K-Pop, Daddy Yankee, Toots, 'Rockers', 3 Album Reviews Make This #ReggaeFriday

Volume 1, Issue 11

Happy #ReggaeFriday to all. As we hit mid-September, we realize that the pressures of life during COVID-19 including your our own well-being, work stress, family life, political strife, economic strain, natural disasters, and beyond may be weighing us down even harder. I always feel that music-- especially reggae and reggaeton in particular for me-- have a way of soothing our hearts and minds to help us relax, connect and approach life. It's #ReggaeFriday and the weekend starts now.

YouTube Battle: K-Pop vs. Reggaeton

Love it or loathe it: According to YouTube users, K-Pop and Reggaeton are the biggest music genres in the world today. As of September 15, the most viewed and the third-most viewed artists on the platform in 2020 were Korean pop acts BTS and Blackpink, while ranks 2, 4 and 5 went to Reggaeton artists.

Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny was the most popular of the genre, collecting more than 3.7 billion views in the year to far. J Balvin and Anuel AA took the fourth and fifth spots.

Daddy Yankee Announces UMG Partnership

Reggaeton superstar Daddy Yankee has teamed up with Anuel AA and Kendo Keponi for his latest single “Don Don,” along with a high octane visual directed by Fernando Lugo. Produced by Mambo Kingz and DJ Luian, “Don Don” is a braggadocious collaboration of powerhouse artists, boasting a trio of Puerto Rico’s most popular artists and features an interpolation of Sisqo’s 1999 classic, “Thong Song.” Listen for yourself HERE or click on the image below

The release of “Don Don” marks the beginning of Daddy Yankee’s recently announced global entertainment partnership with Universal Music Group. The collaboration will cover all fronts of entertainment, including music, film, and television projects. Daddy Yankee will be heavily involved in the creative process as a songwriter, actor, and producer himself, creating visual media projects through Polygram Entertainment.

“I’ve worked hard to build a career that transcends cultures, borders, and languages, and I created new business models that helped bring our music to the world,” said Yankee in a statement.

Daddy Yankee has negotiated promotional deals with several companies outside of the music industry, releasing merchandise under his name. In 2005, he became the first Latin artist to sign a deal with Reebok in order to produce accessories, including the licensed clothing line "DY", which was released in 2006. He also teamed up with the company to have his own shoes and sporting goods made, which were first distributed on May 23, 2006. This is the era when Steve Stoute, and his agency Translation, were leading advertising efforts for the Reebok brand. In 2012, the reggaeton superstar partnered with Section 8 to produce Daddy Yankee headphones.

For me, I am just waiting for a new Los Cangris album. (Los Cangris is a duo group of Daddy Yankee and Nicky Jam.)

Goodbye To A Legend

Toots Hibbert, the soulful leader of the legendary ska/reggae band Toots and the Maytals, died last week in Kingston, Jamaica, at the age of 77 from complications related to the Covid-19 pandemic. He is one of reggae’s founders and most beloved stars who gave the music its name and later helped make it an international movement through such classics as “Pressure Drop,” “Monkey Man” and “Funky Kingston.” Toots' death, following the recent release of Got To Be Tough, his first studio album for 10 years, shocked the global music community.

Music icons including bandmates of The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Skatalites, Blondie, No Doubt, Massive Attack, Rancid, and UB40 as well as Ziggy Marley, Cedella Marley, Willie Nelson, Yusuf /Cat Stevens, Phish's Trey Anastasio, and others shared tributes to Toots. Even Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness joined wave of tributes with his own.

In his teens, he formed a vocal trio (before Marley's Wailers came on the scene) with Henry "Raleigh" Gordon and Nathaniel "Jerry" Matthias and they slapped their harmonies together singing everything from R&B to ska and soul. Coxsone Dodd released their first records in the early 1960s on his legendary Studio One label.

Hibbert was a consummate musician, bandleader and songwriter. His upbeat messages were designed to uplift, to console and to support salvation. This positive attitude came out in his singing and he was one of the great reggae singers, up there with Marley, Dennis Brown, Johnny Clarke and Gregory Isaacs. What made his voice unique in the reggae world was the soulful expressiveness that came from his gospel roots -- he sounds a lot like the great soul singer Wilson Picket and gospel and soul star O.V. Wright. In his live shows, he could turn his pipes effortlessly to funk, soul or even country.

Interesting fact from The Rolling Stones. Just like many great bands, The Rolling Stones also experimented with multiple genres of music. Including rock, disco, psychedelic music, baroque pop, and country music. "Start Me Up" was originally recorded by the band as a reggae song. It was never released.

‘Rockers’ Book Brings to Life the Making of the Legendary Reggae Film

No film in the last 50 years better captured the purity of the Jamaican music scene in the Bob Marley era than the 1978 feature Rockers. Earlier this summer the film's director, Theodoros Bafaloukos, released a coffee table book. It is a must-read for any fan of the original motion picture.

Spanning 320 pages and housed in a 9” x 12” hardcover book, this coffee table tome not only explores the journey to Jamaica for Bafaloukos and his crew via insightful anecdotes and candid behind-the-scenes photos, but also the director’s own personal coverage of his reggae adventures in New York. Exclusive photos of Dillinger playing Max’s Kansas City and Burning Spear at My Father’s Place across the Throgs Neck in Roslyn on Long Island accompany anecdotes about run-ins with the likes of Jessica Lange, Grace Jones, Phillipe Petit and Robert Frank along the way.

