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TNCC Student LeShania Blue Receives Car from Virginia Caribbean American Cultural Association The Virginia Caribbean American Cultural Association Inc. (VCACA) is a community based, traditional, performing cultural art, non-profit 501(c) 3 organization.

TNCC Student LeShania Blue Receives Car from Virginia Caribbean
American Cultural Association
The Virginia Caribbean American Cultural Association Inc. (VCACA) is
a community based, traditional, performing cultural art, non-profit
501(c) 3 organization. Our organization is making a difference in the
Greater Hampton Roads area by bringing world-class Caribbean artistry,
building our neighborhoods’ appreciation for the arts and creating a
legacy for our communities. Simply put, we are building a "bridge
between cultures."

VCACA believes that we have a responsibility to help those that are
less fortunate and contribute to the common good in our communities.
All too often we see others looking away and doing nothing has become
all too easy in our society. We want to change the mindset and make it
commonplace to reach out to others. We feel so strongly about this,
that it’s been a continued practice since our inception to offer a
variety of outreach programs that serve low-income community residents
in the Hampton Roads area. Supporting our communities gives our
members a pleasant feeling of connectedness and the satisfaction of at
least trying to make the world a better place.

Recently, a member of our organization brought to our attention an
individual in our community who is experiencing some challenging times
and is in dire need of reliable transportation. This individual is a
single parent of three children, one of which has a disability. To
make matters worse, she has difficulty getting to and from work, and
school – where she is obtaining an undergraduate degree at Thomas
Nelson Community College, getting her children to school and to the
babysitter each day. As a result, our members decided that we should
assist her in getting reliable vehicle.

Le’Shania Blue started out as a work-study at the Peninsula
Workforce Development Center in 2005 and in 2007, she gained
employment (part-time, P-14) with the Career Services and Cooperative
Education Department at TNCC as a e-Recruiting Specialist. Le’Shania
will be receiving her Associate’s Degree in Political Science on May
13, 2008.

On 8 May 2008 at 5:00pm at the Peninsula Workforce Center on 600
Butler Farm Rd, Hampton, VCACA will hand over keys of a Dodge Neon to
Ms. Le’Shania Blue. We extend an invitation to her coworkers and
others to witness the presentation of the keys and to capture the
emotional moment. It is often during the holiday season, more than at
any other time; our hearts go out to others. But there are always
those who are less fortunate than we are and will appreciate our help
all year round.

VCACA challenges businesses and others in the community to
frequently give whatever you can to charities in your local
communities, so that they may continue to make a difference in the
lives of those that are in less fortunate. You may be surprised at the
benefits you reap!

This saturday (17th May 08) Black Starliner (Carlita & Seko, yep the same two from Virginiaeggae. com) will topple the top Soca DJ’s in Virginia.

This saturday (17th May 08) Black Starliner (Carlita & Seko, yep the same two from Virginiaeggae. com) will topple the top Soca DJ’s in Virginia.

We will be coming out to have major fun musically.

We are coming ot to mingle with the soca loving people.

We are coming out to support the Carnival and the people who do so much to make it work.

We hope that you can come out and raise a flag fi we.

Even if you have never been to a soca event i assure you after it’s over you will have a rare experience under ya belt.

Give it a try!

This is one for the Soca/ Calypso & reggae fans!

This one is for you if you can find some way to make this night a nite of some real fun. The best dj’s will win but dem soca sound betta not mek di roots sound win….. hay heyyyyyyyy… lol lol lol lol.

We love we people so we get involved!

 

By now most have already heard about the separation between myself and Penthouse Music Group. Let me assure you that it was one of mutual understanding, and that I sincerely wish Mr. Donovan Germain all the best. With much respect I say to Mr. Germain, thank you for the many years of service and for the eye-opening experience.

May, 12, 2008

Greetings, good people of the earth! I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all the love and support over the years and for your continued support in the future.

By now most have already heard about the separation between myself and Penthouse Music Group. Let me assure you that it was one of mutual understanding, and that I sincerely wish Mr. Donovan Germain all the best. With much respect I say to Mr. Germain, thank you for the many years of service and for the eye-opening experience.

To the haters, hate on. To the well-wishers, we will be victorious because JAH LIVE. As for me personally, I am fine. Glad I now have the medium to communicate to my fans and friends all over the world.

