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 fly Sean Paul from Jamaica to Ghana with Stone Love?

Okay this one is all about the international airwaves!!!!! Currently scaling all the international Reggae countdowns and beating down all comers atop the RETV Reggae chart and the French equivalent survey is a gentleman by the name of Da’ville with ‘Missing You Right Now’. Causing confusion with that apostrophe in his name when he went solo (was it D’ville, D’aville or Daville?), he first came to mainstream Reggae lover’s attention with the single’ ‘Always On My Mind’. Already doing a roaring trade as a single, it went into overdrive when Sean Paul jumped on it for a chart-topping remix.

Dancehall fans and especially followers of sound systems would have heard Da’ville’s distinctive vocal before even though they didn’t know it yet, as he was the lead vocalist of the dancehall harmony quintet known as ARP. ARP’s skills were brilliantly captured on a Dub Plate for Stone Love where they performed a show-stopping rendition of ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’. It was also their harmonies that honeyed Beenie Man’s version of the Biggie tribute, ‘Missing You’. That however, is not the beginning of Da’ville’s musical pedigree.

Born Orville Thomas, in Kingston, Jamaica he grew up around music. It sounds like a bit of a cliché I know, but he really did as his father was a celebrated artist and producer. A former panel worker, Thomas senior was Instrumental in the development of dancehall reggae as a bona fide genre through his Midnight Rock label. For this imprint he wrote and produced the perrenial anthem, ‘Entertainment’ for Triston Palmer and he was responsible for Anthony Johnson’s ‘Gunshot’. As well as this his own distinctive rockstone growl graced hits like ‘Cricket Lovely Cricket’ and ‘Stereograph Style’ in the late 1970’s.

Jah Thomas as he was known before he was called Da’ville’s Dad, was always destined for greatness as his own real name “Nkrumah Manley Thomas” was derived from two historical figures. The first, Kwame Nkrumah, was the man who answered the call of Marcus Garvey’s question “Africa where are your leaders” in 1957 when he lead Ghana into the limelight as the first nation to win independence in sub-saharan Africa. The second, Norman Manley, the cousin of Jamaica’s first premier, Bustamante, is now a Jamaican national hero in commemoration of his work to get the “common” Jamaican man the vote and was duly immortalised when Jamaica named her national airport after him.










And that is how you fly Sean Paul from Jamaica to Ghana with Stone Love – via Da’ville.


On This Day.......

1983 – Aswad & Dennis Brown were leading the way to ‘The Promised Land’. Following in their footsteps were Winston Reedy with ‘Dim The Lights’ and Alton Ellis with ‘Love On Top’.






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


‘A Thousand Miles Away – Ras Penco - Jamaica Music Count Down (Reggae)
‘Again & Again’ – Mavado - Outaroad.com, JA
‘Bad Man Don’t Cry’ - New York, USA
‘Can’t Be My Lover’ – Buju Banton & Jon Legend – Caribbean Hot 30 (Pictured)
‘Dance’ – Elephant Man - Germany
‘Mama’ – Vybz Kartel – Jamaica Music Count Down (Dancehall)
‘Missing You Right Now’ – Da’ville – RETV (Reggae)/ France
‘Jah Jah Blessing’ – Etana & Alborosie - New Style, Birmingham, UK
‘I’m So Blessed’ – Mavado – BBC 1xtra
‘Praise & Worship’ – Busy Signal - Choice FM, London
‘Rich This Year’ – Charley Blacks – RETV (Dancehall)
‘Shine On Jamaica’ – Cherine Anderson - South Florida, USA
‘Start Anew’ – Tarrus Riley – US Virgin Islands






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
Sunday Afternoons – The Alan Weekes Duo @ The Railway Telegraph Pub, Forest Hill, London, UK
Sunday Evenings – The Alan Weekes Quartet @ Uncle Sam’s Jazz, The Haggeston, Hackney, London, UK
Mondays – Alan Weekes @ Monday Jazz, The Swiss Tavern, Peckham, London, UK
Thursdays – Alan Weekes @ Ska, Reggae, Jazz, The Effra, Brixton, London, UK


