Aswad Archives - LargeUp

Toppa Top 10: Reggae’s Ten Greatest Drummers

Words by Kieran Meadows— With electronic drum programming taking over in rhythm-centric genres like hip-hop, pop, R&B, dance and reggae, drummers have seen their role in modern music shrink in rece... Read More...

Toppa Top 10: Ten Hidden Dennis Brown Gems

Words by Martei Korley, Photo by David Corio— Today would have been the 56th birthday of Dennis Brown. The late Crown Prince of Reggae died in 1999 at age 42. Though his life was cut way too short, he ... Read More...

Impressions: Images From Rebel Salute

Photos by Martei Korley— Rebel Salute is Jamaica's most significant annual reggae festival. While Sting bottles all of its hype into a single night, Sumfest splits its focus between pop and dancehall a... Read More...

Throwback Thursdays: Vintage Notting Hill Carnival Videos

Words by Jesse Serwer, Photos by Norman Craig— Founded in 1965 (after an earlier indoors incarnation), Notting Hill Carnival has grown from a local community event meant to stave off racial tensions in... Read More...

Toppa Top 10: Ten Reggae Make-Up Songs

Words by Jesse Serwer and Sherman Escoffery Earlier today, we brought you a Toppa Top 10 with some of our favorite reggae/dancehall tunes about breaking up. Well now that you've got all those tears out... Read More...

Toppa Top 10: Ten Quintessential British Lovers Rock Tunes

Words by Jesse Serwer, Eddie STATS and Martei Korley With a documentary about the hidden history of lovers rock coming out this week (in U.K. theaters only, naturally), a primer on this somewhat misund... Read More...

Heds and Dreds: Annotated Tribe Called Quest for the Unseasoned Patois Interpeter

Words by Jesse Serwer If you know your Jazz from your Rhime, you're probably aware of Phife Dawg's Caribbean roots. Sometimes thought to to be Jamaican due to his love for reggae and patois inflections, ... Read More...

Toppa Top 8: Don Corleon Selects His Favorite Dub Records + Exclusive Interview

Words by Jesse Serwer Donovan "Don Corleon" Bennett's Dub in HD, out today on iTunes, Amazon and other online music retailers, is the first dub album by a major Jamaican producer that we've heard of ... Read More...

Video: Nas & Damian Marley “Land of Promise”

Words by Eddie STATS Houghton (via Okayplayer) The dynamical duo of Pan-African upliftment, Nas and Damian Marley are back with the next video from the Distant Relatives project. “Land of Promise” happen... Read More...

Toppa Top 10: Top 10 UK Dub & Reggae Anthems

Words by Eddie STATS Houghton, Jason "J-Rockaz" Orford, Gabriel Heatwave and DJ Gravy. All this talk about Gappy Ranks, Reggae Britannia and Rastamouse has got us thinking about how much sterling-quality... Read More...

Free Britannia: Reggae Britannia Documentary Goes Online

Words by Eddie STATS Houghton You may remember we mentioned this excellent new BBC documentary exploring the impact of Jamaican music on UK pop culture from the 1960s til now. Unless you were actually al... Read More...

The Promised Land: From Aswad to Nas

Words by Jesse Serwer As STRONG supporters of the exchange between hip-hop and reggae, we've been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Nas and Damian Marley's Distant Relatives. Proper MC/deejay collabora... Read More...

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