I really loved your opening paragraph and the way it segued so nicely into the first few sentences of the second paragraph - which essentially encapsulates the subject matter of this blog post. I’m a big reggae fan from Hawaii, and we have our own unique reggae scene there so a lot of the names coming out of the Caribbean aren’t very well known in the islands, unless of course they’re really big and/or old school names (i.e. Bob Marley, Bambu Station, Midnite, Niyorah, etc). However, about five or six years ago my friends and I came across Yahadanai’s music and instantly fell in love, especially since his lyrics were so potent with relevant substance, expressed through powerful vocals. Every now and then I’d find myself scouring the web to see if I could find more music from this artist, and unfortunately found nothing more than the One Atonement album. I’d always wondered what had happened to this artist and if he’d ever come out with a new cd but obviously couldn’t find any answers. It’s nice to know though that I’m not the only one curious to know if there was more out there from Yahadanai, and I had hoped that from reading this blog post I was going to finally find out what happened to this artist. But I guess we’ll just have to live with the mystery of it for now and enjoy what has been given.
The second blog post comes from a site entitled "Reggae Music" and the post is "Old School Reggae."
Nice little post on old school reggae. I, too am of fan of this type of roots reggae music, especially because the messages in the lyrics are thought-provoking and address the struggles associated with the political and economic landscape of the time, and actually (in my opinion) even transcends time by the way that one can still find solace in these lyrics as it relates to the struggles of today. The smooth melody and unique rhythms characteristic of this style of reggae also make it easy to love and groove to, like the mellow rocksteady beats of Gregory Isaacs or the unique sound of artists like The Gladiators, Black Uhuru, and Israel Vibration. I do agree that the tempo then was much slower because it seems that the Caribbean reggae music today is heavily populated with dancehall riddims and dancehall artists. However, the old school reggae is definitely being perpetuated in other parts of the world. For example, I come from Hawaii where the reggae scene is quite vast and is popular amongst the people there, but the style of the music is more like the old school vibe, steady skank rhythm with a little more dub, while the high-tempo dancehall style isn’t as popular. Some artists I would point to are Rootikal Riddim, Humble Soul, Ooklah the Moc, and Inna Vision. Though the sound is a little different from old school reggae, it still carries that roots vibe and quality substance-driven lyrics. And I agree, we definitely have the Carribean reggae artists of the 60’s and 70’s to thank for the sounds we have today.Aloha a MÄlama Pono,
Messenjah
