If you missed last month’s KRS-One show at Studio A, you missed out. (When and where else would you get to catch Fat Joe as a hype man?).
Still, even though the teacher born Kris Parker seems to make it down here at least once a year, this time local conscious cat Brimstone127 marked the occasion with a special meeting of MC minds.
Besides fronting a funky musical project that also features beatboxer Jase and lovely chanteuse Mariposah, Brimstone is also the Miami representative of the Temple of Hip-Hop. That’s the organization KRS started officially in 1996, to “assist in the building of Hip Hop as a legitimate community of prosperous and peace-filled people.”
Last Saturday, while the Urban Beach Week throngs crowded Miami Beach, two of the scene’s biggest rising stars were hanging on a public esplanade, just a few miles north in Hollywood. Reggaeton artist Zion and multiplatinum R&B singer Akon had come together near Harrison Street, smack in the middle of the small Broward County city’s downtown strip, to shoot a video for their feel-good summer collaboration, “The Way She Moves.” The chilled-out set might as well have been light years away from the beach madness: While it could have been could have been easily accessed by two different public streets, there were just a few polite onlookers.
The director was South Florida resident Gil Green, who's been making videos for over ten years, among them his lauded “We Takin' Over.” That video featured TI, Rick Ross, DJ Khaled, and, again, Akon. (His other credits include Rick Ross' "Hustlin'," Frankie J.'s "Obsession" (featurnig Baby Bash), and plenty of other recent hits.)
The Hollywood set was constructed to replicate a typical shopping district in Zion’s native Puerto Rico. Which was fine, since Zion, like many reggaeton artists, says he considers South Florida a second home. "I love South Florida, I love the weather,” he said, “It's very similiar to Puerto Rico. It's like the Caribbean in the way it has palm trees, sun, beaches, and beautiful women." And so far, the shoot was going off without a hitch. With only a little drizzle here and there slowing down production, Green ran a tight ship on a set with a crew that operated like the proverbial well-oiled machine. Then, slowly the crowd of passersby began to mount, but Green treated them with an easy courtesy.
Zion beamed, maybe seeing the next level of stardom looming in the distance. “Everything is turning out just perfect for me right now.” – Arielle Castillo and Andre Uter
Last night, MySpace threw a “secret show” at Studio A, which was PACKED by 9:30 pm (what kind of secret is that?), featuring Stephen “Raggamuffin” Marley and his brother Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley as performers. The show opened with Mr. Cheeks of the Lost Boys who was TERRIBLE, and there wasn’t a single hand in the air as he stumbled through his set. Why a rapper was opening up for a reggae show beats us, but it was a relief when Stephen Marley took the stage like a rasta warrior and got the crowd amped properly. Stephen had a four-year-old child on stage with him the whole time -- we can only assume it was Marley’s son -- and he was dancing about and waving a rasta flag, so you couldn’t help but think about Stephen and the Melody Makers on stage three decades ago with their father doing the same thing. It’s eerie how much Stephen sounds like his father, even starting the show just like Bob Marley started all of his performances by chanting: Greetings in the name of His Imperial Majesty, Emporer Haile Selassie the 1st, JAH RAAAASTAFARI, which sent the crowd into a frenzy.
Stephen Marley
Photo by Tovin Lapan
It was a quality show, and after eight or nine stellar tunes, his younger brother, Damian Marley, jumped on stage, and the two sang a few duos including “It Was Written,” “Welcome to Jamrock,” “All Night” and a few other ditties that we couldn’t catch the names of but sounded great up close and personal. Seeing as how the show was here in our backyard, it’s not surprising that those two weren’t the only Marleys in the building. It didn’t take long for Ziggy to join them on stage, and one of Bob’s youngest daughters, who looks JUST like him in the face, started singing back up as the male children chanted down babylon song after song. Stephen even acknowledged that his grandmother was in the club as well, and it was a miniature Marley Fest with less hype and more spontaneous elation. At this point, I guess we should big-up MySpace for putting all of this together. Truth be told, the energy and vibrations in the building actually did make it a better reggae show than Best of the Best. So shout-outs to MySpace. There, we said it twice.
