In the early 1990s, MCs who were predominately Black and from the ragga scene, began to add their flavor to techno beats from the white dominated rave scene. This eclectic marriage of styles, roots and electronic music, laid the foundation for modern jungle. Jungle began as the integration of musical forms which came from a variety of cultural perspectives. The socio-economic mix of the London underground community fostered an environment which encouraged the intermingling of cultures and one love between all people. The natural evolution of this, musically, is jungle. The pioneers of UK jungle were Rebel MC, Ragga Twins, Shut Up and Dance and Two Bad Mice (Rob Playford). In July, 1991 underground white labels’ records from these groups started showing up on the NYC dance scene. Fortunately, I happened to be in the right time at the right place and realized my responsibility to start playing and producing jungle. I first spun jungle at the infamous NYC dance club, the Limelight, at the major techno event called Future Shock. The Future Shock promoters didn’t get jungle and shut me down. A year later, I helped to found NASA (a new, different kind of underground party) with db, Scotto, Jason Jinx and On-E. This became the first successful breakbeat party in America and launched the US jungle scene. The next major turning point for US jungle was a party called Jungle Warriors. This was the first big jungle event in Manhattan that brought together top junglists and live drummers (including Marque Gilmore). Here we learned and taught each other and changed the course of US jungle forever. Today in NYC, Koncrete Jungle (props to Mac and Kathy) and Egg (Liquid Sky posse) have maintained the tradition of NYC underground parties and are the weekly family gathering places for the NYC underground.
The Jamaican diaspora refers to Jamaicans who are forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands, the dispersal of such Jamaicans, and the ensuing developments in their culture.
The Jamaican diaspora exists in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and other Caribbean islands, but Jamaicans can be found in even the far corners of the world.
Over the past several decades, close to a million[citation needed] Jamaicans have emigrated, especially to the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. This emigration appears to have been tapering off somewhat in recent years, however the great number of Jamaicans living abroad has become known as the “Jamaican diaspora”. Due to Commonwealth law and Jamaica’s history with Great Britain, most Jamaican emigrants have followed a path first to the UK, and then if they do not remain in the UK, on to other Commonwealth countries such as Canada. Today that trend has changed with more Jamaican emigrants going directly to the United States, Canada, other Caribbean nations, Central & South America (mainly in Brazil), and even Africa (most notably Egypt and Ethiopia) without having to pass through the UK first. There has also been emigration of Jamaicans to Cuba and Nicaragua where they represent 9% of the population. [1]
Concentrations of expatriate Jamaicans are large in a number of cities in the United States, including New York City, Buffalo, the Miami metro area, Atlanta, Orlando, Tampa, Washington, D.C, Philadelphia, Hartford, Managua, Nicaragua and Los Angeles. In Canada, the Jamaican population is centred in Toronto, and there are smaller communities in cities such as Montreal and Ottawa. In the United Kingdom, Jamaican communities exist in most large cities where they make up the larger part of the British-Caribbean community.
The United Kingdom has a much higher percentage of Jamaicans than Canada and the United States, however population wise, the UK and USA are pretty much equal.[citation needed] An overwhelming amount of Jamaican Americans reside in New York City, whilst Jamaican Britons are much more widespread across the UK.[citation needed]
New York City is home to a large Jamaican diaspora community, with communities along Flatbush, Nostrand and Utica Avenues in Brooklyn—centred around the neighbourhoods of Prospect Heights, Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Crown Heights, Canarsie, and Flatlands. The Bronx, neighbourhoods such as Wakefield, Eastchester, Baychester, Queens, Westchester County and nearby Stamford, Connecticut also have significant Jamaican ex-pat communities. Flatbush, Nostrand, and Utica Avenues feature miles of Jamaican cuisine, food markets & other businesses, nightlife and residential enclaves.
