DEEP ROOTS 6: GHETTO RIDDIM

DEEP ROOTS 6: GHETTO RIDDIM
DUBROOM VIDEO REVIEW

WWW, March 2009 - In the last episode of this six-hour Reggaementary hosted by Mikey Dread, we take a look at the Ghetto's of Kingston Jamaica, where the classic Channel One Studio's is located.

If anything has become clear thoughout the five hours that preceeded this last one, it is that Reggae Music is first and foremost a sifferer's music. It has a direct connection with the Africans who were taken from their homeland to build the cities of Babylon, only to have the most of their posterity live in the ghetto until this day.

The camera takes us to the heart of the ghetto. To the mobile record store that features in many books about Reggae. We see the store and the owner live and direct, as he explains where he is coming from, why he is doing what he is doing and what a gwaan.

We meet the Singers and Players of Instruments. They speak about the liberating force of Reggae Music, how Reggae Music is really a Spiritual Music that chants down Babylon. We hear words of hope, words of justice, righteousness. After the reasoning, time to to pick up the instruments and start rolling the tape.

Political violence killed thousands of Jamaicans. Nowhere was it felt like in the ghetto's. The ghetto's is where Babylons downpression comes down the hardest. Two rivaling political parties form the main catalysator of the violence, which can better be described as a civil war.

It is in this situation that we find Channel One. We find musicians waiting for session work, Inside, the Mighty Diamonds record "Right Time". Outside, people gamble.

In the meantime, the mobile record store drives through Kingston and producer Jack Ruby holds audition in his backyard. Vocal harmony in the ghetto's, like no one in Hollywood can ever reach with fancy tricks, not even in this 21th century. The reality of Kingston 12.

The hour, and since this is the last episode, the whole six-hour ends with Jack Ruby talking about the real situation in the ghetto. Speaking about what he is trying to do as a producer, he is surrounded by singers and players of instruments and the reasonings goes deep as world politics (Vietnam) is brought up and politicians using Reggae Music for their own goals.

Deep Roots, originally produced in the early 1980's for the UK based Channel Four Television, truly is one of the best documentaries ever made about Reggae in a time where in the music was formed.

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