If you are not familiar with Rockers, it premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival and 1978 and was shown at the Cannes Film Festival the same year as Apocalypse Now. It was received enthusiastically. Le Monde said it was not a film, but a work of art.

Unlike the 1972 Jamaican crime film The Harder They Come that featured Jimmy Cliff and is said to have "brought reggae to the world," it is Rockers that blossomed into a full-length feature showing the reggae culture at its peak. The film features authentic culture, characters and mannerisms. The movie features several popular reggae artists star in the movie, including Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, Burning Spear, Gregory Isaacs, Big Youth, Dillinger, and Jacob Miller. Watch the 2-minute movie trailer by clicking HERE or on the image below.

The glue of this book is in the deeply personal autobiography Bafaloukos wrote the year before his passing. “Over the years, a lot has been said about Rockers,” Bafaloukos writes in his closing paragraph. “Most of it true. Much of it self evident. For me, Rockers is the music. The sound and the words. The sounds of reggae and the people who made it.”

Get Your #ReggaeFriday Weekend Playlist On YouTube Music

Be sure to stream my #ReggaeFriday playlist this weekend. Keep in mind that it is a playlist of both songs and their matching videos so you can get a great visual vibe in addition to the audio. I'm constantly updating it to help put you in the right mood for the weekend. Click HERE, or tap the image below to access it:

Daddy Yankee makes the cover this week with his "Don Don" track.

#ReggaeFriday Weekend Soundtrack

We have three reggae albums to highlight this week from The Wailers, Lila Iké, and Ziggy Marley & Friends that are worth your listen.

The Wailers: One World

Few bands are as universally beloved as the Wailers. They were assembled by Bob Marley alongside Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer in 1963, and there's a good chance you would never have heard of reggae without them. After Marley's death from cancer at age 36 in 1981, the Wailers kept jamming, led by bassist Aston "Family Man" Barrett and Barrett's brother, drummer Carlton Barrett. Now there's a new iteration of the band, led by Aston Barrett Jr., that has released the Wailers' first album in a quarter-century, One World.

Though the younger Barrett had been working as a professional musician since he was in middle school touring with both Julian Marley and Lauryn Hill, he admits he wasn't sure he was up to leading the Wailers.

in my opinion One World is a 14-track gem. The album, produced by Emilio Estefan and to released by Sony Music Latin on August 21, features Julian, Skip & and Cedella Marley, Shaggy, Farruko (Puerto Rico), Emily Estefan (daughter of Emilio & Gloria Estefan), Natiruts (Brazil), Carlinhos Brown (Brazil) Frederic Yonnet (France), Marcia Griffiths & Judy Mowatt (from the I-Threes). This reggae album is warm and friendly front to back making it broadly appealing for general audiences including families of all ages.

"One World, One Prayer" featuring Skip Marley, Cedella Marley, Farruko and Shaggy is the lead-off track. The song had been pre-released in May. Julian Marley appears on two tracks "When Love Is Right" and lively remix version of the same song with Natiruts. Click HERE to play "One World, One Prayer" or on the image below.

I'm just hoping that they make a video for the "When Love Is Right" remix. Julian and Natiruts deliver a nice vibe with this track. Julian "Ju Ju" Marley is the son of Bob and Lucy Pounder-- younger half brother to Ziggy and Stephen but older than Ky-mani and Damian.

Lila Iké: The ExPerience

Lila Iké is one of Jamaica’s fastest rising stars who has recently signed to RCA Records. This EP of 7 tracks was released May 15. Honestly, at first I wasn't feeling her, but she has definitely grown on me with more spins while I work from my virtual office. In fact, I think it's "I Spy" that has flipped me. Watch the music video HERE or click on the image below.

Lila Iké was born Alecia Grey, the second oldest of four sisters; she chose the name Lila, which means blooming flower, and Iké, a Yoruba word meaning the Power of God. Her mother, an avid music fan, played an assortment of genres at home: reggae, country and western, R&B, gospel and jazz, which was significant in shaping the vocal versatility that characterizes Lila's traditional reggae sound with a glistening modern edge. 

The harder-hitting "Where I'm Coming From" illustrates her life journey. If you follow reggae music you will recognize some cameos in the music video including her mentor Protoje. Play the music video HERE or click on the image below.

Ziggy Marley: More Family Time

As original covered in an earlier #ReggaeFriday post, Ziggy releases his family-friendly More Family Time album today. The star-studded album features the likes of Sheryl Crow Alanis Morissette, Ben Harper, Busta Rhymes, Stephen Marley, and Tom Morello. Ziggy's children appear on a couple of tracks. An early favorite track is "Jambo" featuring Angélique Kidjo of Kenya. Listen to it HERE or click on the image below.

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My #ReggaeFriday posts are part of a self-created commitment (and a self-indulgence) that started in early June 2020 with the intention to expose, elevate, celebrate, and expand an appreciation of the people, culture and music of reggae and reggaeton-- a slice of Caribbean Culture.