Reggae 151

I’m not going to bore you with vacation stories or pics; we’ll save that for another time. But I do gotta show you the view. And this was just from my hotel room balcony. A couple of days in the Bahamas - not too bad a time.


So I’m wandering around Nassau, in search of another place to buy over-priced rum drinks, when I see a CD / Record / DVD store jammed back between some abandoned buildings. There’s about a half-dozen rasta-thug looking kids milling around outside and wandering in and out, so I figure it must worth checking out. Sometimes you can come across treasures hidden away in these little places. Inside, the first thing I notice (other than I’m the only tourist in the place) is the weird catagorization: “Gospel,” “Kung-Fu,” and “Hits” are among the various sections. I quickly realize these releases may not be, uh, authorized: every one of the CD covers are obvious low-end, home printer reproductions, and, in some cases, bear no resemblance whatsoever to the art on the official release. I sort of got the point confirmed when I saw someone buying The Departed and Grudge 2 DVDs.


I browsed around, but didn't recognize much of the music, other than some of the Reggae stuff I'd heard in the bars and clubs I'd been in. And the buses and taxis I’d been in. So I picked out “Reggae 151,” no doubt a play on Bacardi 151, a locally distilled favorite. Most of the music is club-type reggae of the Sean Paul ilk. Actually, “Temperature” is buried down among the tracks on the disk, something I didn’t notice until I was in my car, on the way home from airport and listening to the disk. There’s also some slower reggae grooves and a couple of things with ska-type energy. There’s also a couple of blank tracks, but what can you expect for $5?

So here’s a little Reggae, fresh from the Islands. I know nothing about any of these artists; I just picked out some I liked and that I’d heard a few times while I was on vacation. My guess is none of these people are actually from the Bahamas, but the Vibe seems to run throughout the Caribbean. Enjoy, mon!

Living Without You.mp3 Morgan Heritage
Mad Time.mp3 Elephant Man
Ready, F!, Kill.mp3 Bounty Killer
Badman Pull Up.mp3 Ding Dong
Like You.mp3 Elephant Man
Dutty Wine.mp3 Tony Matterhorn

posted by aikin @ 12:52 PM