Culture: [Nick] Cannon Fires for Kingston, dancehall

Dancehall music has engaged mainstream attention this year, once again, and so it is either fortuitous or prescient that a new feature film centered on the music and dance culture of modern Jamaica debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival this week. King Of The Dancehall stars first-time director Nick Cannon, Canadian singer Kreesha Turner, Collie Buddz, Busta Rhymes, Lou Gossett Jr.,, Whoopi Goldberg, and the stunning Jamaican actress Kimberly Patterson in a breakout role. Beyond the plot, which loosely engages the international drug trade and Jamaican street politics, King Of The Dancehall is above all a story about loving another person, and dance. Sure, there are cameos from contemporary musicians like Beenie Man (who narrates), Barrington Levy, and Ky-Mani Marley, but the soundtrack is secondary to the movements of young dance crews, choreographed with the help of Toronto's Jae Blaze. This film builds on the legacy of others like Dancehall Queen, that situate the social and cultural lives of young Jamaicans squarely within the dancehall.

This year's TIFF featured many offerings from black filmmakers, and Cannon called it "an honor" to be able to premiere his first original movie at the fest. "It's our job to take control of our narrative and tell our stories," he said, on the red carpet. "It feels like a new renaissance in filmmaking." The FADER spoke with Cannon and Kreesha Turner about why it was important to make this film, and the legacy of Jamaica in pop culture today.

What side of Jamaica did you want people to see with this film?
KREESHA TURNER: People know Bob Marley, reggae music, jerk chicken, and they only see the resorts. When I lived in Jamaican I lived in Kingston, in Spanish Town, and when I go there the only place I want to go is Kingston because that’s where the culture is the richest. On Monday nights, I wanna go to the dancehall at Susie’s and make sure I learn the hottest new dance. I understand why people don’t get to go see it because often you need a local to show you these places, but in this instance I got this opportunity through film.

America loves dance films; why did you want set this one in Jamaica?
NICK CANNON: Why not? I mean, why hasn’t this been done before? That’s what I felt as soon as I stepped foot in Jamaica. I couldn’t understand how such a rich culture had never been shared with the whole world before, especially when you think about everyone who has borrowed from it: the number one song from Drake today, Justin Bieber's video, all the dance moves mass media falls in love with from Beyonce stem from what’s going on in Kingston. And then when you think about the passion that’s involved wth Jamaican culture, it's like, they’re not sitting around waiting for things to get all pretty: they want it raw and dutty. That should be shared in the way of Dirty Dancing or Saturday Night Fever. It doesn’t get any more passionate than Kingston, Jamaica.

What is something new that people will learn about Jamaica or dancehall culture from this film?
CANNON: You're gonna learn the history first and foremost. I take a unique approach in how I chose to tell this story because I used real footage, real artists, and it’s based on a true story too. In Jamaica they dance to a different beat — the upbeat, and so you're going to see me do a lot of stuff! Also, dance brings us all together, and I talk about that in the film. I show that no matter what class you’re from — uptown or downtown — when you’re in the dancehall everyone’s equal, and it’s how you choose to express yourself that makes you stand out.

Kreesha, this seed of this movie started with a trip you and Nick took to Jamaica. What was it like to walk into a club with him there?

TURNER: You know, Jamaican’s don’t business! They’re like, 'Oh, ah Nick Cannon dat? Alright!' So they were cool and that allowed him an opportunity to witness an environment without too much disturbance; like viewing something in its natural habitat without any foreign obstacles. Jamaicans behaved the way they normally do.

How do you think this film will enhance how we talk about dancehall in 2016?
TURNER: As a cultural ambassador — someone from Edmonton, Alberta and Jamaica — I’m so excited. It’s brilliant and really coincidentally timing! Jamaica is one of the most musically influential nations in the world. Throughout the entire globe, there are pockets that are constantly in touch with what goes on in the dancehall community, from Germany to Japan, to different parts of Africa like Ghana. There’s a love for reggae and dancehall that many people don’t even know about. And because Caribbean music is now coming back into the mainstream, there are so many things that make this the perfect time to educate people on where this music, this vibe, and these dance moves come from.