May

21st - Prezedent & DJ Ice @ Funky2, @ The Prince Albert, Wolverhampton, England
22nd – Bongo Chilli with the Root One Band @ The Plug, Sheffield, UK
- Katie Pearl @ Vanilla, Windsor, UK
23rd - Alan Weekes with Aswad @ Worldfest, Middlesbourough Town Hall, UK
- Frisco Kid (Pictured) @ Big Ship's Rocksteady Meets Reggae and Dancehall, Jamalco Sports Complex, Hayes, Clarendon, JA
24th – Babyboom @ Pier 1, Montego Bay, Jamaica
- Bongo Chilli with Celt Islam @ The Corporation, Sheffield, UK
- Katie Pearl @ Leicester University, UK
28th – Katie Pearl @ Wardour St, Soho, London, England
29th – Mr Williamz Birthday Party @ Be Yoself, Bar Number 8, Willesden, London, England
30th - Alan Weekes with Aswad @ The Ipswich Regent, UK



June
4th – Prezedent @ Lovers Rock Lounge, Ruby Lo, London, England
– The Alan Weekes Quartet @ The Effra, Brixton, London, UK
5th – Bongo Chilli @ Riverhouse with Roots Survival, Fieberbrunn, Austria
6th - Bongo Chilli @ Villach with Roots Survival, Karntern, Austria
13th Alan Weekes with Aswad in Norfolk, UK
17th – 28th Dennis Bovell in Italy with Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze
19th – Kennedy Mensah @ Story of London Music, Willesden Green Library, London, UK
25th – Self Taught Beats @ Yoyo, Notting Hill, London, England
26th – Lloyd Brown, Winston Reedy, Paul Dawkins @ Paradise: Jean Adebambo Tribute Concert @ Tower Ballroom, Birmingham, UK
- Prezedent @ June is Black British Music month pre-Club Night, Tropics Gallery room, Bridge Park Complex, Stonebridge, London, England
28th – Bongo Chilli @ Glastonbury Festival with Daddy Freddy, Glastonbury, UK
29th - Sept 20th Alan Weekes in The Harder They Come – The Musical tour in Miami and Toronto

July
18th - Bongo Chilli @ Coming Soon with Daddy Freddy, Plymouth, UK
25th – Lloyd Brown @ Lovers Rock Gala, Brixton Academy, London, UK
- Bongo Chilli @ Bombfest with Celt Islam, Barnsley, UK
26th – Nereus Joseph @ Rasta Celebration Time, Silent Whispers Musician Club, Hackney, London, England

August

2nd – Lloyd Brown @ Lovers Rock Gala, Birmingham Academy, UK
7th – Dennis Bovell @ The Big Chill Festival, Brighton, UK
8th – Bongo Chilli @ Moorsfest with The Root One Band, Ilkley, UK
14th – Winston Reedy with Dennis Alcapone @ The Chiemsee Festival, Germany

September
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

Bitter Sweet Smiles In A Hackney Paradise

If you haven’t got a ticket for this Sunday’s main event in London, then you’re in for a case of “Your name’s not down, you’re not coming in!” The event literally sold out minutes after it was announced.

“Smile and the world smiles with you” the saying goes so why is it then that opportunities to smile or derive merriment are often shunned? Have a party tomorrow and see how many ‘regret’ messages you get afterwards. Just before Christmas yours truly was involved in an event called ‘Lovers Live’ which boasted the return of the same Lovers Rock vocalist, Jean Adebambo who is being honoured at the Empire. Admittedly, the promotion could’ve been stronger but nonetheless the word was out, interest was high, attendance was good but the south London venue was far from full. After the gig I had people asking me “when is......” Others were waiting for Ms Adebambo’s next appearance as it was widely recognised that the chanteuse was firmly on the come back trail having broken her silence a few months earlier at the Brixton Academy.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be as Ms Adebambo sadly took her own life a few weeks later. The shock waves that reverberated around the UK Reggae scene must’ve registered on the richter scales of Australia! The surprise element was all the more poignant because this was a singer/songwriter who had disappeared from the scene for almost twenty years. Now, I know what you’re thinking, ‘a lot of artists stop making records and come back every so often’. Well you’re right, but with most artist’s there’ll be a single release here, a live performance there or they’ll surface somewhere like Canada. But with Jean, the silence was deafening. There were rumours that she’d emigrated, but to where, nobody knew.

Born to a Montserratan mother and Nigerian father, Jean Olufumnilayo Ola Adebambo who grew up in East London was well renowned for performing acoustically with her guitar in the late 1970’s. At the turn of the decade, her debut release, ‘Paradise’, would prove to be her most enduring and best-loved anthem. The type of song that has swathes of females swooning from the opening bars all the way till the end of the record nearly 30 years later. The type of song that meant that her name was actively missed over the years when Lovers Rock reunions would amass the cream of the genres kings and queens to venues as diverse as the local Acton Town Hall to the prestigious Royal Festival Hall.

