“I have invited Damon to come to Jamaica on several occasions… I told him he should think of buying houses here, do some kind of investment in the island. After all, this is Jamaica and we are about music and playing our part in helping out the suffering people in our community…”

“I couldn’t come to Jamaica without seeing Sizzla,” Dash interjected, adding that he had a lot of respect for Sizzla both as an artiste and on a personal level. “And I’m here to build on that positive energy,” the co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records (with Jay-Z and Kareem ‘Biggs’ Burke) declared.

The two go back musically and there is some history, but Dash’s visit to the island wasn’t really about music or any contract signing with the deejay, although they are currently in production for a music video for Sizzla’s soon-to-be-released single, Children Suffering. His Jamaican sojourn comes under the topic “other business”.

Dash, now that he has finally made the Jamaican connection, says he is enthralled by what he has seen, and his mission here is many and varied. Think documentaries, music videos and establishing a television network here in Jamaica.

“The wind blew me here,” Dash said with a boyish smile, but he wasn’t trying to be funny. “I pride myself on being an innovator and I want to come here first… before everybody else catches on and realises that Jamaica is the place to be,” he said.

“I have a lot of ideas that involve harnessing the synergy between sports and music. We want to do everybody — from Bob Marley to Lennox Lewis to Usain Bolt. It’s all about Jamaica,” explained Dash, who brought along an entire film crew and a female rock star as part of his entourage. He was also involved in filming the recently concluded Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival in Trelawny as this will form some of the content for his television network.

Dash’s forays into film, both under the Roc-A-Fella Films banner and later under the Dash Film banner, have resulted in at least one critically acclaimed film — The Woodsman starring Kevin Bacon and Mos Def — and another well-received film, Paid in Full, starring Mekhi Phifer.

In late 2004, Dash sold his interest in Roc-A-Fella to parent company Island Def Jam Records for $10 million, and founded the Dame Dash Music Group as a new venture with the senior record company. Dash sold his stake in Rocawear for $22 million to former partner, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter.

As a film-maker, he sees potential in Jamaica and is eager to capture the synergy between music and sport. Among the plans is a documentary on Usain Bolt, called Yellow Yams.

“I visited Bolt’s father and it was such a great experience. Actually, the deeper you go into Jamaica, the safer you feel and this is contrary to what you hear,” Damon Dash said.

He spoke with relish about sampling yellow yams straight from the senior Mr Bolt’s yam hill. “I’m not sure if it was the first time I was eating yellow yam, but it was the first time that I was actually aware of what I was eating,” he explained.

And another of his food discoveries in Jamaica was otaheti apples. “I never even knew this apple existed,” he said. “It is just great,” he enthused.

The competition, which featured Etana’s three new videos August Town, Free and Happy Heart, was the first of its kind locally and from what is termed “the overwhelming response”, the competition went over with a bang.

“One of the things that really impressed us was the number of votes we received from throughout the Caribbean,” one of the conceptualisers remarked.

Reports are that the votes are still being tallied, however, excitement is building up for the live finale on February 27 at 5:00 PM, which will feature Etana announcing the winning video and calling the competition’s winners.

“Etana’s fans are on the edges of their seats as they wait to find out if they will be winners of any of the competition’s coveted prizes,” said Etana’s manager, Chin Bourne, of Irish and Chin.

Several times a day, after viewing the three videos, fans were prompted to text in and vote for their favourite video. Their texts/votes were then entered into the respective video’s pot. A lucky winner will be selected from each video pot.

The voter selected from the third favourite video pot will receive an iPod loaded with Etana’s music. Meanwhile, the voter selected from the second video pot will receive a chic Blackberry Curve and finally, the voter selected from the first video pot will receive an ultra savvy 13″ MacBook.

In addition to fans showing their support of Etana’s new videos and music, the prize incentive also played a major role in attracting voters.

“This video competition was one of Irish and Chin’s unique vehicles of marketing Etana’s music,”said Chin. “I am overjoyed by the response to the competition.”

The results of the video competition will be kept secrety until the live finale. Not even Etana will know of the winning video until it’s announced on air, that way one can catch her candid response.

“Although each of the videos is a number 1 video to me, I am extremely anxious to see which one my fans chose as their favourite,” says Etana.

Everyone who voted should keep their phones on between 5-7 pm on February 27, in case they are a lucky winner. If Etana calls a number and does not get an answer, she will move on and select another number. Viewers will be able to express their excitement live on air.

