she likes 12 inches

Photography by Ladie Bawse

I most humbly apologize for my lack of posting for the last little while…

My life has had some serious changes as of late…  I needed a change of scenery to get my head on straight.

So…I went to Jamaica, for a little R&R.

Jamaica is a special place, a place I’ve always wanted to visit…

If you love Hip-Hop music, there are certain places… Such as New York City…I feel, that you have to visit to really understand the roots of what it is, Jamaica is one of those places.

Hip hop arose during the 1970s when block parties became increasingly popular in New York City, particularly in the Bronx, where African American and Puerto Rican influences combined. Block parties incorporated DJs who played popular genres of music, especially funk and soul music. Due to the positive reception, DJs began isolating the percussion breaks of popular songs. This technique was then common in Jamaican dub music and had spread to New York City via the substantial Jamaican immigrant community. One of the first DJs in New York to use dub style mixing was the Jamaican-born and often recognized as the “father” of Hip-Hop music; DJ Kool Herc, who emigrated to the United States in 1967. Dub music had become popular in Jamaica due to the influence of American sailors and rhythm & blues. Large sound systems were set up to accommodate poor Jamaicans who couldn’t afford to buy records and dub developed out of the sound systems. Because the New York audience did not particularly like dub or reggae, Herc switched to using funk, soul and disco records. As the percussive breaks were generally short, Herc and other DJs began extending them using an audio mixer and two records.

Turntablist techniques, such as scratching ( Widely recognized as being invented by Grand Wizzard Theodore, another new yorker of Jamaican decent.), beat mixing/matching, and beat juggling eventually developed along with the breaks, creating a base that could be rapped over. These same techniques contributed to the popularization of remixes as the looping, sampling and remixing of another’s music, often without the original artist’s knowledge or consent, can be seen as an evolution of Jamaican dub music, and would become a hallmark of the hip hop style.

Jamaican immigrants also provided an influence on the vocal style of rapping by delivering simple raps at their parties, inspired by the Jamaican tradition of toasting. DJs and MCs would often add call and response chants, often comprising of a basic chorus, to allow the performer to gather his thoughts ( “one, two, one, two y’all, to the beat”….etc.).

Jamaica is a musical island…Everywhere you go, you hear people singing…Wheather it’s just a girl in a store singing along to the new pop hits, or an old dread singing Jamaican folk songs on the side of the road…music is everywhere.When the lights go down, The volume goes up…Nightime in Jamaica is filled with sound.

As easy as the living is in Jamaica, swimming, dancing and eating in a paradise of a place….

Things are very complicated in Jamaica. It has been colonized so many times,  each round of people that have oppressed Jamaica have also left things behind. Some, like the Original inhabitants; the Taíno people (A pre-Columbian inhabitant of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles.  The seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America.) left many things that benefit the people to this day, such as dug out canoe building and my favorite breakfast food the “Bammy” (a sort of pancake made from cassava root.)

Other Colonizers such as the British and the Spaniards before them, took much from the island and gave little back, except for perhaps the names of almost all the places in Jamaica (Ocho Rios…get it?, good.) and in the case of the English…infrastructure. (only it was for the benefit of the English, not the people of Jamaica.)

During its first 200 years of British rule, Jamaica became one of the world’s leading sugar-exporting, slave-dependent nations, producing more than 77,000 tons of sugar annually between 1820 and 1824. After the abolition of the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in 1807, the British imported Indian and Chinese workers as indentured servants to supplement the labor pool. Descendants of indentured servants of Indian and Chinese origin continue to reside in Jamaica today (more on that later…).

By the beginning of the 19th century, Jamaica’s heavy reliance on slavery resulted in blacks outnumbering whites by a ratio of almost 20 to 1. Even though England had outlawed the importation of slaves, some were still smuggled into the colonies. The British government drew up laws regimenting the abolition of slavery, but they also included instructions for the improvement of the slaves’ way of life. These instructions included a ban of the use of whips in the field, a ban on the flogging of women, notification that slaves were to be allowed religious instruction, a requirement that slaves be given an extra free day during the week when they could sell their produce as well as a ban on Sunday Slave markets.

