Hip-Hop News

The journey of latin american artists from the 60-s and 70-s with a Jamaican style has a new stop> "Latinameriska"'s fourth volume. And even though it may sound like a cliché we have to say this is the best installment of the series without a doubt. Here's why? Because you'll get to learn about unknown bands (from out of the Jamaican scene like "Los Creyentes de BC" or studio ones like "The Stars"), get almost impossible to find tunes ("Rosario" or "Los Costeños") or listen to covers as good as the original (hurray for "Los Robbin's"!!!).or with sounds that enrich the cover (those amazing Calypso touches of René Santos or the cumbia flavour of Carmen Rivero). We have realized the richness of "Latin Jamaica" has no limits, and from north to south and east to west our treasure chest keeps growing with gems of all kind. This precious stones are all different and all highly valuable> from Jamaican Beat to Early Reggae or Calypso< with covers that range not only from Jamaican scene classics to Jazz and Soul. With such good raw materials and our culinary expertise it was impossible not to cook a delicatessen to be consumed with the ears. And once again we have a ghost track at the end< from Panamá this time and giving an Antillean flavor to another Jamaican classic. Enjoy this new installment.and be calm, it won't be the last one!!!

You must have wondered how it all began with the Jamaican beat music called Ska. Let’s set the records straight, it was “Duke” Reid from Western Kingston who developed this beat based on the indigenous music of Jamaica. It was way back in 1952 and then “Duke” called it ‘Rhythm ’n Blues’. Exciting, hypnotic, a mixture of Jamaican folk music and rock ’n roll. Duke Reid, lover of music and the deep rolling rhythms of his Jamaican people heard the beat develop from watching his people dance. He got himself an amplified “Sound system” and while hiring it out for dances, he listened and he watched, on so many Saturday nights when the back streets and dance halls of Kingston come alive - and his dream was born - music sprung from the basic beat of Jamaica with all the U.S.A. influences and the power and beauty and joy of the earth. This respective ska album focuses on much of the work from The Skatalites and Babba Brooks.

The Birth of Ska is available as a limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on orange coloured vinyl.

If you went down the wrong alleyway, took a shortcut through the park or crossed the wrong open space after dark in the UK in the 1970s, you stood a fair chance of being accosted by someone with a big mouth, low morals and some gurning mates to impress, usually reeking of fags and cheap booze and always ready to put the boot in. And, before you could say, “sickening violence”, a short but chaotic scuffle would ensue and a winner eventually emerge, battle scarred and bruised. The boot boy was the worst kind of hooligan. There wasn’t anything you could do or say to appease him. You had the same chance as a fly caught up in a spider’s web. Zero. Your best bet was to run. His intent was always to give you, and vicariously the rest of the world, a good kicking. Thugs, long-haired louts, short-haired louts; the anti-hippy. Birds, booze, bovver and football on their criminal minds. So fasten your braces for a white knuckle-duster ride. 14 bovver rock bruisers for all of you peace-loving losers. Somebody’s going to get their head kicked in tonight... Put the boot in.

In celebration of what would have been the year of Duke Reid’s 100th birthday, this collection gathers 14 of the legendary Treasure Isle supremo’s rarest and most collectable ska productions.

Deejay-turned-produced Jah Thomas’ Midnight Rock helped shift roots reggae to dancehall in the late 1970s and Thomas continued producing in the new millennium, sometimes revamping Roots Radics tracks from Channel One, and alternately cutting fresh work at King Jammy’s, Black Scorpio, and Mixing Lab. Secret Tapes has stellar guests like roots messenger Luciano, dancehall don Super Cat, supreme crooner Courtney Melody, Jah Thomas himself, and a collab between Pinchers and Josie Wales; Tony Curtis, Ghost and Mitch are courtesy of a Buju Banton co-production. Special request to all dancehall fans!

Rock Steady (Classics from Treasure Isle) Volume 2 by Various Artists, released 27 September 2024.

This version of Rock Steady (Classics from Treasure Isle) Volume 2 comes as a 1xLP.

The vinyl is pressed as a red disc.