Music: Timberlake's 10th

- from medium.com

10 years ago, Timberlake and Timbaland bridged dance, pop, and hip-hop with ‘FutureSex/LoveSounds’

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Consider this: the tempo and style of the hottest record of the moment ultimately has the potential to shift the entire trajectory of pop music and culture. This is twofold; the obvious reason being that when a formula in popular music is hot, it’s replicated over-and-over again until it has been beaten to death. The other, not-so-evident reason is that nightclub DJs will ultimately build their sets around this hot record, saving it for the peak moment in the evening. And if the hottest record is 115 BPM (beats-per-minute), naturally the DJ will have to find other records that are around the same speed or style to precede and follow it.

On a micro level, said DJ might stay at this tempo for the entire evening — or summer — for that matter. On a macro level, many pop artists will then follow the trend, releasing music at that same speed and style, in order to specifically make sure they are included in nightclub playlists across the planet.

That’s exactly what happened when Justin Timberlake released “SexyBack,” the lead single to his 2006 FutureSex/LoveSounds LP,which turns ten this month and has moved over 20 million copies worldwide to date. Commercial hip-hop was ruling the clubs for almost a decade at that point, with the Jay Z & Beyoncé led brand of 100 BPM club-bangers like “Crazy In Love” and “I Just Wanna Love U (Give It 2 Me)” dominating most mainstream dancefloors. This was interspersed with an influx of slowed down Southern rap hits from artists like T.I. and Yung Joc that clocked around 70–82 BPM.

Justin Timberlake had briefly cracked this market two years prior with hisJustified LP, led by the Neptunes-produced, Pusha T-assisted “Like I Love You” and the Timbaland-backed “Cry Me a River.” Both were huge radio hits, but registered lukewarm as club cuts. Hip-hop and open format DJs weren’t quite ready to fully embrace the former boy band singer, who just two years earlier was engaging in over-produced, soulless plastic pop as a member of *NSYNC.

Both Timberlake and Timberland were in a bit of a creative slump in 2004; While Justin had been keeping busy with other projects, such as acting in films like Shrek and Alpha Dog, he was reportedly feeling uninspired musically. “He didn’t like his voice no more, you know what I’m saying? He didn’t like what he was doing,” Timbaland said in 2007. “I was like, ‘Justin, what’s going on?’

Meanwhile Timbaland was also struggling to find inspiration, as albums on his Interscope-distributed Beat Club imprint from Bubba Sparxx and Magoo were failing to make an impact. Some surmised he was still reeling over the death of frequent collaborator Aaliyah in 2001.

“She was like blood, and I lost blood. Me and her together had this chemistry. I kinda lost half of my creativity to her. It’s hard for me to talk to the fans now. Beyond the music, she was a brilliant person, the [most special] person I ever met,” Tim told MTV in 2008.

Yet once they teamed up with collaborator Nate “Danja” Hills, the trio rediscovered their creative spark by deconstructingJustified’s “Cry Me a River.” They attempted to rebuild it from the ground up, changing bits and pieces of it so that it was not a direct copy. The result was “What Goes Around Comes Around,” the first of ten tracks they completed together forFutureSex/LoveSounds. The eventual double-platinum smash “My Love” would follow, reportedly written by Timberlake in two minutes after he heard the beat. The track had signature Timbaland beat-box drums, but very uncharacteristic electronic trance synths layered on top.

“I heard dance and techno and was always interested in it but didn’t really know where to go. But I went to a club one night and saw that people were losing their mind to these dance tracks,” Danja told Vibe in 2011. “It wasn’t really that I wanted to mimic that sound. I just wanted to have that energy and have people going crazy. So I knew the fusion was putting R&B with trance. As soon as I put the ‘boom boom kat,’ I knew it.”

These untapped electronic sounds were used abundantly on the album’s breakthrough single “SexyBack,” really separating the sonics of the entireFutureSex/LoveSounds LP from everything else. Released as the first single from the project, this record marked a turning point for Timberlake. At a speedy 117 BPM, the record was built on a four-on-the-floor house rhythm. It oozed sexuality; Justin’s distorted, muffled vocals sounded almost post-coital in their delivery, as he made references to S&M, dirty babes, and even dropped a “motherfucker” before Timbaland neighed “Take ’em to the bridge!”It showed a dark maturity that was not present on anything he’d done before, the 50 Shades of Grey of pop records of its time.

