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