In Toronto, the Jamaican community is also large. Caribbean areas of the city are located in parts of Rexdale, Scarborough, Jane and Finch, Lawrence Heights, Weston, sections of Downtown Toronto and York, which also includes a Little Jamaica neighbourhood that is identifiable along Eglinton Avenue West. Though in recent times most Jamaicans have been moving out to suburbs such as Mississauga and Brampton(Brampton alone has over 10% of the Jamaican-Canadian population). The Jamaican community has had an influence on Toronto’s culture. Caribana (the celebration of Caribbean culture) is an annual event in the city. Jamaica Day is in July and the Jesus in the City Parade attracts many Jamaican Christians. This festival is held downtown every September, shutting down Yonge Street – the busiest main street in Downtown Toronto. Reggae and dancehall are popular among Toronto’s youth.
London has a strong Jamaican diaspora. An estimated 7% of Londoners are of Jamaican heritage. Many are now at least second-, if not third- or fourth-generation Black British Caribbeans. Also a further 2% of people in London are of mixed Jamaican and British origin, the largest mixed-race group of the country and the fastest-growing.
One of the largest and most famous Jamaican expatriate communities is in Brixton, South London. More large Jamaican communities in London are Tottenham and Hackney in North London, Harlesden in North-West London, and Lewisham in South-East London. The highest concentration of Jamaicans are in the Inner-city South London boroughs.
On the last bank holiday of the year during late August the Annual Notting Hill Carnival takes place in West London which is the second biggest street party in the world after Rio Carnival. It spans areas of West London such as Shepherd’s Bush, Ladbroke Grove, White City and of course Notting Hill. Many other Caribbean nations have large communities in this part of London such as Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Antigua. The Caribbean community including many Jamaicans are involved in the Carnival which starts on Saturday and finishes late on Monday. Jamaicans have many food stalls, soundsystems and floats involved in the procession. Well over a million londoners come to Notting Hill on the Monday. There is also a much smaller carnival called the Tottenham Carnival which takes place in Tottenham during June, approximately 40,000 people attend.
Other Jamaican communities include the areas of St Pauls in Bristol, Chapeltown in Leeds, Moss Side, Longsight and Hulme in Manchester, Toxteth in Liverpool,Burngreave in Sheffield, Handsworth, Lozells, and Aston in Birmingham, and St Ann’s, Nottingham. More recently many resort and wild-life management skilled Jamaicans have been trending emigration toward such far-flung nations as Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. The nation continues to have a severe problem with barrel children–those left on their own by parents seeking a better life abroad.
Further information: Caribbean music in the United Kingdom
The period of large-scale immigration brought many new musical styles to the United Kingdom. These styles gained popularity amongst Britons of all cultural origins, and aided Caribbean music in gaining international recognition. The earliest of these exponents was the calypso artist Lord Kitchener, who arrived in Britain on the Windrush in 1948 accompanied by fellow musician Lord Beginner.[71] Already a star in his native Trinidad, Lord Kitchener got an immediate booking at the only West Indian club in London. Six months later, he was appearing in three clubs nightly, and his popularity extended beyond the West Indian and African nightclub audiences, to include music hall and variety show audiences.[71] Kitchener’s recording “London is the place for me” exemplified the experience of the Windrush generation.[72] Other calypso musicians began to collaborate with African Kwela musicians and British jazz players in London clubs.[72]
Jamaican music styles reached Britain in the 1960s, becoming the staple music for young British African-Caribbeans. Tours by ska artists such as Prince Buster and the Skatalites fed the growing British-Caribbean music scene, and the success of Jamaican artists Millie Small, Desmond Dekker and Bob and Marcia propelled Caribbean music and people into mainstream cultural life. British African-Caribbeans followed the changing styles of Jamaican music and began to produce homegrown music appealing to both Black and White communities. In 1969, the British African-Caribbean ska band Symarip recorded “Skinhead Moonstomp” which had a huge effect on the British ska scene. The ska sound and rude boy imagery inspired a generation of white working-class youths (especially mods and skinheads), and later helped spawn Britain’s multi-cultural 2 Tone movement in the late 1970s.[73]
