jackhammer

If you like dance beats mixed with Reggae then try Dubmatix:

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Dr_Rez

I really think you are missing the point of this album. First off old school reggae really has nothing to do with this. Its an entirely different thing in itself. This is not trying to make a commercial success of an album, or try and flash bling bling and modern values into the music. It is simple a bunch of modern day artists taking some Marley songs and putting there twist into the mix. Do not look into this album so much you are ruining for yourself.

Secondly and most importantly Hip Hop and Modern Reggae is NOT going downhill the slightest bit. You are simply referring to the commercially successful and mainstream garbage that is on the charts and in most peoples heads. There is PLENTYof new and exciting music in both genres you just have to look around. And again not to be disrespectful but if you have an unlimited download service which most of us do then you should really find this stuff without a problem. If you truly believe 2 entire genres have stopped making talented and meaningful music then you have some listening to do.

Thats just not true at all. Again, your just listening to what handed to you.

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Gavin B.

Be patient with me, I'm not evaluating your music taste, I'm simply giving you my honest opinion about an album you recommended. Music is completely subjective and I've spent my own fair share of defending my own eccentric tastes in music. My wife shares my own love of rare psychedelic garage rock, first wave punk and delta blues but otherwise she hates anything else I put on the turntable. She more of a musical primativist in her tastes and I'm more of musical pluralist who thinks musical genres are simply attempt to use marketing demographics to sell music.

I'm not an expert on hip hop but my appreciation of hip hop dates back to Afrika Bambaata, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Erik B & Rakim and Curtis Blow. I disagree that there is an abundance of exciting music in hip hop, reggae or any other genre of contemporary music. For me the release of Blowout Comb by Digable Planets in 1994 was hip hop's finest moment but that album tanked because everyone was too busy listening to Nirvana, Pearl Jam and gangsta rap.

My disagreement with you on the artistic value of Chant Down Babylon has more to do with my own involvement in reggae music. I played in a successful reggae band in Boston, gigged as reggae sound system operator and still do a reggae and dub oriented radio show. As a result I have some pretty stong opinions about social and cultural significance of reggae music.

Most of the current "reggae music" isn't technically reggae because the one drop, skank tempo of the music which made reggae music so distinctive, has largely abandonned for a gunned up sleng teng tempo that's closer to calypso or socca. The difference of the newer uptempo reggae is as different as ska, bluebeat, and rock steady were different from the tempo of reggae music.


I became aquainted with reggae because I grew up in St. Ann's Parish Jamaica at height of the 1976-1982 roots reggae explosion and there's nothing as musically significant going on in Jamaica today. Anthony B. is the best of the current crop reggae artists and he not an artist of the same caliber as his predecessors like Burning Spear, Marley, Tosh, Joesph Hill, Gregory Isaacs, the Roots Radics, Big Youth, U-Roy, Sugar Minott or Lee Perry.

It's rare for me to walk into a music store or shop on the internet and find an album, EP or single I'm really looking for. Especially now that most music retailers have devoted most of the inventory space to album titles that sell fast. I doubt if many storefront music retailers will survive the next five years. The reggae music intentory at my local collector's music store, Vintage Vinyl is down to mostly Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, some best selling reggae anthologies ([like The Harder They Come), the ubiquitous Shaggy and UB 40 (which is not really a reggae group any more than the Beat or the Specials were reggae groups). Perhaps British music retailers carry more of a reggae inventory but I usually end up purchasing from a friend of mine that runs a small storefront reggae specialty shop in Brooklyn.

I subscribed to I-Tunes for over a year and found their inventory of music was completely market driven and found very little music that I hadn't already heard or worth more than 2 or 3 listenings. I subscribe to Altnet music service which has extensive selections from Atlantic, Warner, Sony-BMG, Geffen, EMI, Universal and Interscope music catalogues. I'm surprised at the number of out of issue, rare and esoteric titles Altnet carries along with most new releases by first, second and third tier artists. It's $19.95 a month for unlimited downloads so instead of spending $19.95 for a single album that sucks and can download thousands of tunes and albums a month for the same price.