Lovers Rock is today seen around the world as ’Romantic Reggae’ with the likes of Beres Hammond leading the charge, but for British born Blacks it is much much more than that. It captures memories of our cultural experience’s teenaged angst if you like as it was the first music form created by Black Britain. Waaaaayyy before Grime, Trance, Dub Step and even Jungle. It is without doubt the soundtrack to our lives. With that in mind, the passing of any of the stars of that genre was always going to be big news as it has proven.

As with many of her peers, Jean never really knew how anthemic her music was, - make that is because Paradise will forever be a bona fide classic. A gifted musician, she played the keyboards, guitar, and wrote most of her own songs. And yet she would tell friends that she would’ve been happy being a backing vocalist for her favourite group, The Emotions. A very quiet individual, she’d carved herself a career in the Health Service and had even been promoted shortly before her passing. The sadness that greeted the unexpected news meant that the two daughters she left behind could be in no doubt of how much their mother was indeed loved.

This Sunday much of Britain’s Reggae community will be in attendance at The Hackney Empire in East London for a tribute concert to Ms Adebambo. With this event comes one more piece of history to add to the legacy. The fastest sellout show in The Venue’s history. Britain’s Black community have not attended that venue in such eager numbers since the 90’s when the forces conspired for a drive to encourage locals to attend it coincided with a televised variety-cum-talent show called the 291 Club based on the famed Amateur Night At The Apollo.

If you’re not one of the privileged few with a ticket, I guess you’ll just have to wait for the reviews to know what you missed. Until such time I shall be flashing a bitter-sweet smile as through the ‘Pain’ as I’m there ‘Reaching For A Goal’ in a Hackney ‘Paradise’.






On This Day.......

1988 – Barrington Levy had a 1 week stay atop the UK Reggae chart in-between Dean Fraser’s ‘Girlfriend’ and Aswad’ ‘Don’t Turn Around’.







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

‘Bad Man Don’t Cry’ – Shaggy – RETV Reggae, JA/South Florida, USA
‘Calm Down Yuh Nerves – Bescenta – Jamaica Music Count Down (Reggae)
‘I Can Feel Your Pain’ – Gyptian - New York, USA
‘Love Is Automatic’ – Marcia Griffiths Ft: Busy Signal - Choice FM, London/BBC 1xtra
‘Love We Deal With’ – Million Stylez – Germany (Pictured)
‘Million By A Mawning’ – Vybz Kartel - Outaroad.com, JA ‘Romping Shop’ – Vybz Kartel & Spice – RETV Danchall, JA/France
‘Start Anew’ – Tarrus Riley – New Style, Birmingham, UK ‘Time To Shine’ – Laden - Jamaica Music Count Down (Dancehall)








In De Charts

‘Flying Dagger (100 Stab)’ – Aidonia – Jamaica Music Count Down(Dancehall)/RETV (Dancehall), JA
‘Know Yourself’ Lloyd Brown & Peter Spence – New York
‘Pull Up Your Trousers’ Vivian Jones & Nereus Joseph – New Style, Birmingham (Nereus Joseph Pictured)






On Air

Fridays – 10pm -12 Midnight – Aston FM 89.1/www.astonfm.com with Chicken George
Saturdays – 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 – 6pm – 9pm – Elayne Smith’s Music Industry Show on www.colourfulradio.com (Monthly)

Live:

March
Mar 12th - Aidonia in Berlin, Germany
Mar 13th - Aidonia in Milan, Italy
Mar 15th - Aidonia in Copenhagen, Denmark
– Dennis Bovell/Lloyd Brown/Prezedent @ Jean Adebambo Benefit Concert @ Hackney Empire, London, England (SOLD OUT!!!!)
Mar 21st - Aidonia in Toulouse, France
- Bongo Chilli @ Polish Club with Underground Roots, Bradford, UK
Mar 22nd –Prezedent @ In Celebration of my Sisters with Playvybz family @ Hackney Empire, London, UK
Mar 26th – Bongo Chilli @ Hi Fi Club with The Root One Band, Leeds, UK
Mar 27th – Prezedent @ Labadi Nights with P’nP Family, DJ Abrantee, Cheese ‘n’ Bread & More @ Manjaro Bar, Holloway Rd, London, England
Mar 28th – Bongo Chilli @ Everyone Centre (Dub Central), Sheffield, UK