After a major American tour backing Panic! At the Disco in 2006, Bloc Party has returned to our shores. This time, they’re headlining large venues in support of their sophomore album, A Weekend in the City, released this past February. Sunday night was the band’s South Florida stop, at the Pompano Beach Ampitheater.
Photo by Santiago Felipe
Bloc Party
Miami natives the Jean Marie opened the show promptly at 7:00. The drumming was weak, but that may have been because the band was slotted into the lineup at the last minute, forcing the drummer to play on the Noisettes’ kit instead of his own. The bass player, however, was a standout, not just because of the white painter’s overalls he sported, but also for forming the rhythmic backbone of group.
Miami’s Best of the Best concert, which took place over Memorial Weekend, was a star-studded reggae extravaganza that exceeded the six months of hype that was attached to it. Consider that Barrington Levy, who was on stage belting out hits like “Under mi Sensi, and “Too Experienced” was barely the focal point of the concert. He played a wicked 30 minute set, which had the crowd going ape shit, but afterward, he seemed a bit minced that his time on stage wasn’t longer.
“I think I needed more time,” said Levy while still huffing and puffing. “To me, I wish it was just my show and I didn’t have to share the stage with anyone. I barely touched my catalogue and the people wanted to hear MORE!”
Movado
He was right about that, but on this night, Buju Banton was the artist that stole the show. He played an hour-long set, as the afternoon faded into night time and had audiences dancing and sweating to his long list of hits like, “Murder,” “Destiny,” and, ah, who are we kidding… dude has HITS! He did tease, “Boom Bye Bye” for two seconds but didn’t sing it. And when he played his latest smash, “Driver” the crowd went nuts. Flags were flying and as the Sly and Robbie riddim started to play, Banton left the stage until the audience demanded he come back and sing the song in it’s entirety. It was a hell of a performance that didn’t seem like it could have been upstaged, but as the concert drew to a close, Movado came out dressed in all black and every gangster on the premises started shouting, buck buck buck—with two fingers pointed like guns into the night. As ladies literally grabbed as his legs and feet just to touch him, and rudebwoys shouted, ANYWAYYYYY, it became apparent that dude is like the Young Jeezy of dancehall. After 4-5 songs, the poor people’s governor, Bounty Killer took the stage, dressed in all black as well, and the two finished the night out backing each other up and singing a few duos. Frankly, the crowd was too loud, (the place looked like the Beatles playing the Ed Sullivan show in 1964) and, through what seemed like Caribbean hysteria, I couldn’t hear a word of what they were saying. But it didn’t matter. Best of the Best was off the chain, and with Bounty and Movado, closing it out, it’ll be a long time before Miami sees another reggae show like that. Then again, Stephen and Damian Marley are playing a “secret show” in Miami tonight…and we’ll be there to let you know if it compares or not. -- Jonathan Cunningham
It’s hard to believe that it’s been ten years since beautiful troubadour Jeff Buckley went for a final midnight swim in the mighty Mississippi. Ten years since Grace, ten years since that last, haunting “Hallelujah.” But like so many other stars with silver screen looks who have died young – Buckley was just 30 at the time, with a long and prolific career that seemed to stretch before him – death has turned him into an icon.
Since Seal had his couple of big stateside hits in the Nineties (the seemingly immortal “Kissed By a Rose” being the most recognizeable), lately he seems to have been relegated to the role of Mr. Heidi Klum. So who goes to a Seal concert in Miami in 2007?
Well, for complicated and unimportant reasons, me, at least. Thursday night I found myself at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami Beach, sitting in Seal’s catering room. If the man himself remains shrouded in mystery, seeming to forever exist in moody, dramatic still frames, his backstage fit: It was possibly the quietest backstage ever. No random women wandering about, background music blaring, or spilled bowls of M&Ms and bottles of whiskey. Instead there were nice, polite people nicely, politely eating from an impressive spread of fresh-cooked food to rival that of a hotel brunch. Did I mention it was quiet?
So who would open for Seal? An equally sincere purveyor of “nice” R&B? Not this time – and here is where the best surprise of the evening came, in the form of opener Shane Alexander.