So we disagree about the abundance of good music as well since I believe you have to dig through a lot of dirt to find an occasional musical gem. I think most of the current innovations in contempory music are taking place in roots music (No Depression), the revitalized soul music scene, and dub. Some of the better pop oriented indy bands like Throw Me the Statute, M83, the Dodos, the Minature Tigers, City and Color, Devochka, Fleet Foxes and Koushik are opening up musical space that is new to most rock music fans.

Thanks for taking time to respond to my other post. I hope you won't it against me that we have a difference in taste on the Chant Down Babylon album. It's fair to say we probably agree on far more things musically than we disgree on.

I'm curious if you've explored the wide array of music that is the foundation of reggae music, like Culture, the Heptones, the Morwells, the Mediations, the Mighty Diamonds, Dennis Brown, U-Roy, Big Youth, Gregory Issacs, the Congos, the Upsetters and Ras Michael?

Janszoon

That seems like a weird reason to listen to something.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

jackhammer

Brazilian and Argentinian Reggae stays very close to it's roots with bands such as Natiruts, Ponto De Equilibrio, Sons Of Jah Army and Los Cafres. We also have bands such as NZ outfit Katchafire who began life as a Bob Marley Tribute band who became so good at what they did, they became a fully fledged Reggae band.

As for Hip Hop, I'm not a massive fan but I do own near 60 albums and there have been plenty of great albums released over the past 15 years (I grew up with the original hip hop too) such as Dalek, Company Flow, Count Bass D, Deltron 3030, Jedi Mind Tricks, Strange Fruit Project and MF Doom who have released fantastic albums that are far away from the gangster rap that is everywhere.

Reading your posts over the site I can see that your are passionate and knowledgeable about music but I find in this case that you have made your mind up without fully delving into the sounds on offer. I'm into my late 30's and constantly looking for new music or artists that are damn good at what they do.

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Dr_Rez

Haha no I hold it against you in a good way. Most posters do not take a fraction of the effort you did in articulating a response. Most of those artist I enjoy (with the exception of Heptones and U-Roy who i Have not heard but will check out). And its funny you bring up the Gregory Issacs, because my cousin actually just met him in 2007 when he was performing at the Cricket World Cup. Its incredible how many albums he has Churned out over fifty something years.

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*Best chance of losing virginity is in prison crew*
*Always Checks Credentials Crew*
*nba > nfl crew*
*Shave one of my legs to pretend its a girl in my bed crew*

Gavin B.

I plea guilty to being a bit dogmatic about reggae music and apologize.

Gregory Isaacs is indeed the most prolific of reggae musicians. In the early Eighties he was releasing 2 or 3 singles a week on his African Museum label.

Unfortunely Gregory spent many of his prime musical years behind bars in General Penitentiary on drug and weapons charges. Many of Gregory's sufferer's tales are about his own incarceration in GP. For instance the song Dieting is about a hunger strike Gregory organized in GP in the late Seventies. Gregory Isaacs has composed more prison songs than Johnny Cash if you check out his recorded works.

The worst part about Gregory's years in prison at GP was he couldn't tour when there was a broad public interest in reggae in the USA and England; and his drug and weapons charges. Gregory's criminal record also make it difficult for him to secure a travel visa to enter the USA and the UK to perform. If Gregory is lucky he can get a one week limited visa to tour outside of Jamaica. It's very hard for reggae musicians to secure travel visas anyway.Under Jamaican law it's very easy for white tourists to enter Jamaica while it's very difficult for any black Jamaican national to get a visa to exit Jamaica.

Gregory has a great deal of regret about his rude boy years and the negative effect of his outlaw style on his musical career. Gregory made a small fortune in his prime but most of that money was poured into his ambitious musical projects at his Black Museum recording studio. He still receives a few modest royalty payments for the ubiquitous anothologies and collections of his music. And Gregory can still make a great deal of money touring but his visa status makes touring outside of Jamaica problematic for him.

Womanboogie

Yes, this is love. My mom preferred the original.

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coryallen2