This faster tempo was employed on several other tracks on the album, such as the cocktail waitress anthem “LoveStoned” or one of the few non-Timbaland tracks, “Damn Girl,” where will.i.am slyly interpolates Flaming Ember’s “Gotta Get Away” drum breakdown, as freaked by Diamond D on “I’m Outta Here.”

And then — naturally — the formula was endlessly copied.

Observing the tenth anniversary of FutureSex/LoveSounds, Danja summed uphis thoughts on its influence this past week: “We shocked the world and shifted the music business. [We] let open the floodgates for EDM to be accepted in the mainstream music world. We changed the game for good, for at least 8–9 years.”

Live Music: Get Festive! Choosing the region's best music festivals

Take your pick from jazz and blues to techno, reggae and soul and you’ll find a music festival in the Caribbean that will keep your toes tapping and your hips swaying.  Check out our musical calendar and snag a front row seat at the Caribbean’s longest running jazz festival in St. Lucia, get groovy to soul sounds on the beach in Aruba, blues on the beach in Nevis and rock all night to a reggae beat in Jamaica.

What started as a single show to celebrate the January 15 birthday of reggae homegrown hero Patrick ‘Tony Rebel’ Barrett has morphed into a mainstay on the Jamaican music calendar. For two days — January 15 and 16 — Rebel Salute honors roots and reggae at the Plantation Cove in St. Ann. With a nod to the Rastafarian lifestyle, the no meat and no alcohol policy makes the festival family-friendly with food vendors dishing up vegetarian options to music fans of all ages. On the bill this year are old-school reggae singer Johnny Clarke and boy band Inner Circle. Sponsored by the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association, fans honor Bob Marley’s February 6 birthday with a month-long series of celebrations and concerts at Reggae Village at Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre on Hope Road in Kingston: the heart and soul of reggae and the city where Marley was born.

Brand new on the music scene, SXMusic is the island's first electronic music festival from March 9 – 13. Named for the three-letter airport code (SXM) of the Princess Juliana International Airport, performances take place at a host of venues on both sides of the island like Kontiki Beach, Loterie Farm, Port De Plaisance Country Club and Le Dreams Beach Bar. The five-day fest impresses with an international lineup like Welsh DJ Jamie Jones and Cuban-born electronic spinner Maceo Plex to Dubfire, Iranian-American Grammy winning techno disc jockey and record producer. To be seen, the hip and happening head to after-parties on the beach, in lavish villas and on super yachts that keep the vibe all night long.

 big festival on the small island with miles of pink sandy beaches, 'Eleuthera…All that Jazz' is music for a good cause with profits from ticket sales donated  to the Haynes Library. From March 30 — April 3, the festival is a beacon for global artists like jazz singer Gabrielle Stravelli adored for her unique take on American greats like Duke Ellington and Dolly Parton, American pianist and composer Art Hirahara whose latest recording Libations & Meditations is taking the jazz world by storm and New York’s King Solomon Hicks packing his jazzy guitar sounds to the good time festival. Venues include the Rainbow Inn in Governor’s Harbour, St Patrick’s Church and on the final evening, musical jam session at the Fish Fry in Anchor Bay is a free show from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

With St Kitts in view across the channel, The Nevis Blues Festival is center stage on the coconut-lined beach at Oualie Bay from April 14 — 16.  The best soul, funk and yes, the blues heat up the festival that was so popular last year, it’s making a comeback in 2016. Gates open at 7 p.m. with no more than 1200 music fans let in each night. On the bill, British bluesman Ian Siegel, American guitarist Kirk Fletcher acclaimed for his cool riffs, Belfast-born singer Simon McBride and the bluesy Rhythm Chiefs from the Netherlands. With roots in Nevis, Denise Gordon has performed her brand of gospel for the Queen and making music with long hollow pipes; Sugar Hill String Band is fun for the whole family. Single tickets are priced at USD$45 while a VIP ticket at USD$150 ups the ante with reserved seating for dining and plenty of fine wine sipping.

