posted on December 21st, 2010 by Eve in Jamaican Style, Mann´s World
Some days I feel like Rip Van Winkle. I fell asleep for too long and woke up in a strange time warp where nothing makes sense. To be honest I feel like that old man shaking his fist saying, ‘Hey you crazy kids turn that garbage off and pull your pants up!’
There is this phenomena set to music by Beenie Man and further defined by Dr Imani Tafari-Ama [Blood Bullets and Bodies: Sexual Politics Below Jamaica's Poverty Line, 2006, Chapter 6, pages 219-220] that I grossly need help understanding. That is, the phenomena of the Chi Chi Badman. Tafari-Ama states;
In most every way, these Chi Chi Bad Men or bad Chi Chi Men are the ultimate binary opposition to emerge from the concrete jungles of Kingston’s urban slums… No sociologist was able to predict that the product of the most violently antagonistic and consistently anti-homosexual discourse in the ghetto – the bad boy gunmen- who are supposedly the very antithesis of anything queer, gay or funny, would suddenly and voluntarily switch their sexual orientation to become the very kind of persons that they had previously hated so passionately – batty men. [...] In effect, they have become lower class male prostitutes who service upper class gay men for top dollars.
Read the rest of "Eve Mann: »Chi Chi Badman« Pt. 1" →
posted on December 16th, 2010 by Tobias in Audio, Jamaican Style, Photography
© Alessandro Zuek Simonetti
In the current edition of his Ghetto Palms column, Eddie Stats not only leaks a nice Max Glazer remix of Rihanna’s »What’s my name« featuring Vybz Kartel and Ricky Blaze but also made me aware of a book which would have probably made it on my Top 5 Reggae books for Christmas list had I known about it when I wrote it down – Alessandro Zuek Simonetti’s »Small Kings«:
Small Kings is a selection of black and white images taken at Passa Passa, one of the most famous street parties in Jamaica, a couple of months before the conflicts which brought the ghetto of Tivoli Gardens on the fist pages of newspapers all over the world. The book includes a text by Anicee Gaddis. (via Automatic Books)
The 72-pages book can be ordered directly via the publishing house for 10 Euros.
For more Passa Passa pictures, check Kingstonstyle and GABE.
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Download Ghetto Palms #124 »Space Heater Blend«
posted on November 30th, 2010 by Tobias in Jamaican Music, Jamaican Politics, Jamaican Style
2010 has been a good year for those interested in reading about Jamaican (popular) culture: Two of the most influential international reggae/dancehall labels – Greensleeves Records and Island Records – released their stories in book form.
In case you are looking for Christmas gifts for reggae fans who like to read, we recommend these two books as well as three other more or less recent publications. Here’s our current top 5 books about Jamaican culture and politics:
01 Al Fingers – Greensleeves Records: The First 100 Covers.
The book is a document of the first 100 Greensleeves album covers. It also contains interviews with Greensleeves’ founders, Chris Sedgwick and Chris Cracknell, and its chief designer, Tony McDermott, who has worked for Greensleeves almost since the day the label launched in 1977. (via Al Fingers)
02 Suzette Newman & Chris Salewicz – Keep on Running. The Story of Island Records.
An impressive new hardcover from Rizzoli which aims to be the definitive tome when it comes to Chris Blackwell’s Island Records. The label was founded in Jamaica and launched Bob Marley and the Wailers into international superstardom, and released many other classic reggae albums before picking up a slew of impressive international acts including Traffic, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, U2, Eric B & Rakim, Amy Winehouse, and many more. (via Typo Graphical)
03 Beth Lesser – The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture.
Beth Lesser’s definitive new study of the 1980s Jamaican Dancehall scene features hundreds of exclusive photographs and accompanying text that captures a vibrant, globally influential and yet rarely documented culture that has been mixing music, fashion and lifestyle with aplomb since its inception. (via Soul Jazz)
04 Edward Seaga – My Life and Leadership.
Edward Phillip George Seaga is one of the most outstanding Jamaican politicians – with a reputation for creativity, controversy and courage. His autobiography offers a unique insight into the emergence of modern Jamaica, a journey characterized by idealism and intrigue, conflict and triumph. (via Macmillan)
05 Ben Watts – Lickshot: A Photo Scrapbook.
In a way Lickshot is a continuation of Big Up, but I think it’s perhaps a bit more sophisticated. Big Up was more urban street culture and Lickshot still is a bit, but it’s a step on and includes a lot more celebrities and musicians, while still keeping the energy of what I did in Big Up. It’s another volume of one of my scrapbooks, basically. (via Professional Photographer)
posted on September 24th, 2010 by Tobias in Jamaican Artists, Jamaican Style, Photography
I just learned that issue 43 of Waxpoetics magazine is an all Reggae issue.
In addition to intriguing cover stories on Gregory Isaacs and Augustus Pablo, it includes features on Chris Blackwell and Island Records, Bob Andy, Beres Hammond, Panamanian dancehall and, best of all, the late Sugar Minott, as well as a survey of photography from the U.K. dub scene and a spread on Greensleeves’ first 100 covers. (via Large Up)
Grab it at a well-selected magazine or record dealer of your choice or order it online.
posted on August 12th, 2010 by Tobias in Jamaican Style, Photography, SEEN
Today, photographer, writer and filmmaker Peter Dean Rickards has launched his new portfolio site.
For more than one decade now, Rickards has been showing the world that Jamaica can look quite different than what we are used to from cheesy postcards, poor reggae album sleeves or cluttered Appleton night life guides – just by having a different look at it.
He has always been a major visual influence for seen. – from the days when we hunted down the first issues of FIRST in dodgy Kingston fashion stores and uptown rum bars to those when I drove from Mona Campus to Barbican or Stony Hill everyday after UWI classes to work with him on projects like The Afflicted Yard – Kingston 2002-2006 or reduxed versions of FIRST magazines.
On his new site, Rickards finally makes most of his work easily accessible.
His pictures have been published by magazines and newspapers all around the globe and I still hope that one day a publisher will do Rickards’ portfolio justice and release a mad decent coffee table book with his photographs.