Organised by Brite Lites Funeral Home owner, Tommy Thompson, The Settlement is advertised as the burial ground for graffiti artiste L.A. Lewis and deejay Mr G as well as Queen Paula versus Lisa Hyper on Saturday, February 13. When THE WEEKEND STAR spoke to KipRich he says it was not in his original agreement with Thompson to clash any artiste.

He said, “Tommy Thompson a promote a show and him a tell me is not a clash ting but the flyer implies that it is. Mi nah deal wid no clash ting right now, my management don’t want a clash vibe right now cause the focus shift. I have a song out called Party Time and dats the vibe we going for right now.”

paid to clash

According to KipRich, Thompson approached him about being on the show to perform saying that the event was a party vibe. Yet after that agreement, he has seen flyers for the event implying a clash and the media have reported that he will be clashing Merciless.

“Me nah do him show, “KipRich said, “my people done call him and tell him already cause we nah trick di people. Him shouldn’t go promote something weh him nuh talk to me bout and mi nah get paid to clash. Is a business, is not fren ting, if you don’t tell me don’t go behind my back and do it.”

When THE WEEKEND STAR spoke to Thompson, however, he was unaware that KipRich would not be attending and says that he never advertised a clash between KipRich and Merciless. He said, “My only conclusion, cause everything has been going on well, is that he’s fraid of the possibility a clash might happen. But the show must go on.”

KipRich has gained a name for himself as a spectacular clash artiste within the last two years with his clashes in Portmore for Sting. In 2008, KipRich demolished the Monster Hempire at Sting and again in 2009 at Follow Di Arrow. Last December, KipRich was the saving grace of Sting when he and General B provided the only clash for the night. KipRich easily took home the win with cutting lyrics and a fierce attitude.

KipRich is adamant that he is not afraid to take on veteran deejay Merciless saying, “me nuh fraid fi clash Merciless, if him did book mi fi clash mi do dat but he didn’t.”

Source: JamaicaStar

DJ Khaled is an American record producer, radio personality, DJ, record label executive and is known for songs such as We Takin’ Over alongside Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman, and Lil Wayne. Khaled has made appearances in Jamaica at Fully Loaded and Bounty Killer’s ‘Its A Party’.

His link with Bounty Killer and the Alliance has also been long-standing; Khaled produced a track and did the intro on Bounty Killer’s 2001 opus Ghetto Dictionary. And, the ‘5 Star General’, as well as Mavado and Serani, have appeared on DJ Khaled’s all-star birthday bash in Miami alongside Lil Wayne, Yung Jeezy, T Pain and many more.

no-brainer

On March 2, Khaled is set to release his third album, titled Victory for E1 Music (formerly Koch Entertainment), featuring the song with Bounty Killer. Bounty Killer said in a release, “Khaled a wi bredrin long time. Khaled a straight Alliance, he’s been rolling with us for years. When he reached out to us with the track it was a no-brainer to jump on it. When he told me Buju was on it, it made it even better. Buju is on a different journey for the time being but freedom is a must and people love his music and will be happy to hear fresh material form Gargamel same way.”

She’s Killing Me is a twist of Buju Banton’s classic song Murderer and also features the effervescent flow of Busta Rhymes, also on top form on the track. DJ Khaled and his platinum production unit the Runners are also set to produce tracks for Mavado’s third album, set for an early summer release.

Mavado said, “I’m performing on a show February 13 in Fort Lauderdale, so I’ll be extending my stay to get in the studio with Khaled; he has a crazy energy in the studio so we going to build offa that instead of him just sending us beats. My third album will have more of a focus on exclusive tracks. We’re going for a diverse sound as my music has spread far, giving me fans from all nations and races.”

The design also includes some UI enhancements, like the ability to send messages direct from your homepage using a pop-over window, rather than having to visit a separate page. There’s also a new emphasis on search — note how much larger the search box is, and its more centered placement on the page.

It also looks like the News Feed filters and friends lists have been removed (or at least no longer take up the entire left side bar). And the naming of the two different homepage streams — Live Feed and News Feed — have changed: they’re both part of the News Feed now, with the live updates under a “Most Recent” tab and the highlights under “Top News”.

The new design isn’t a huge surprise — Facebook has been testing out variations of the design for some time. And they announced back in October that they would be moving many of the navigation elements over to the left side of the screen.

I haven’t gotten to try out the design for myself yet, but I’m liking it a lot. It looks cleaner and easier to use than the old design (I’ve never been a fan of the ‘Applications’ menu concept). Also note the way it handles submenus, keeping navigation elements consistently in the left panel as opposed to arbitrarily scattered in each app. One slightly odd change though: it looks like videos are now actually part of the Photo application.

Source: TechCrunch