As Jamaican ska gave way to the slower styles of rocksteady and the more politicised reggae, British African-Caribbeans followed suit. Sound systems to rival those in Jamaica sprung up throughout communities, and ‘Blues parties’ – parties in private houses, where one paid at the door – became an institution. The arrival of Bob Marley to London in 1971 helped spawn a Black British music industry based on reggae. His association with the Rastafarian movement influenced waves of young people, reared in Britain, to discover their Caribbean roots. British Barbadian Dennis Bovell became Britain’s prominent reggae band leader and producer, working with many international reggae stars, and introducing a reggae flavour to the British pop charts with non-reggae acts such as Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Bananarama. Bovell also worked extensively with London-based dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson.[74]
Successful DJ and musician Goldie, born to Scottish and Jamaican parents, as was Bob Marley
Successful DJ and musician Goldie, born to Scottish and Jamaican parents, as was Bob Marley[75]
British music with reggae roots prospered in the 1980s and early 1990s. British African-Caribbean artists Musical Youth, Aswad, Maxi Priest and Eddy Grant had major commercial successes, and the multicultural band UB40 helped promote reggae to an international audience. Birmingham-based Steel Pulse became one of the world’s foremost exponents of roots reggae and accompanying black consciousness, their debut 1978 album Handsworth Revolution becoming a seminal release.[76]
British African-Caribbean music had been generally synonymous with Caribbean styles until the 1990s, although some artists had been drawing on British and American musical forms for several decades. In the 1970s and 1980s, British African-Caribbean artists such as Hot Chocolate and Imagination became leaders of the British disco, soul and R&B scenes.[77] By the mid-1980s British African-Caribbeans were also incorporating American hip hop and House styles, becoming leading figures in Britain’s developing dance music culture. This led to an explosion of musical forms. British artists created musical hybrids combining many elements including European techno, Jamaican dancehall, dub, breakbeats and contemporary American R’n'B. These unique blends began to gain international acclaim through the success of Soul II Soul and the multi-racial Massive Attack.[78]
British African-Caribbeans were at the leading edge of the jungle and drum and bass movements of the 1990s. Although the fast-tempo drums and loud intricate bass lines sounded fresh, Caribbean roots could still be detected.[79] Two successful exponents of these new styles were DJs Goldie and Roni Size, both of Jamaican heritage.[75][80] Later, British African-Caribbean musicians and DJs were at the forefront of the UK garage and Grime scenes.[81]
‘Afro Punk Reggae Dub’ does exactly what it says on the tin, and more besides. It’s sheer groove is something to behold – driven by a fugged-out bassline that’s very much rooted in dub but combines with the drums to forge a sound that’s easily as disco as anything Larry Levan ever dropped at the Paradise Garage. Chuck in the afro-style percussion and, of course, the steel drums, and you have yourself a genre-vaulting carnival anthem that sounds as fresh and full of life now as it did upon release 29 years ago.
Steel An’ Skin were a band of young nightclub musicians born in Ghana, Nigeria, Trinidad, St Kitts and the UK, who once performed with Ginger Johnson’s Afrika Drummers, a highlife band based in and around Honest Jon’s Ladbroke Grove HQ.
It’s actually 50 years since Chris Blackwell and Graeme Goodall, (probably) lazing about in Jamaica, decided to start the first independent record label and called it Island. From the balmy beaches of the Caribbean to the grim streets of Manchester and onto the tenement buildings of Glasgow, Indie labels in Britain over the past half-century have provided music fans with the adventurous, the inventive and the experimental. And thank God for that.
Main Entry:
ex·o·dus Listen to the pronunciation of exodus Listen to the pronunciation of exodus
Pronunciation:
\ˈek-sə-dəs, ˈeg-zə-\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
Latin, from Greek Exodos, literally, road out, from ex- + hodos road
Date:
before 12th century
1capitalized : the mainly narrative second book of canonical Jewish and Christian Scripture — see bible table2: a mass departure : emigration
I needed a place to store links, notes, ideas and info I come across as I work on various projects, so that’s what this is. I’m currently working on a new book about dancehall and reggae culture around the world, so that will be the main theme around here for a while.
If you were looking for my portfolio, it’s on the home page:
