freshmouthgoddess:

snippet on the documentary the Upsetter about the birth of Reggea in Jamaica

(Source: afro-art-chick)

blackfilm:

Roots, Rock, Reggae

This video contains a great overview of the Jamaican reggae scene in the mid-70s. It features interviews with reggae greats like Jimmy Cliff and Joe Higgs along with some great performance footage and “man on the street” footage of the slums of Kingston where reggae was born. Although little (or none) of the performance footage comprises complete songs, it’s still a real treat to see some of the biggest names in reggae (Heptones, Third World, Inner Circle, Gladiators, Lee Perry) performing and recording during one of the most creative periods of reggae’s development.

The information on Haile Selassie I and the ghetto scenes provides a good overview for anyone who wants to learn the background of reggae, beyond the palm trees and dreadlocks. via

pt. 2, pt. 3, pt. 4, pt. 5

(via easymyselecta)

aprill-showers:

Various Works of Artist Tamara Natalie Madden, a Jamaican painter whose creations function as allegories to empower the everyday people of African Diaspora.

(via adammuo)

fyeahhoodfemme:

Keepin’ it international by submitting a yardie… Carlene, Jamaica’s first dancehall queen, and an early hood femme crush.

Check for her and some other gorgeous hood femmes in the Chaka Demus & Pliers video for “Murder, She Wrote”:

(via strugglingtobeheard)

so-treu:

This is archival footage of a fife and drum group of Ed and Lonnie Young of Mississippi. I believe it was recorded by Alan Lomax, sometime between 1959 and the early 60s. They use a fife made of cane, and drums adapted from military bands.

It is interesting how similar it is, not just in form but also in actual content, to the fife and drum playing of “John Canoe” processional music of Jamaica. I have put just a quick sample of that from a 1954 recording, at the end.

fife and drum music is a fading but still ongoing tradition.

(seriously living in mississippi is like living on a music multivitamin or something)

#nornthernmississippistandup

kwesiabbensetts:

(c)kwesi abbensetts
Dance is life
Jamaica

westmorelandgoddess:

18-15n-77-30w:

Kingston, Jamaica — 1996

Peter Dean Rickards

raeee

(via 18-15n-77-30w)

kwesiabbensetts:

Driving pass Tivoli
Jamaica
(c) kwesi abbensetts

kwesiabbensetts:

Girl in vendor stand
Jamaica, Hellshire Beach

(c) kwesi abbensetts