Play that funky music, white boy
Once reviled, ‘white reggae’ is now taking off all over the world – even in Jamaica. But is it any more than a pale imitation of the real thing? Dave Stelfox investigates.
Great piece, of course. Good to see the Guardian employing someone who actually knows something about the music and its context for a change. Remember this?
I did a rough “best of 07” reggae mix a while back and was surprised by the huge amount of material by white people and women on there. A few years ago that would have been unthinkable.
If there is any justice Alborosie will be huge in 2008 and this can only be a good thing for the artists he’s collaborated with and for the wider reggae community.
Interesting piece. I wish the Guardian would use more stuff by people like Dave Stelfox rather than knobheads like Alex Petridis and Paul Lester but let’s face it, despite all the blogs, podcasts and comment they have these days, it’s not half the paper it once was.
We saw Gentleman at the same gig we saw Stone Love (and Capleton and Sizzla too) in Negril and I remember being surprised at how accepting of him the locals were – but his music didn’t make a massive impression on me, to be honest. Collie Buddz sounds good though, might investigate him further.
But how could anyone talk about white reggae and not mention John Alford? Shame on you Dave!
Another decent article about Reggae in the Guardian, if they keep this up they may come close to redressing the balance for the garbage they’ve produced in the past. It’s a shame given it’s a UK paper that they didn’t mention UK artists such as Ava Leigh, Adelle Harley etc but this is just nitpicking to be honest.
I totally agree about Albaroise, respect to Gentleman but he’s not in the same league.
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The interesting bit for me was Gentlemen’s comment about having learned Jamaican English. I encounter that here in Tokyo in the Japanese reggae scene as well.