In Jamaica these measures were resisted by the House of Assembly. The Assembly claimed that the slaves were content and objected to Parliament’s interference in island affairs, although many slave owners feared possible revolts. Following a series of rebellions and changing attitudes in Great Britain, the nation formally abolished slavery in 1834, with full emancipation from chattel slavery declared in 1838. The population in 1834 was 371,070 of whom 15,000 were white, 5,000 free black, 40,000 ‘coloured’ or mixed race, and 311,070 slaves.

Jamaica slowly gained increasing independence from the United Kingdom and in 1958, it became a province in the Federation of the West Indies, a federation among the British West Indies. Jamaica attained full independence by leaving the federation in 1962.

Since then, Jamaica has been “colonized” twice more…Once, by the never-ending stream of American and European resort chains that have steadily been buying up Jamaican beachfront since before Bob Marley was a little boy in St. Ann. Many of which still to this day will not hire locals.

Jamaica is also currently being “colonized” by the Indian/Pakistani/Chinese people who literaly own every single piece of commercial real estate on the island. Most, not even born on the island… are relatives of the slaves brought by the British, and are also not employing locals and sending the lions share of the profits out of the country to there families back home.

Like an old dread told me after trying to sell me a lukewarm Red Stripe on the side of the road on the way to Negril “Jamaica fucked up, fucked down an’ fucked sideways. But I’n'I love it, always.” as he pounded his fist to his chest.

I’m glad that I was able to travel a large portion of the country and see all that it had to offer, Learn so much about it’s rich history and meet it’s wonderful people …. I  can’t even imagine just going to some resort and never seeing the island.

Jamaica is an amazing and special place, you feel it the minute you breath in that warm Caribbean air. No matter how bad the rest of the world gets, or who tries to take advantage of her next…. Jamaica will always be smiling….

…and I’ll be smiling with her.

oh yeah…

This is still a music website…

So….

Sister Nancy – One, Two

Techniques Records – 1982

Nancy Russell of Kingston, Jamaica  was one of 15 siblings; her brother Robert, known to her family as Dickie, found fame as Brigadier Jerry. Robert  began chanting on Prince Norman’s sound system before settling with Jahlove Music. While the Brigadier’s reputation as the number one cultural DJ flourished, by her mid-teens, Nancy was occasionally performing on the sound system as well. Winston Riley was the first producer to take Nancy into the recording studio in 1980 for her debut, “Papa Dean”. The tune was a success and Nancy’s career began in earnest. She performed at Reggae Sunsplash, which was transmitted globally. A notable appearance on A Dee Jay Explosion saw Nancy performing “Chalice A Fe Burn” and “Boom Shacka Lacka”. With Winston Riley in 1982 her debut One Two was released, featuring the title track, “Aint No Stopping Nancy”, “Bam Bam” and “Only Woman DJ With Degree”. She also recorded a classic rendition of “King And Queen” with Yellowman. With producer Henry “Junjo” Lawes, she recorded “A No Any Man Can Test Sister Nancy”, “Bang Belly” and another Yellowman combination, “Jah Mek Us Fe A Purpose”. She continued appearing live in the dancehall where she often performed alongside her brother on the Jahlove Music Sound System. The sound toured internationally to rave reviews, including a celebrated session at Brixton Town Hall, London, where both Jerry and Nancy made their debut performances in the UK.

In 1996, she relocated to New Jersey. In an interview with The Jamaica Observer in 2002, Russell-Myers said that although she was now working in the banking sector, that “music is [her] first love” and said she still performs “every now and then” (mostly on records by Toronto Ragga-Jungle producer R-Cola and MTL native/ NYC mainstay  and all around nice dude…Krinjah.).

She explained that her absence from the recording scene was due to her wanting to “give other female artists a chance”, though she said she was still “as ready as the first day [she] came into the business”.

Yes I…

Grab a copy of this Jamaican Classic right here,

or

HERE

@320.

“No problem…”

Enjoy.