Dre Skull Is The New Sound Of Dancehall

From Chris Blackwell to David Rodigan to Sun Araw, Jamaican music has long been peppered with incongruous white men, the latest of which is New York-based producer Dre Skull. With his generous beard and decidedly non-trustafarian shaved head, he looks like he might serve you a chai latte from a trendy coffee cart. Yet he's crafted some of the most emotionally rich dancehall tracks of the last few years, most recently creating the backdrops for Snoop Dogg's transformation into Jah-praising alter ego Snoop Lion.

One of the chief attractions of dancehall is the psychedelic chaos of its productions' overlapping airhorns, gunshots, and random toasting, but Dre's skill is in pulling back these deranged fripperies and drawing out the latent melancholy and moodiness of the genre.

He started in performance art, making collaborative live pieces that collaged audio and riffed on pop culture. But Dre soon became disillusioned with that world, and wanted to start making pop, rather than referencing it. "There's something compelling about song structure; maybe it taps into some sort of architect that humans are predisposed towards being," he says. His early productions – mostly rap music – wangled numerous meetings with the likes of Bad Boy Records, but nothing ever came to fruition. "I realised I wanted to not just wait for someone else to give me the blessing to be participating; I decided I really wanted to start my own record label and be the one in control of the music I was making."

The label is Mixpak, which puts out artists as varied as raucous house producer Dubbel Dutch, all-girl Japanese punk band Hard Nips, and – most successfully – recently incarcerated dancehall megastar Vybz Kartel. In 2009 Dre emailed Vybz his Smoke Machine riddim, and within 24 hours he'd turned it into the stunningly sincere Yuh Love. Dre flew out to Kingston to record more, and ended up with an entire album, Kingston Story. "It was amazing: we'd record four songs in six hours, and it was the first time he had heard the tracks," he remembers.

Dre has recorded with other big dancehall names such as Beenie Man, Mavado and Popcaan, the latter two appearing together on the Snoop Lion record. Dre was recruited for the project by Diplo, with the pair swapping sketches with fellow producer Ariel Rechtshaid before 17 days' writing and recording in Jamaica. So was Snoop in his element? "There did seem to be some sort of clouds in the studio, I'll say that."

Lady Taz Is Jamaican At Heart

New York based reggae artiste Lady Taz is seeking her big break on the local market with the recent release of the video for her single Everyday.

Lady Taz, born Tazurdee Fortunato, is originally from Milwaukee, but was strongly influenced by Jamaican culture and music by relatives. Singing reggae music from a tender age, Lady Taz explains how she came to love Jamaican music: “As a child I got a taste of Jamaican culture and music from my Jamaican relatives. They would always talk about Jamaica and it always sounded so mystical. Then they started giving me Jamaican music as gifts whenever they would visit and I was hooked. The music was so powerful and touched me in a way no other music had done before. Reggae became an outlet for me to express my emotions and creativity. Once I began singing, it was like a force had captured me and gave me a release. The best part of performing is giving others the opportunity to feel my joy and pain through my voice and my interpretation of this powerful music. During my journey as an artist I have learned to embrace the Jamaican culture and I learned to love and appreciate the energy of Jamaican music”.

Lady Taz’s new video for Everyday was shot on location in Port Royal, where her family has roots, and captures the historic and romantic feel of the town. The track which was produced by TheBadGuyz/BrassGatesMusic, is a fun composition to emphasize her competence as a reggae singer with her own edge and style.

Following on the release of Everyday, the singer says she has several hot tracks to release for the Jamaican market: “We have a lot of buns in the oven and some of the tracks are reggae while others are dancehall. I try to constantly show my versatility as an artiste and also reflect the flavor that people are interested in hearing. It’s my way of showing the world that in my heart, I am Jamaican”.

Lady Taz is also set to release her first mix tape locally aptly titled “Jamerican”. The compilation features dance worthy tracks that explore this Reggae-Soul Princess’ personal brand of Jamaican/American fused music. Already burning the music critics’ ears for its fervent spice, “Jamerican” is set to drop in early February.

Reporter Gets Attacked By Goat

A Florida television news reporter found out the hard way that goats may not be so "friendly" after all.

Macka Diamond's 'Bun Him Part Two (Jacket Daddy)'

Portmore, St Catherine-based recording artiste Black-er is overjoyed with the response to his latest combination single, Bun Him Part Two (Jacket Daddy) with dancehall superstar Macka Diamond.

"Yea man, Black-er and Macka are at it again with a next big hit. Right now, Jacket Daddy ah talk about in the street, and the man dem start the foolishness again, and ah try blame me for telling dem woman fi gi dem jacket. Here we go again," Black-er said, laughing.

The song, produced on the Birchill Records label, has been getting favourable airplay on IRIE, HITZ and ZIP over the last couple of weeks.

"The controversy start already because it tied into Macka's new book weh she ah say she no know who the father of her baby is, so she have to give it to a man that can mind the child because dry bread alone ca'an feed a child. The people can relate to it because ah something that happens in our society every day. just check the DNA, ah nuff jacket out de, so da song ya must hit," he said.

There are plans to shoot a video for the single at the end of this month when Macka Diamond returns from her book tour.

In the meantime, Black-er is also promoting another single called Bun Factory. "The song ah go hard pon the radio, so mi have two song weh a gwaan, Muschette a beat it on IRIE, it ah play pon HITZ 92, pon Suncity Radio, this week. Johnny Kool endorse it, so it is a great look. Black-er is back!" Black-er said in a release.

Black-er's name popped up recently in the news when Mr Vegas did a song which suggested that his babymother, Shelliann McBayne, decided to cheat on him because of Black-er's infamous Bun Him collaboration with Macka Diamond several years ago.

Black-er felt that he had to respond, and so Bun Factory was born. However, he turned down Mr Vegas' invitation to appear in a video to promote Vegas' Bare Tingz.

Black-er is now the host of a cable programme called 'Blacker's Top 20 video countdown' on LINKS TV on Flow channel 394 which airs every Saturday between 2 and 4 p.m., with multiple repeats during the week.

It is one of the highly rated programmes, regularly on Flow, outstripping other programmes in terms of sheer viewership.It is one of the highly rated programmes, regularly on Flow, outstripping other programmes in terms of sheer viewership.

Reggae Legend Jimmy Cliff Stars in Super Bowl Ad

Volkswagen AG released a teaser of an ad called “Sunny Side,” which it plans to run during the Super Bowl XLVII broadcast on Feb. 3. In the 1 minute, 40 second video, reggae singer Jimmy Cliff performs a cover version of the Partridge Family theme song “Get Happy.”

The German car maker has developed a reputation in recent years for creating Super Bowl ads worth watching. In the past these high-stakes commercials have been designed to promote new vehicles like the redesigned Beetle and Passat. This time the marketing theme applies to the company’s entire fleet.

“It is definitely meant to be a brand piece,” said VW spokesman Corey Proffitt. The ad is also in part a continuation of the “Smiles” campaign that began last fall just prior to the presidential election, he said.

Busy Signal - Bad Up Who