Sting we a Sting

This is 5 months after the fact of course, but I just found a good summary on Youtube so here's a brief dip into the lunatic and increasingly cynical world of dancehall stageshow clash.


For those that don't know, Sting 08 was the latest escalation of the fued between the Gullyside (Mavado) and Gaza (Vybez Kartel) crews, with Mavado (aka Mafraudo) ostensibly representing the Alliance... and Kartel (aka Bleach Boy) representing the Portmore empire. I'm not a fan of either artist to be honest, and things have been going downhill on the clash side of things since the melee at Sting '03 in my opinion, but it is worrying that with all these alliances and factions (and the blind loyalty they elicit from fans), dancehall seems to be becoming more and more reflective of garrison mentality and the seemingly intractable and perrenialy antagontistic political scenario in Jamaica...

Droid + Slug on Power FM

We're guesting on the Don Rosco and Stacks show tonight between 12 and 2am playing a selection of ruff ragga and smooth 95 rollers, plus a little bit of crucial early 90's dancehall, and maybe a touch of garage and bleep n' bass - if you're feeling restless and wanna tune in, go to the Power FM site.

Should be a laugh - we havent had a chance to get even a semblance of a proper set together!

20 Best Ragga 7"s

Me over at FACT magazine with the 20 best Ragga tunes of all time (youtube vids included). The original request was for a '20 best: dancehall', which is of course impossible - but even after severely narrowing the category down this exercise still proved heinously difficult - there's just so many great tunes out there! I ended up going all super-subjective whilst also trying to represent as many worthwhile artists and producers as I could (though I'm still not sure how I ended up with no Bounty Killer).

Upshot of it all (as I quake in my Clarks bootees awaiting the DHR style backlash) is that I have discovered a new found sympathy for those who do this kind of thing...

Shut Up and Dance

Seeing as it's now almost sold out, I've posted an extended version of my SUAD interview from Woofah issue 2 over at blogtotheoldskool. This is the first and last time that anything I write for Woofah will be republished online, so enjoy - and if you have any sense you'll keep an eye on the Woofah site and buy the new (and back) issues so you can get this stuff straight from the source in future...