hat started more than a quarter century ago as an intimate jam session on the beach is now the longest running independent music festival in the Eastern Caribbean and the hottest ticket on the island. From April 21 — 24, Moonsplash is beach reggae greatness at the Dune Preserve Beach Bar that is cobbled together from battered coconut trees and old shipwrecks. On the sand at Rendezvous Bay, the beach blowout at the beach bar is hosted by reggae hero Bankie Banx and is a showcase for international reggae artists, a proving ground for new talent and a musical reunion of many of reggae’s finest. Tickets sell out early as the 2016 lineup is announced closer to show time.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the longest running jazz festival in the Caribbean. Spanning nine days from April 29 — May 8, St. Lucia Jazz attracts thousands to shows performed by more than 50 acoustic, fusion and new age jazz artists from the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and the U.S. With the dramatic Piton peaks in view from virtually everywhere on the island, stages are set up at 15 venues from picturesque Pigeon Island, Derek Walcott Square (named for the island's Nobel Prize winning poet), Fond D’Or Heritage Park and even the down-home fishing village called Gros Islet. Be sure to check out side shows like Sulphur Springs Jazz at the world’s only drive-in-volcano and Jazz Rhythms at Rodney Bay Mall.

A host of festivals keeps Curacao rocking all year long, with the International Blue Seas Festivalleading the pack from May 6 — 7.  With stages in the laid-back neighborhood near Willemstadcalled the Pietermaai District with its centuries-old mansions and funky bars and restaurants, performers taking the stage include Rock and Roll Hall of Fame great Leon Russell and California-based Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real and their infectious cowboy hippie surf sounds. Book your tickets early for the Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival September 1 — 3 at the World Trade Center near Piscadera Bay in Willemstad. This year marks the seventh year for this popular festival, with crowd-pleasing performers like the Dominican ‘King of Merengue’ Juan Luis Guerraand the Zouk band Kassav from Guadeloupe belting out their get-up-on-your-feet brand of carnival music.

Music: Steph-eyi, the Up Rise

A Muliti-talented young lady, born in Kingston Jamaica, Stephanie Wright aka Steph-Eyi,

started writing and singing her own songs at the age of 13, trying to make it in the industry. Determined to do music despite the  odd’s, she joined the church choir and formed a girls trio at her High school by the name of ‘Earth Angels’. There Stephanie Harnessed her silks of writing and musical arrangement, constructing the harmonies of the songs for the Group. In 2009 the Group’s name was changed to ‘3 Angels’ dropping and adding a new member. 

The group was heard by Officer Laing, C.E.O at Supreme Promotions and promoter of one of Jamaica’s biggest Dancehall shows ‘Sting’, he then decided to take the group under his wings. Under the management of Officer Laing the group released several songs and performed at several major events including ‘Sting’.
Stephanie departed from the in 2010 and to pursue a career of her own doing Reggae music. The multitalented singer took a 1 year break from music to pursue her childhood passion for dance and drama.

In 2011 she started the Jamaica Theological Seminary doing a B.A in Music and Media, there she released two Gospel songs under The Covenant Entertainment company. She then transferred to the Excelsior Community Collage School of the Performing Arts.

It was there she caught the eye of Music Producer Andres Lopez with her silky smooth voice at the age of 20, during a Major play ‘Backslider’, where she played one of the lead characters, ‘Rose’. Stephanie also became a member of the 2013-2014 Pantomime cast.

Stephanie has been under the guidance of Lopez and his label ‘I-Pez Productions’, she released her first single ‘Dreaming’, which caught the attention of the European market. Steph-Eyi  has recently released her EP  and her new video ‘One step at a time’. She is currently working on her album to be released later this year.

The Church impacted Stephanie in a great way and has now led her to dive deeper on a spiritual journey conveying her message through reggae music, writing songs depicting the society, unity, peace, love and the socio-political system. Few of her major influences are Alborosie, Chronixx, Ikaya and Etana, Bob Marley, Protoje and Keznambi,. She is determined to send a message to the world through her lyrics. Stephanie is quickly making her way up in the Reggae industry all of the world, becoming a household name.