Here at Gargamel we are cultivating a new awareness in the minds of music lovers everywhere. Over the past three years, I have been steadily building. The trials were many and the lessons arduous. However, it has made me much more informed and knowledgeable about this business of music. Learning how everything works behind the scenes is crucial in this age. I am proud to announce that the studio renovation is now complete, give God almighty the glory — yet our works have just begun.

There are so much things to discuss and share with you but where to begin? I am of the belief that there is a certain force at work in this, our beloved island of Jamaica: a force working to further undermine us as a people who should know by now where we are coming from, and where we are going. Where is unity? Where is trust? Where is loyalty? Where is conscience?

How long will brothers be placed in the uncomfortable position of being the buffer between the rich and poor in this country, all in the name of security? The scale is not a balanced one when it comes to dealing with those they say have not, as opposed to those who have.

In Jamaica today we have a terrible problem with the guns, the gunman, the politicans, the dons, the deejays, the lesbian and gays, you name it. We are suffering a social decay yet no one, not a single one of our entertainers, have seen the need for a change in the lyrical content they are selling.

In times past, entertainers were such a vocal set that even church leaders would quote them during service. What happened? Have we all become followers now, instead of leaders for our people? No wonder these political snipers are getting away with blue murder. Everybody is afraid of what speaking out might bring.

I have no friend in high society. My friends are those I can identify with, those who have a heart conscience, those who see our country — overrun by crooks and cut throats — and are calling deep inside for their champions to restore their pride and dignity so we Jamaicans can once more hold our heads high and serve this great nation with our all. We have a responsibility. Let’s pull together.

 

We at Virginia reggae would like to tender our deepest condolences to the family and friends of “Yagga”. Our friend left us on the 29th of April 2008.

We at Virginia reggae would like to
tender our deepest condolences to the family and friends of “Yagga”.
Our friend left us on the 29^th of April 2008. We
especially want to pray for his twin brother “Buddah” as he deals
with this situation. A very well known and loved person on the
Virginia reggae and Caribbean community, Yagga will be remembered!
The upcoming Virginia reggae awards will honor the life of our friend
Yagga!

We will have a card to be signed at the
door which we will forward to Buddah!

To honor our friend’s life ,
the trophies presented at the VRA’s will be known as the
“Yagga”

Mikey passed away at approximately 6:50pm Eastern Standard Time on Saturday, March 15th, 2008. He was surrounded by his family in the home of his sister in Connecticut at the time of his passing.

Mikey Dread passed away this evening

According to the West Indian Times, Michael ‘Mikey Dread’ Campbell who was always ‘The Dread At The Control’ has passed away. Mikey passed away at approximately 6:50pm Eastern Standard Time on Saturday, March 15th, 2008.

He was surrounded by his family in the home of his sister in Connecticut at the time of his passing. We had reported in October 2007 that Mikey had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and that he was fighting with all his might to recover from his illness.

Mikey constantly remained upbeat and hopeful for a full recovery so that he could continue doing what he loved; spreading Jah music to the world. Mikey’s family including his children; 2 sons from Jamaica, a daughter who lives in Houston, TX, a son who lives in Canada, a daughter who lives in Belize, and his 4 month old son Zylen Jahlight had been close by in the last few months as he fought to stay with them.

Tuff Lion hard at work, New Ancient King Album Plus More

Virginia’s Tuff Lion hard at work.

Tuff Lion and St. Croix I Grade Records have completed an album of instrumental music. The album features Tuff Lion’s spectacular guitar renderings set with classic riddims from the I Grade catalog. The album contains a few new riddims (co-produced by Zion High and Lustre Kings). The album is entitled "Ten Strings" and will be out in early May.

Also released is Wadada a various artist album produced by Tuff Lion featuring tracks by Tuff Lion, Ras Attitude and a host of other talents.

Change by Sahra Indio is another roots classic album produced by Tuff Lion. Sahra Indio hails from Hawaii.

West Indian times

West Indian times magazine will no longer be printed. January’s issue of the magazine was the last edition! West Indian times magazine is a major loss to the Virginia reggae and Caribbean communities!

Ancient King

Ancient King releases his sophomore album entitled Judgement! The album was done with Mystic Vision.

 

Tonight, after two sell-out runs at London’s Theatre Royal Stratford East, the stage musical of the classic movie The Harder They Come begins a month-long residency at the Barbican, before heading to Birmingham.

