Ghetto Whisky Riddim RARE
Delly Ranx' unique badman dancehall riddim sound, heavily inspired by the Kingston ghetto, gangsta hip-hop, drinking, partying, blazing high-grade weed, and explicitly grinding sexy girls all night, is ushering in a whole new sound of gangsta dancehall reggae, or gangstafari as it's called.
In September 1981, the Clash played a legendary seven-night residency at the Theatre Mogador in Paris (read an amazing article from about this series of shows and the influence they had on a whole generation of young French musicians). This was the post-Sandinista!, pre-Combat Rock, version of the band – the one that was obsessed with dub reggae, funk, hip-hop and Latin America. Joining them on the bill was The Beat! Talk about an amazing show!As one of the few Black punks in Birmingham in the 1970's, Ranking Roger took the unlikely journey of playing the drums for punk band The Dum Dum Boys and toasting with an early incarnation of UB40 (he was offered a chance to join the band) to touring the lengths of the U.K. As a singer with The Beat to suddenly being on stage with the band he admired the most - The Clash.Ranking Roger always understood the connection between punk and reggae and he quickly saw that the members of The Clash and Johnny Rotten of The Sex Pistols did too. He discussed this during an in 2008:“When I was 15, I became a punk rocker. And whilst there was an element of racism in punk, this wasn’t what punk stood for.
I remember Johnny Rotten going on the radio and telling punks to listen to reggae music because it had the same message as punk: a totally different music but completely the same message.”“From then, punks started listening to more reggae and bands like the Clash began doing covers of reggae classics such as ‘Police & Thieves’. Despite being four white blokes, they had grown up in multicultural areas and you’d be surprised how many black artists they were involved with – it was phenomenal.”. Joe Strummer and Mick Jones of The Clash admired Ranking Roger so much that they invited him to sit in with them each night of the tour to toast along to their take on Junior Murvin's 'Police & Thieves' and Willie Williams' 'Armagideon Time'. The audio from those performances has been widely bootlegged, but now you can hear Ranking Roger's contribution to musical history.
The sound is electric and you can hear the chemistry between The Clash and Ranking Roger as it unfolds in real time.The friendships forged during these shows extended long after the tour ended. The Clash invited Ranking Roger to toast on a version of ' that was never released. Jones later joined an early version of General Public and Ranking Roger returned the favor by joining a later version of Big Audio Dynamite. NYC, New York, United States I heard ska and reggae music for the first time when I was 14 and it was love at first listen. I loved the sound, the look and the energy. It changed my life.
A little bit later I picked up a bass and taught myself to play and in 1988 started the first ska/reggae band from New Jersey called Bigger Thomas. Maybe you've heard of us? As a musician I've had the good luck to meet and play with most of my musical heroes.
That allows me to give readers the inside scoop on all the bands they love. I also tell the stories of the many bands who helped popularize ska in the U.S. I pay special attention to the birth of American ska and the stories of the bands and musicians who were ahead of their time and never received the recognition they deserved. I recently helped to form two new musical projects - Rude Boy George, a band that performs ska, reggae and rocksteady versions of 80's new wave songs and Heavensbee, an original studio project that makes dub pop. I'm also writing a book titled 'Ska Boom: An Oral History About The Birth Of American Ska & Reggae 1976-1991' that will be published by DiWulf Publishing in 2020.
I play bass in Rude Boy George - a band the plays ska and reggae versions of 80's new wave classics. We've been releasing a song and video every other month during 2016 and 2017. The collection of songs is titled 'Love and Dancing' and it is the second collection of 80's new wave tracks that Rude Boy George has recorded in a ska and reggae style. Check out a few of our videos including a new wave/reggae version of the Blondie classic 'Atomic' and our versions of songs by Howard Jones, Bob Marley, Kim Wilde, Wang Chung, The Cure and Soft Cell!' Love and Dancing' pays homage to the Human League who had a side project called and released a remix of their 'Dare' album with that title in the early 80's. The album is available on Bandcamp.Love and Dancing by Rude Boy George.
Ghetto Whiskey Riddim Rare Music
I recently formed dub pop trio with my Rude Boy George bandmates Roger Apollon Jr. And Megg Howe. Seeking to create songs that explored the darker side of personal relationships, we holed up for six months over the late winter and early spring of 2015 in a tiny rehearsal space in New York City, where we worked to hone our sound. We approached each song like writing a scene from a movie or play, discussing the characters relationships and motivations. The result was 'Soul Mates!' Check out the video for our debut single 'Bombs Away'The songs we worked on take their inspiration from ska, dub reggae and Lover’s Rock (The Specials, Lee Perry), 80's new wave (Depeche Mode, Human League, Fun Boy Three) and indie rock (Lana Del Ray, the xx). The album is available on CD in the U.K.
Ghetto Whiskey Riddim Rare Money
On or can be streamed/downloaded on Bandcamp.Soul Mates by Heavensbee. Bigger Thomas is celebrating 30 years in 2018! Below is video from one of our earliest shows at the legendary City Gardens in Trenton, NJ in 1989 when we opened for Yellowman!To celebrate our 25th anniversary back in 2013, we released 'Ska In My Pocket: The Biggest & Bestest of Bigger Thomas' a digital only retrospective featuring twenty one of our favorite songs taken from the four albums and two demo tapes we released since forming the band in New Brunswick, NJ in 1988.Its available for download on the Bandcamp link below. We hope you enjoy it!<a href='In My Pocket: The Biggest & Bestest Of Bigger Thomas by Bigger Thomas</a&gt.