April
Apr 1st – Prezedent @ Lovers Rock Lounge with Carroll Thompson & Guests @ Ruby Lo’s,London, England
Apr 2nd Prezedent & DJ Ice @ Funky, @ The Prince Albert, Wolverhampton, England
Apr 4th – Bongo Chilli @ The Sands with Underground Roots, Grange Over Sands, UK
Apr 11th – Chi Ching Ching @ Stratford Rex, London, England
Apr 12th – Prezedent @ The Studio Club, Bedford, England

May
May 2nd – Lloyd Brown @ Deighton Centre, Huddersfield with Mike Anthony & Kofi
- Nereus Joseph & Prezedent @ African Language Fundraiser, Spotty Dog Football Club, Forest Gate, Upton Lane, London, England
May 6th – Prezedent @ Lovers Rock Lounge with Carroll Thompson & Guests @ Ruby Lo’s,London, England

July
25th – Lloyd Brown @ Lovers Rock Gala, Brixton Academy

August
2nd – Lloyd Brown @ Reggae Rising Festival, California, US

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

How To Get from Mavado to Chelsea’s Michael Essien in three moves!

1. Wish Stephen 'Digenius' Mcgregor a Happy Birthday. The award-winning producer turns 19 this week! Yup he who created world-beating riddims like the Power Cut, Red Bull & Guinness and most recently the Day Rave is only 19 years old! His co-production (with Delly Ranx) of Mavado’s break-through hit, ‘Weh Dem A Do’ went so far as to dent the Billboard Charts in 2006 and is still tearing up dances and parties to this day!

2. Music was always gonna be a part of Stephen’s life as his father is none other than Mr Freddie Mcgregor. His older siblings Yeshemabeth and Daniel ‘Chino’ Mcgregor both have solo careers in their own right as artists. Although Stephen can drop a rhyme if and when he feels like, his greater talents lie behind the mixing desk! So it’s no wonder that Stephen is now at the helm of his father’s Big Ship label, Studio and Record label.

3. The name of Mr Mcgregor’s company came from a 1982 hit that was his take on the fulfilment of the Marcus Garvey repatriation prophecy. That prophecy came to fruition – sort of in 1957 when the Garvey inspired Kwame Nkrumah named the newly independent Ghana’s shipping fleet the Black Star Line. That name was also given to Ghana’s national football team. The biggest star in that team is one Michael Essien.

And that’s how to get from Mavado to Chelsea’s Michael Essien in three moves!

Back 2 Da Future can be heard on Aston FM 89.1 (Birmingham) - Fridays -12-Midnight - 2am

www.playvybz.com on - Saturdays 7pm-9pm

Archive Selection on Natty B's Reggae Chart Show - Choice 96.9/107.1FM (London) - Sundays - 10-12 midnight

Lloyd Brown – Life Is What you make it!

Lloyd Brown is celebrating the release of his 12th studio album, ‘Brownie Points’. It’s his third release on the emergent Cousins Records label, the first being the highly acclaimed ‘Silver’. The track getting the most airplay on the album is an ode to his fans called ‘Full Appreciation’. But when you put on your Back 2 Da Future glasses and scan the tracklisting you can’t help but exclaim damn!!!!! when you see track number 5, for there lies the legend ‘It Takes Two’ Featuring Sylvia Tella and wait for it........ Colonel Mite!

Sylvia Tella needs no introduction to Lovers Rock fans as she was the same queen who gave us the classic ‘Spell’ and was touted as the female Garnett Silk when she hit the come-back trail with a string of hits including ‘Mother Nature’.

The Deejay addition to this three-the-hard-way, Colonel Mite, has been M.I.A. (Missing In Action) for nearly twenty years! Back in 1988/9 Col. Mite & the Dancehall singer, Frighty had THE biggest record around on their hands in ‘Life’. The track was soooooo large that it scraped the UK pop charts and was one of the tracks responsible for Dancehall becoming known as ‘Ragga’ as Mite’s Deejay chorus went “Raggamuffin Love, come gimme de Raggamuffin Love.....”. London filtered it through the cockney machine and wound up calling the whole genre “Ragga”.



Frighty released a few solo efforts afterwards that never really lit up the place and Col. Mite became a one-hit wonder for want of a better phrase, as we never heard from him again until he found himself with a mutual friend to Lloyd Brown. Mr Brown and brethren had a reasoning session with Mite as any self-respecting Rastaman often does and it all ended up with Mite’s voice being committed to tape (as far as we can tell) for the first time in almost 20 years!!!!!!


Figure 1: Col. Mite pictured Left

Like the old Bob Hoskins British Telecom advert strap line went - “It’s good to talk!”


