Stuff: Mama!

Yow!
So it’s the first of December and I’m sure you know what that means???

It’s my Mother’s Earthday! Yes. 55 years ago the greatest human female to ever walk the world was born, so biggup my Mother each and every time and not only does her favourite offspring (the youngest too. What!) have something on her way, but hopefully we’ll see her in about a month’s time yeah.

Mama A also shares a birthday with Richard Pryor, biggup Richard Pryor and ALSO, it is World Aids Day [ribbon]. Certainly something which is impacting not only to the world itself (duh), but also to this wonderful music which we attempt to celebrate so brightly each and every day. So hopefully, you’ll do something constructive for the moment, be it making a donation to your favourite applicable charity or maybe getting tested yourself or with your friends and/or family.

So! November was (seemingly the shortest month ever in the history of numbered days) a pretty productive month, I think. We got a lot of reaction for a few things - In particular there was the review for Apple Gabriel’s new album, ”Teach Them Right” (and more on that in a minute), also got just a bit for the review for Ras Indio’s ”JAH Bless Us”, most of which centered around ‘where can I get it’ type of questions and just to reiterate ‘publicly’, you can get it pretty much anywhere. It’s on iTunes right now and emusic and Ernie B had the album last time we checked. I also did a nice little article on Soca’s lacking digital presence. Didn’t get a lot of response for that (I now have legitimately about five people who come around here looking specifically for writing about Soca and pretty much ignore anything else (at least five that I know about who talk to me)), but what I did get was pretty informative and a lot of people liked my relaying of a story about my Daughter in honour of the anniversary of the Coronation of His Imperial Majesty - Biggup JC every time. Oh and Jah Turban was Artist of The Month, first time I did that in two months and that definitely is getting a lot of response and I recently filed a story for it on United Reggae as well (more on them in a minute too). So that was November. What about December??? Let’s talk.

• Okay! Reviews. My first review of the month, of course, will be for Mikey General’s new album, ”Born To Rule”, which a gentleman from Germany was kind enough to get to my house (via Bredz, of course) just last week (the case looks so nice, so well-presented) and we’ll be dealing with that on Friday hopefully. Other things which are nearly certain are reviews for new projects from Jahdan Blakkamoore, of course, (although that may’ve been delayed), I may actually go ahead and bash Jah Mason’s new album (because I haven’t bashed an album in a very long time), the Westside Riddim album, the new Strictly The Best releases and a vault review of a very popular Wayne Wonder album, oh and maybe Mighty Mystic’s new album also.
  

• On that same note, I think in 2010 that I’ve been FAR too generous in terms of ratings and rankings, so from here forward, for however long I write, you can expect a bit more stringent rating scale from me, even on my friends’ (who know that I am well WICKED and I no longer have to impress) releases. So expect a lot more 3._ ratings in December and into 2011.

• One thing, however, that overrating a few things has been good for is making LISTS, because the lasting impression is what makes something stick as opposed to getting ‘caught up in the moment’. And for December, you can well expect a variety of ‘Best of’ lists. I’m already thinking of ‘Best EP’s’ and things like such and I’ll probably do ‘Best Compilation’ and ‘Best Video’ and things like such. The biggest list, however, ‘Best Album’, will probably wait for the new year (even though you already know what I think that it is. No, it hasn’t changed). I may also do an update post from my Predictions post for 2010 and then do another for 2011 (the former of those two ideas is in question, I will almost surely be doing a 2011 predictions post, however).

• As I alluded to, I had a female reader (who told me entirely too much of her business) basically CHALLENGE me, on something that I said in the Apple Gabriel review, and she’d like me to address homophobia in Dancehall and Reggae music . . . I didn’t tell her that I would, but I think it is a pretty good idea and maybe I’ll do that this month also. And even if I do it (and I’m leaning towards it), I wouldn’t suggest ‘calling me out’ because usually, unless it is really really really interesting, it simply activates my superpower of magical and beautiful indifference.
  

I think that’s it! Tomorrow we’ll have “What I’m Listening To” for December and we’ll definitely continue doing that. OH! And I will NOT be going to Sting this year and apparently we're not going to be missing much anyway. But March 4-5 (whenever it is) . . . Yeah. We're doing that.

OH! Okay, Milestone! If you check my page at United Reggae, you can see that we had our first piece published on the site on December 5, 2009 and now, between however many articles and however many news stories, I’ve almost amassed 100 posted pieces and they have another two ready to go (three if you count that Jah Turban story), so we’ll probably hit 100 in just about a year’s time. And my work is also nearing 100,000 page views, so big me up. I never said I was THE best Reggae writer in the world (although CLEARLY I am), but I always said that I was the MADDEST and, in my opinion, that means going above and beyond, so doing 100 of those while still not missing a beat over here is pretty nice for me and, my buddies at TrueSounds.com declared me “probably one of the most prolific Reggae related music writers on the web, possibly even the planet” and yeah - I appreciate that and in terms of pure VOLUME, I definitely agree and I might just be THE most in that case and it’s definitely been a fun year demonstrating it yeah.

Biggup a couple of more great writers as well. We have Nico, who is more and more active these days and is ‘taking it to the next level’ in 2011. Nico’s going to be the second human being to go HD, like Machel, so definitely check him out, when I retire, he'll be charged with replacing me. And we have JC, Jahsh Concurz, who is fortunately popping up more and more these days, unlike the most ridiculous MONTH he used to wait between posts. You go over there and read that man’s work and tell me he doesn’t have the vibes to post every week. MAD!

Biggup Dale Cooper, did some stuff for us behind the scenes in November. Biggup Denise. Biggup everybody at Zojak (Hey Zoe!), Biggup Flava who sends us a new newsletter basically everyday (and sometimes twice a day). Biggup Molly from Bless Nobel’s camp. Biggup Rawle from Footprintz. Biggup Shelly G. Biggup Rod from Vizion Sounds. Biggup Josh from Soul of The Lion. Biggup Heather from Truckback. Biggup Domacran. Biggup Ras Denco and M&M. Biggup Akeunde from Jahlight Records and biggup Akinde also. Biggup Statia too . . . HILARIOUS. I’m not supposed to say anything.

And Biggup Mama A! From her last son. Everybody have a great month and if you are the festive type (and I'm not), then Happy Holidays.

Tune is easy this month don't?