Entertainment: Carnival Waves into Negril through "Magic Wand"

inaugural Negril Carnival Gets underway April 14 - scenes from the launch at Jungle Negril, March 18

With the aim of "showcasing a Caribbean cultural artform with mass appeal within the natural environment" that is Negril, organizers  Magic Wand Syndicate will stage the first Negril Carnival in the western resort town between April 14 and 19.

At the media launch, held at popular nightclub The Jungle,  representing the promoters said the event was conceived as a "multi-stakeholder partnership to create a vehicle for promoting culture and tourism, to boost employment and to generate significant revenues for the manifold interest groups in the community."

Whilst promotions will be vigorous in the weeks preceding, there is a diverse week-long calendar of events leading up to the climactic Road March and After Fete on April 19. The week of activity will begin April 14 with the first Socarobics session, a two-hour dance/exercise event designed to help patrons get into the shape and vibe for the later festivities. featuring lead instructions by the renowned Oscar B, aided by personnel from Express Fitness, Socarobics will segue into a grand Lyme party. This event will be repeated on April 15th

April 16 will see the staging of "Ole Mas'" aimed at more mature revellers. Headliners will include Fab 5 Band, Mr "Soca Butterfly" himself, Admiral Bailey, Lovindeer, Oscar B and, from Trinidad, Lima Calbio. Andrew 'Renegades' Henry will provide recorded entertainment, while the Silver Birds and Hummingbirds bands will provide the obligatory pan music.

The revelry gets into high gear On April 17 and 18, with the introduction of Kolours  J'ouvert (April 17) and the H2o Water Party and Champagne Catamaran Cruise respectively. As stated, the Champagne party will be an upscale but no less vibrant Carnival experience, with Lima Calbio bringing the vibes that made for smash hits in Dubai and the Seychelles Islands, while the legendary Merritone and Renegades will provide recorded entertainment on board. The Water Party will be headlined by Bounty Killer, Busy Signal and Oscar B, with DJs Squeeze, Kurt Riley, and Jordon manning the consoles.

The revelry comes to a head early on the morning of April 19, with the giant Road March, in which Junkanoo dancers, stilt walkers, marching bands and more will join the revellers behind the trucks. leading on this grand parade will be  soca sensation Skinny Fabulous, as well as Lima Calbio and DJs Kurt Riley, Jordon Andrew Henry of Renegades and others.  The march will culminate in a Last jump across the stage at Waves beach and the Final Fete.

The event venue partners for Negril Carnival are The Jungle nightclub and Waves beach.

Dance: NDTC is Brooklyn-bound

Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College continues its 60th Anniversary Season with the much-anticipated return of National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC) on Saturday, March 21, 2015 at 8pm and on Sunday, March 22, 2015 at 3pm. Returning to Brooklyn for the first time since their 50th Anniversary tour in 2012, the company will perform two programs combining evocative new works with favorites from their extensive repertoire. Tickets for Saturday evening are $40-$75 and tickets for the Sunday matinee are $36-$45, and may be purchased at BrooklynCenter.org or by calling the box office at 718-951-4500 (Tue-Sat, 1pm-6pm).

Co-founded by Rex Nettleford and Eddy Thomas in 1962, at the time of Jamaica's Independence, NDTC ventures to provide an atmosphere in which dancers can create and perform works of high standards, to encourage the Jamaican public to better appreciate the art of dance, and to research and utilize indigenous dance-forms and movement pattern from Jamaica and the wider Caribbean.

A biennial visitor to Brooklyn Center for more than two decades, NDTC presents two special programs featuring repertoire highlighting the company's 50 year history. The repertoire for the company's 2015 Brooklyn appearance includes:

Drumscore (1979), choreography by Rex Nettleford, featuring the NDTC singers

Dialogue for Three (1963), choreography by Rex Nettleford

Playtime (2014), traditional Jamaican folk songs featuring NDTC singers and orchestra

Sulkari (1980), choreography by Eduardo Rivero-Walker, originally premiered on May 13, 1971 by the Danza Nacional de Cuba

Incantation (2002), choreography by Jeanguy Saintus, a solo excerpt featuring Kerry-Ann Henry

Kumina (1971), choreography by Rex Nettleford

-from NDTC via Repeating Islands

Go For It (2011) - Trailer (HD)

"Because people keep going to see them"
That answer, actually given by the actor Van Johnson (unknown to today's movie goers) to the question of why so many lousy movies get made, applies in part to the dance movie genre.There is something also genetically built in that leads hordes of young people to flock theatres to see this or that crew or individual striving  - always against seemingly insurmountable odds - to establish themselves within some circle.