(Back 2 Da Future is broadcast on www.playvybz.com on Saturdays 7pm-9pm and repeated throughout the week)

Archives

This week in 1984 Maxi ‘Chart Buster’ Priest was leading the pack on the Reggae charts with his Lovers Rock classic, ‘Should I’. His former Saxon sound stablemate, Smiley Culture was at number 2 with the ground-breaking ‘Police Officer’, and Barrington Levy’s much sampled ‘Here I Come’ was at number 3. (The Archive selection is broadcast on Choice 96.9/107.1FM as part of Natty B’s Reggae Chart Show Sundays 10pm-12am)






Reggae Number 1’s This week.....

D’Angel ‘Stronger’ - Jamaica Music Countdown (Reggae)
Harry Toddler ‘More Money’ – Jamaica Music Countdown (Dancehall)
Keith & Tex ft: Shabba Ranks ‘Duku Duku (remix)’ - Germany
Mavado ‘So Special’ – BBC 1xtra/France
Serani ‘No Games’ - US Virgin Islands
Sizzla ‘Crucial Time’– Choice FM, London
Stevie Face ‘Tell it Like it Is’ - New York/South Florida
Sugar Roy, Conrad Crystal & Gyptian ‘Jah Jah See Dem A Come’ – New Style (Birmingham)

How Do You sentence Mr Vegas to a Spanish Town Prison with Biggie Smallz and J Lo

How do you sentence Mr Vegas to a Spanish Town Prison with Biggie Smallz and J Lo

1. Mr Vegas is havin’ a Jay Z moment and it’s official!!!!! In September of this year he announced his retirement from the dancehall. But it just so happens that he is now enjoying probably his best run of hits since his debut smash, ‘Heads High’. ‘Hot Wuk’, ‘Raging Bull’, ‘Tek Weh Yuhself’, and ‘Daggering’ have all ripped dancefloors to shreds in the past year or so. The current smash on the Reggae charts that features the unmistakeable voice of the dancehall star born Clifford Smith is ‘Mus Come A Road’ – The subject matter is not to my personal liking, but then who am I but a girls dem sugar? In a nutshell, Vegas is playing the part of an incarcerated drugs baron who is pledging revenge on his informants, when “him come a road”.

2. Currently on countdowns in New York, London, Birmingham and France it features a sample from another unmistakeable classic dancehall voice, this time in the shape of the Reggae canary, Barrington Levy. The original track, ‘Prison Oval Rock’ released in 1982 vividly described an attempted prison break by inmates of the Spanish Town Prison who wanted to attend the dances that they could hear over the prison walls.

3. Arguably best known for his hit, ‘Here I Come’, Levy’s distinctive vocal delivery was loved by the Hip Hop fraternity so much that when Puff Daddy (as he was then called), was trying to break his new artist Shyne, who incidentally sounded like Puffy’s best known charge, The Notorious B.I.G., guess who was called to spice it up? None other than our very own Barrington Levy on the track, ‘Bad Boy’. So, now we come to the pay off! Remember When Puffy used to date J.Lo and they had that court case that broke up the relationship? Well, the man that got the prison sentence for it was Barrington Levy’s former collaborator, Shyne.

And that’s how you sentence Mr Vegas to a Spanish Town prison with J Lo and Biggie Smallz.

Archives

He may be number 1 in Germany this week, but it’s nothing new for the dutty stinking one as at this time in 1990 – Shabba was in the middle of a 4 week run on top of the UK Reggae charts with ‘Caan Dunn’.

Number two that week was Peter Hunnigale with ‘Fallin’’ and at three was Reggie Stepper’s anthem, ‘Drum Pan Sound’ (the Archive selection is broadcast on Choice 96.9/107.1FM

Number 1’s This week.....

Cocoa Tea ‘Barack Obama’ - Jamaica Music Count Down (Reggae)/ New York/South Florida

D-Major ‘Can’t Get Enough’ – RETV (Reggae)

Etana & Alborosie ‘Blessing’ – Choice FM, London

Keith & Tex & Shabba Ranks ‘Dukku Dukku Remix’– Germany

Mavado ‘So Special’ – BBC 1xtra/RETV (Dancehall)/France

Sugar Roy, Conrad Crystal & Gyptian - New Style, Birmingham, UK

Vybz Kartel ‘Trailor Load Of Money’ - Jamaica Music Count Down (Dancehall)

Kennedy 'Prezedent' Mensah

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Facebook: Kennedy Prezedent Mensah