Leroy Sibbles, Frankie Paul, Judy Mowatt, the Mighty Sparrow, Alkebulan, and Kenyatta perform during the Jerk, Roots, and Yam Festival at noon Sunday, August 22, at Hialeah Park, East 4th Avenue and East 22nd Street, Hialeah. Tickets range from $5 to $30. Call 954-438-7467.
Humbert’s follow-up to its 1999 self-titled disc is a pop gem. Mature and sensitive, the eleven tracks of Plant the Trees Closer Together qualify as some of the sweetest euphonic cuts to circulate South Florida. Elements of lounge, early alternative, and postpunk are treated through sprinkles of Fifties rock and…
On most nights, I’d rather stay home with friends, smoke kryppie, and watch a mean horror movie, the gorier the better. Clubs can become obnoxious after a while. Still it’s always worth visiting an establishment with a liquor license, some form of music, and people. Once you get there, even…
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On Thursdays, couples engrossed in an intimate candlelight dinner conversation at the Design District’s One Ninety Restaurant may be surprised when a slightly miffed elderly woman, wearing a red sequined dress and fishnet stockings, tells them to shut their traps because she’s going to sing. Their surprise may turn to…
Like most tourists who fly down to South Beach for a vacation, Marianela Pereyra was on a mission, but she wasn’t necessarily seeking out surf and sun, which was a good thing since those were in short supply during her rain-soaked trip. Instead she came here to promote her fast-rising…
In a sweltering gym at the Wall-2-Wall Soccer building in Miami, a crowd of about 50 young men and women, a few small, squealing children, and one really brave grandma gathered on a Saturday night, plopping down in a small, informal circle. In the middle of the circle stood roughly…
From August 4-6, Billboard magazine, the industry bible of the American recording industry, had its fifth annual R&B and Hip-Hop Conference Awards at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami Beach. The three-day event drew some 500 registrants from across the Eastern seaboard for several panel discussions and enthusiastic, if occasionally…
Last March 18, the L.A. multicultural funk band Ozomatli ended its show at Austin, Texas’s Exodus club during the annual South By Southwest (SXSW) festival by leading the audience in a traditional samba line around the club, a customary conclusion to its rousing and kinetic performances. But that night, as…
It’s not every day that a band makes it out of South Florida. This is for many reasons other than the obvious: It takes a good ten hours just to drive out of the state. Two months after May 21, when the Heatseekers won the Miami regional competition for Little…
The artists collectively known as the Native Tongues are noted in history as the primary purveyors of “conscious rap” during the Nineties, but New Jersey’s Brand Nubian was also on the frontlines. Brand Nubian, however, despite its ability to make people think as well as move, wasn’t as well received…
After brushing off The Pretty Toney Album, his big huff Def Jam debut that moved an underwhelming 60,000 units in first-week sales last April, Ghostface Killah took a cue from fellow Clansters RZA and Masta Killa and crept out into the indie brush to introduce his second-generation posse Theodore Unit…
The Young Jazz Giants is proof positive that community outreach programs do, in fact, pay funky dividends. Mentored by the legendary jazz drummer Billy Higgins at the World Stage in South Central L.A., the band has released its first effort, a delicate platter of mid-Sixties-style jazz tempered by hip-hop energy…
Martina Topley-Bird is the female vocalist who was the focal point of Tricky’s groundbreaking first three albums. Back then, the two switched traditional roles, with Topley-Bird playing the male to Tricky’s female side with sexy naughtiness. Five years after the duo’s split and four years in the making, Topley-Bird released…
“I use speech to bust rhymes through a concrete wall,” raps Boston MC/producer Insight on “Evolve,” the first single from The Blast Radius. Insight’s music is meant to hit like shrapnel, dousing the ears in horn stabs, rumbling bass, and careening effects. It bears a remarkable similarity to DJ Premier’s…
It’s not every day you can listen to more than twenty live bands and DJs, watch visual artists at work, drink beer, and register to vote, all in the same place. This weekend, Rock vs. Art III, a two-day music, art, and political activism event, comes to Churchill’s Pub in…
There was a time when Coconut Grove was my hangout of choice. Back then, I worshipped Kurt Cobain, wore ripped corduroys, and shoplifted at every opportunity. I’d get dropped off in front of CocoWalk by my mom. The only parts of my anatomy that I used for sexual encounters were…
With a few exceptions (Arrested Development, anyone?), politically aware lyrical activists usually aren’t peace and loving hippies, but fire and brimstone warriors who advocate a violent overthrow of the system, despite the human cost. Seth P. Brundel, best known as one-half of the group Algorithm, is no different; his debut…
Ludwig Clarke, a.k.a. Luddy, is a local DJ/singer who laces his dancehall and reggae jams with stream-of-consciousness-style raps about revelry, chicks, and hardships. His new single, “Home Tonight,” features acclaimed producer Timbaland and is supported by a swanky video, courtesy of Luddy’s label Dangazone Records. The track is currently in…
With a concert festival named Projekt Revolution, there is an implied guarantee that madness will ensue at said event. Why? Only the truly mad would switch out the letter c for the letter k in the word “Project.” Consider this the illegitimate child conceived when Lollapalooza, Warped, and Ozzfest had…
Since it was first held as a tribute to Albert “Uncle Al” Moss, the influential DJ, producer, and mainstay of the Miami hip-hop scene before his tragic murder in 2001, the Peace in the Hood Festival has become an annual tradition, an all-too-necessary celebration of the power of music in…
The latest riddim from South Rakkas Crew, one of Miami’s premier production outfits, is an infectious, whistle-blowing, booty-shaking romp called Red Alert, and it’s already one of 2004’s most popular dancehall beats, thanks to Capleton’s blazing single “Real Hot.” But no matter how appealing a particular riddim may be, there…
The door to Our Place Lounge & Liquors swung open just as I was about to enter. Out came former Miami Heat player and current assistant coach Keith Askins. “Keith! Wassup buddy? We’re gonna house it up with Shaq. Are you going to suit up for practice?” I shouted. Askins…