With Go For It, that circle is Chicago's Latina hip-hop scene, an admittedly obscure phenomenon in the urban dance cosmos, and one which holds a certain level of fascination, if only for moments at a time. Into that matrix, writer-director Carmen Marron   throws some all too familiar dysfunctional family and female bonding stories.

Carmen (the wispy but fiery Aimee Garcia) is the troubled talent at the heart of this melodrama. Falling behind and getting into trouble in school, she nonetheless attracts the patrician attention of schoolteacher Frank martin (Al Bandiero), who's dealing with issues of his own. Gina, her BFF, sounding board and co-worker at a local grocery, is also grappling, none too successfully, with a physically abusive boyfriend and a junkie mother. Of course, every dance movie needs a love story, and Marron makes this one interracial; a well-off white boy (Derrick Denicola) takes a shine to Carmen and eventually succeeds in getting her to reciprocate.

Sounds like a basic dance melodrama mix. With Go For It though, the whole is woefully less than the sum of the parts. Apart from Bandiero as the teacher and Gina Rodriguez as Gina, few of the actors really bring anything fresh or dynamic to their portrayals. Its left to the dance scenes, done in the old "battle" style of hip-hop to carry the film's momentum, but these scenes, while occasionally visually arresting, are simply not enough to justify the investment of one's time.

Perhaps Marron should have gone the documentary route. The glimpse into a hitherto largely unseen or unnoticed world is worthy, but tied to this tired melodrama formula, is weighed down. She should forget the Hollywood model and really "go for it."

A Running Leap Into Darkness: BLACK SWAN - Official HD trailer

Natalie Portman just can't get no satisfaction. Not from her dance director/impressario (the masterfully sleazy Vincent Cassel), not form her rival and friend in the dance company, Lily (Mila Kunis), not even from her own hand. An earnest attempt at masturbation (heeding said director's advice) has to be aborted when her suffocating mom (the excellent Barbara Hershey), who suddenly walks in. Remember folks, we're talking about an adult here.

Or are we? In this, director Darren Aronofsky's latest examination of personal/artistic obsession, we find Nina (Portman) desiring to play the dual lead in Swan Lake the way an underprivileged child obsesses about a shiny new dress. Nina’s only release, it seems, is pain; no wound is too great to conflict upon herself - as long as she can keep dancing; no condition is too taxing or demeaning to bear as long as her twisted narcissism is served. 


And so, the audience follows her transformation from the virginal White Swan to the uninhibited Black Swan more in amazement than in empathy. Not likeable enough to buy as a heroine, and too self-absorbed to buy as a villain, she is a mess that transfixes us.


the rest of the cast plays around this self-contained battle with varying degrees of deftness and skill, but only Cassel, with his alternately cajoling and demanding posture ( he pleads, he scolds, he cops a feel - or two) and Hershey, as the mother jealously trying to reclaim the dance career she surrendered to raise her daughter, get legitimately close enough to give us some perspective on the lead. Kunis essentially plays the scheming yet carefree prankster she played in the comedy extract, but this one is more "out there"  You may not buy her as a ballerina, but she adds some definite levity to a photoplay otherwise enshrouded - and comfortable - in darkness. 

In a commentary in the New York Times, a real-life dancer bemoaned the relative lack of dancing in a movie that purports to be about the subject. But such expectations betray a misunderstanding about the director's intentions. Mr Aronofsky and company are not so much concerned about the leaps and turns, but with the horrible psychological and physical grind that underpin them. In this movie, dance is herself the ultimate mistress and very very few persons, of either sex, can measure up to or consistently satisfy her expectations.