Two global music legends and their legacys!

Two of the worlds greatest music superstars who are no longer with us look set to continue their dynasty for many years to come due to their talented musical children. The recent 30 year anniversary of Bob Marley’s death was heralded widely across the world in a manner befitting a man who is arguably the worlds most global music superstar. Bob Marleys music is universal and timeless and despite the fact the western world often cites Elvis Presley and the Beatles as the biggest stars, arguably only Michael Jackson has reached the masses of Asia and Africa as much as Bob. Fela Kuti is the certainly not as popular as Bob Marley on a global scale, but the Nigerian Multi-instrumentalist and political activist was also hugely influential, and like Bob, he has more than one son very active in music in 2011.









Fela Kuti’s children have not always enjoyed the same kind of harmony which the Marley children seem to manage and until recently there was a major standoff between half brothers Seun and Femi Kuti. One thing is for sure though, these two guys are carrying the afrobeat of their Dad kicking and screaming into the modern era and both have released significant music in recent years. As we celebrate Africa Day the world over this week it’s worth reflecting on this terrific music.





Femi has been around for longer and got a major push after the death of Fela in the late 90s in the first of several attempts to break him into the mainstream American music scene. Despite enlisting the likes Common, Mos Def and the Roots along the way, he has never quite crossed over in the way he or his record companies would want, but the music is rightly celebrated and critically acclaimed. Seun meanwhile is Fela’s youngest son and watching live in Cork a few years ago was almost exactly like watching his Dad! He not only looks like he plays like him too in his fathers legendary Egypt 80 band. If you ever get a chance to see any of the Kuti’s live take the chance and the same goes for Damian Marley and a few of his brothers. Bob and Fela have left behind some amazing music, and a bunch of children possessed by the same spirit and creativity!

Rise and shine soul-Amy Winehouse 3

I always love the way she was schooled in ska and reggae aswell as soul and jazz

One for the late night crew! Kicking Back feat Taxman

UK soul classic you might have had to be in the back bar to understand the sound I dedicate this to Gina, Shane and everyone else also the posse from the Donkey's Ears who are having a reunion in the Pav Friday week details HERE

One for the late night crew-Linton Kwesi Johnson

Tune of the day-I'm still in love with you

Marcia Griffiths



Althea and Donna

Tune of the day! Horace Andy

One of the great voices of reggae and one of his great tunes, back in Cork on Friday too check here

Tune of the day! Sister Nancy

Give em the night with Ini Kimoze

Reggae legend gets cheesy with a monster hip-hop crossover from the mid 90's

Tune of the day! Barrington Levy

Back bar classic dedicated to Donkeyman

Tune of the day! The Prodigy

Tune of the day-for the junglists i grew up with, especially Colin D, who gets married later today! Congrats man! I'm playing some tunes before these guys during the summer should be fun this was a great reworking of "Chase the Devil"-Check out the comments of the dude who put it up on youtube aswell!

Tune of the day! The Fugees

and the Delfonics



Both on my collections mix free download here

Tune of the day! The Paragons

Tune of the day--for my little Lola who i'm minding for the day a lovely reggae classic from a really under-rated crew

Tune of the day! Johnny Osbourne

Never fails

Hip-hop reggae!

Last week we mentioned some of the most sampled soul, funk and jazz acts of all time and discussed their importance with regard to the creation of what we now call hip-hop. It's interesting that while soul, funk and jazz remain the most sampled music genres hip-hop producers have also taken many loops from rock records too, and back in the late 70's and early 80's drum breaks from Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin were regularly sampled in the embryonic stages of the music.
Meanwhile reggae and dub, despite being music that also opened the gates for hip-hop in New York and beyond, played a more subtle role in hip-hop from a sampling perspective. Despite this, when utilised together, the two musics can have a devastating impact. I recently wrote an article here about dancehall but today


I'm gonna look at ten classic combinations of more conventional hip-hop artists putting reggae to great use. The music that was originally born out of Jamaicans love for American r&b and jazz, eventually found it's way around the world and as waves of Jamaican immigrants arrived in New York in the 70's they brought reggae, DJ Culture, spoken word rap stylings and even production techniques to the studios of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. If it wasn't for DJ's such as Kool Herc, there would be no hip-hop, and if it wasn't for reggae and dub, there certainly wouldn't have been such a panache and freshness about this music that eventually became bigger than ever 10 and 20 years later. Here are ten who had the reggae at the forefront! (Article originally appearing in last weeks Evening Echo)

Catch a mix next Saturday on Black on Red featuring many of these on more

7-10PM Saturday http://redfm.ie

1-Boogie Down Productions
KRS-One and Scott La Rock were one of the finest purveyors of the reggae hip-hop style, and even after Scotts tragic death KRS went on to become one of the great exponents of Jamaican vocal stylings over hip-hop beats.
2-Poor Righteous Teachers
Not as well known these days as KRS or BDP, but this Jersey crew had some underground hits back in the day, and they always had a nice reggae vibe with some conscious roots sounds fused with their rhythms.
3-J Live
A New York MC, Producer and DJ who burst onto the scene with the Sister Nancy sampling "Longevity", using a loop also prominently executed by Diamond D. J Live has since sampled reggae a number of times and cut up "East of the River Nile" beautifully on 'Satisfied"
4-Roots Manuva
UK rapper always heavy on the reggae and indeed ragga plus plenty of his music comes in dub format too.
5-Smiff N 'Wessun
Boot Camp Clik members who hit us with the classic "Sound Bwoy Burriel" and who's rapper Tek has always had a reggae vibe. Fellow members of the Boot Camp, Heltah Skeltah, O.G.C and the mighty Black Moon, were also influenced by reggae stylings.
6-The Fugees
Even before Lauryn Hill and Wyclef went on to solo success with a heavy Caribbean influence reflecting their Haitian roots, their two albums were dominated by clever reggae samples.
7-Shinehead
80's rap and reggae artist who was way ahead of his time and paved the way for many of the successful stars to follow.
8-Estelle
UK rapper/singer turned pop star is another who is proud of her reggae roots, prominently displayed on her recent "Magnificent" single.
9-Phife Dawg
The lessor known of the two main rappers in A Tribe Called Quest was a reggae and dancehall fanatic and even released some solo singles in this mould.
10-Black Star
Both Mos Def and Talib Kweli have been huge respectors of roots and reggae in their solo career, so it was no suprise that their collaborative work was similar in outlook

Some videos

Black Star

Can't tell ya how big this was at the time!



Roots Manuva

Large!



Poor Righteous Teachers

Yes!



Shinehead



Diamond D

File with "Longevity" by J Live

Bad news and a tiny bit of good news!

The Bad News

Please note THE MIGHTY DIAMONDS show due to take place in The Pavilion on Tuesday 31 March has been postponed…



‘Donald "Tabby" Shaw, Fitzroy "Bunny" Simpson and Lloyd " Judge" Ferguson were all denied visas on appeal this week. There is only get one chance to make an appeal before the visa is completely denied and the process has to be started all over again. The system for UK visas has radically changed in the last few months, and since the last tour. Their Irish visas were dependent upon their UK visas and were to be collected in London.’



Refunds available from point of purchase. New dates will be announced once confirmed.



THE PAVILION

13 Carey's Lane(just off Patrick Street)

Cork City.

The Good News (here is a classic tune to cheer ya up on a Tuesday morning)