‘I Smoked A Spliff’ – Perfect – Germany

‘So In Love’ – Hezron – Jamaica Music Countdown (Reggae)/Virgin Islands

‘Still Waters Run Deep’ – Maxi Priest & Richie Stephens - South Florida, USA

On Air:

Fridays – 10pm -12 Midnight – Aston FM 89.1/www.astonfm.com with Chicken George

Saturdays – The Back 2 Da Future Show 7pm – 9pm – www.playvybz.com

Sundays – 10pm -12 Midnight – The Archive Selection on Choice FM as part of Natty B’s Reggae Top 20 Countdown

Mondays – 7pm -9pm The Music Business Show with Elayne Smith on www.colourfulradio.com (Monthly)

Live:

Weekly:

Saturdays – Prezedent @ Moonlighting Nightclub, London, UK

July

25^th – Winston Reedy, Dennis ‘Matumbi’ Bovell @ Lovers Rock Gala Awards, Brixton Academy, London, UK

- Bongo Chilli @ Bombfest with Celt Islam, Barnsley, UK

- Mafia & Fluxy in Paris, France

- Mafia & Fluxy in the South of France

- Babyboom @ Bizzy’s Earthstrong with Killer Contrast Sound system, The Park, Peterborough, UK

26^th – Nereus Joseph @ Rasta Celebration Time, Silent Whispers Musician Club, Hackney, London, England

- Rodney P @ Camp Bestival with the Dub Pistols, Dorset, UK

27^th – Self Taught Beats @ Yoyo, Notting Hill Arts Club, London, England

31^st - Bongo Chilli @ The Trojan Rooms with Ital Guidance Sound System, Whitley Bay, Tyne And Wear, UK

- Mr Williamz in Ipswich, UK

- Rodney P @ Ocean Spirit Festival, Santa Cruz

August

1^st – Bongo Chilli @ Unity Day, Hyde Park with The Root One Band, UK

- Captain Barkey @ Bushnell Park, Hartford, Connecticut, US

6^th – Prezedent @ Lovers Rock Lounge with Carroll Thompson and Black Slate, London, England

7^th – Dennis Bovell @ The Big Chill Festival, Brighton, UK

8^th – Bongo Chilli @ Moorsfest with The Root One Band, Ilkley, UK

- Rodney P @ Ocean Spirit Festival, Conwy, North Wales

13^th – Sexy Thursdays @ , Sky Club, The Prince Albert, Wolverhampton

14^th – Winston Reedy with Dennis Alcapone @ The Chiemsee Festival, Germany

15^th – Rodney P @ Sikula Reggae Festival, Sicily

17^th - Payday Music with The Alliance in Tokyo, Osaka, Faukuoka, Japan

22^nd - Payday Music with The Alliance @ Brixton 02 Academy, London, UK

- Rodney P @ Beautiful Days Festival, Escot Park, Devon

- 23^rd - Payday Music with The Alliance @ Platinum & Gold, Coventry, UK

28th - Bongo Chilli @ Uprising Festival with Roots Survival, Bratislava, Slovakia

- Sept 20^th Alan Weekes in The Harder They Come – The Musical tour in Miami and Toronto

29^th – Rodney P @ Ride Again Festival, Bomasco, Italy

30^th – Rodney P @ Vale Earth Fair, Guernsey

September

5^th – Chevelle Franklyn @ House On The Rock, The Refuge’s 10^th Year Anniversary Conference, Abuja, Nigeria

13^th – Rodney P @ Bestival, Isle Of Wight

19^th – Lloyd Brown, Dennis ‘Matumbi’ Bovell, Sylvia Tella, Winston Reedy & Prezedent @ The Giants Of Lovers Rock @ The O2 Indigo2, London, England

23^rd – 30^th – Anthony Brightly @ Dejam Festival, Antigua, WI

25^th – Bongo Chilli @ Vibrations

with The Root One Band

October

31^st - Women’s Conference – Step Out & Step in to your destiny, Johannesburg, South Africa

November

16^th - Lloyd Brown ‘For Your Consideration’ Album Launch, London, England
23^rd - Lloyd Brown ‘For Your Consideration’ Album Tour, San Francisco, California

December

31^st – Lloyd Brown @ English Pound Radio’s New Years Eve Show & Dance, Fort Lauderdale, Florida