As the stage version of ‘The Harder They Come’ opens, Andrew Perry celebrates the soundtrack that brought Jamaican music to a vast new audience

Tonight, after two sell-out runs at London’s Theatre Royal Stratford East, the stage musical of the classic movie The Harder They Come begins a month-long residency at the Barbican, before heading to Birmingham

a scene from the stage version of The Harder They Come
Chain reaction: a scene from the stage version of The Harder They Come

 The arrival of this production at one of London’s most distinguished arts centres mirrors the trajectory of reggae itself, rising from the mean streets of Kingston to a state of high esteem and worldwide popularity.

The original 1972 film, which starred Jimmy Cliff as a young singer hustling in poverty-stricken Jamaica, illuminated the harsh conditions in the ghettos of Kingston, where many of the inhabitants sought to earn a crust through the city’s vibrant music culture.

The immortal songs in the movie, such as Cliff’s street-tough title track, are ripe for use in a musical. They are embedded in the British psyche, every bit as much as the songs of Abba, Madness and Queen, which have all already been used in hit stage musicals.

For many years, the soundtrack album was comfortably the biggest-selling reggae album ever, until 1984’s posthumous Bob Marley compilation Legend finally toppled it from that position.

Many Jamaican immigrants in Britain at the time remember the release of The Harder They Come as the moment "their" music finally started to be taken seriously. Throughout the 1960s, Jamaica had been churning out fantastic ska and rocksteady records, but the only ones to hit the British charts were novelty tunes, such as Max Romeo’s Wet Dream. Reggae was accordingly seen as rather silly – not proper music.

By the early 1970s, the island’s prevailing sound had coalesced into the shuffling, spacious, bassline-propelled form which became known as reggae. It was The Harder They Come which really introduced the new idiom to a global audience.

"The movie opened it up for all Jamaican music, and for me personally," Jimmy Cliff told me, when I met him a few years ago. "People finally saw where the music was coming from. It was all there – visual and audio, too."

Initially, Cliff was approached to write some songs for the soundtrack. Clean-cut and professional by Jamaica’s notoriously lax standards, Cliff’s heavenly, high-pitched voice marked him out as a kind of reggae Curtis Mayfield. Jamaican music had always drawn inspiration from American R&B. Its sound mixed social themes, vocal harmonies and sublime melodies directly influenced by soul.

 Casting Cliff in the movie’s lead role, as a singer, forced into lawlessness in his quest for stardom, gave him the extra "edge", to appeal to rock audiences weaned on self-styled outlaws such as Keith Richards.

As can be seen on the cover of the soundtrack album, the film was pitched as offshore blaxploitation, with big guns, superfly threads and Rastas on motorbikes. But as Cliff suggested, the movie and its music in tandem provided a pretty realistic snapshot of the street crime that had escalated in Kingston’s ghettoes after British colonial rule ended in 1961.

In the title track, Cliff sings of getting ahead by any means necessary, voicing the same ideas of hoodlum autonomy as the pistol-toting "rude boys" running wild in Trenchtown. Other songs on the soundtrack, such as The Slickers’ Johnny Too Bad, and Desmond Dekker’s 007 (Shanty Town), sent out desperate emergency signals about the spiralling gangsterism.

These lurid lyrics, however, not to mention the fabulously exotic rhythms surrounding them, proved irresistible to British audiences in the ensuing years.

I remember standing around a campfire with the Clash’s Joe Strummer, at Glastonbury in the late 1990s. On his way there, Strummer had bought a budget-price cassette of The Harder They Come at a motorway service station, and was blasting it out over his sound system. He told me he had mislaid his old vinyl copy years beforehand, but hearing the album now – and I may be paraphrasing here; this was Glastonbury, after all – he said, felt like being reunited with beloved old friends.

For Strummer’s pal, Don Letts, a second-generation Jamaican in London, the soundtrack of The Harder They Come was like a series of "postcards from cousins or relatives, telling you what was going on back home".

For today’s listeners, those songs are simply brilliant pop music, quivering with attitude, excitement and stonking tunes, whose potency only grows with age. When David Cameron used Cliff’s You Can Get It If You Really Want as the anthem for his campaign to restore trust in politics, he was plugging into a cultural phenomenon of the very broadest appeal, transcending all class, race and gender boundaries.

So, theatre-goers rolling up for the Theatre Royal Stratford East and UK Arts production of The Harder They Come at the Barbican can be guaranteed one thing: tunes from the very top drawer.