Sunday, September 7, 2008

Is Dancehall-Reggae on the Decline?...

IS DANCEHALL-REGGAE STRUGGLING?
The year almost end and all now, we no have no big song on the Billboard Hot 100. The tours dem still a gwaan, Shaggy tour sell off and him find a European hit, Beenie Man perform at some of the biggest festivals in Europe like Uppsala for the first time even though the gays dem stop one of the concert dem; Morgan Heritage rock one of the biggest festivals in Europe, Parkpop performing alongside Sheryl Crow in front of 300,000 people. Mykal Rose continued his comeback when him do Reggae Sunsplash in Austria. Queen Ifrica is growing in popularity in Europe, Tarrus signed a contract with Wisynco to be the spokesperson for the 30 million healthy living campaign for Ocean Spray. Mavado’s remix with Lil Kim and Wyclef got crazy airplay on HOT 97 and Junior Reid continues to do major collabs with hip hop and R & B acts in the US. Big up to the late Natasja, Calabria, and Matisyahu ah the bright sparks in a sea of mediocrity. The other day Matisyahu go pon tour and the bandmembers dem from Jamaica bring home $1.8 million each, the reggae star ah tek care of him bands dem proper, we love that. And when Bolt do the Gully Creeper and Nuh Linger, the whole world ah ask about our dances, but how can we cash in on Brand Jamaica in a real way?
However, where are the international hits? Ele’s album tanked, Shaggy sold less than 25,000 copies of his album. And what happened to Sean Paul’s album? What about new prospects like Jovi Rockwell? Tami Chynn? Cherine Anderson is doing well but still, she is not moving units. There are other troubling signs, Corporate Jamaica is not supporting the Reggae Academy, Red Stripe pulled its name from Sumfest, record production is down 52.3 per cent according to the Planning Institute of Jamaica, and even though the stats show that more entertainment licences are being granted across the island, a lot of dances are being shut down by cops long before the promoters recoup their expenses, things look sticky right now.



REGGAE BOYZ NEED FI STEP IT UP
Mi watch the match yesterday on TVJ and mi never pleased. Mi go over mi girlfriend apartment inna the afternoon with her boyfriend and bagga him friends and listen some music and chill till the match start. The Mexicans dem can play, yu see all the number 10, wahhim name, Branco or Blanco or whatever, the man bad him bad him bad. Mi see the man all a use him back fi mek pass and all these things. Is like dem man de live, sleep, eat and think football but our ting no have the same intensity and commitment and it show pon the field. Mi hear the yute dem a cuss the ballers dem, but mi feel proud, dem only get 3-0, mi memba one time dem did pick up pure 6 and 5 love so this is an improvement. Hope we do better against Honduras.



Source: One 876 Ent.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

dancehall reggae sucks right now you can you only dance to it now if you know a dance. you cant just chill to it anymore. foreign label heads dont want to fuck wit reggae cuz of all the anti gay shit. those are the same peeps that cant tell the difference between beres hammond and aidonia and as a result artists like tarrus riley cant get the exposure necessery based on that ignorance. but dancehall as whole nowadays sounds rushed they put 30 riddims a month and each song (especially from kartel and elephant man) is written and recorded faster than it takes for me to move my bowels , a fitting comparison cuz dancehall music is in the toilet.