Thursday, March 12, 2009

THE WAR ON REGGAE (2)

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Dubroom Online - March 12 2009


"THE WAR ON REGGAE (2)" (WEBMASTER'S COLUMN)

WWW, March 12 2009 - Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Lucky Dube: many Reggae artists have fallen prey to the violent and lethal claws of Babylon wearing one of her most ugly faces.

It's just the tip of the iceberg, for if you look deeper and check out the Movement of Rastafari, there is a very long list of suffering.

It is not for nothing that within Reggae there is a mention of "Sufferer's Tunes" and "Great Tribulation". These things are not just poetic wordings of imaginative situations or a style, they are actually references to the situation wherein the Movement of Rastafari was born, and wherein Reggae Music was born.

Reggae Music, first and foremost, is Freedom Sounds for the downtrodden and downpressed. And that is exactly why Babylon hates the music so much.

One Love, Give Thanks,
Messian Dread (Dubroom Webmaster)

The above column is the personal opinnion of the Webmaster and does not neccesarily reflect the contents of the Dubroom Website and/or Message Boards and/or Weblogs.

ITEMS FOR THIS EDITION:

JUNIOR MARVIN (DUBROOM MP3 REVIEW)

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WWW, March 2009 - Not to be confused with the hi-pitched vocalist, Junior Marvin was the American blues guitarist that became a member of the Wailers when it served as the backing band for the King of Reggae.


IN THE BEGINNING: 600 YEARS AND 6 DAYS AGO? (MESSIAN DREAD SPIRITUAL MEDITATION)

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WWW, March 2009 - Is the King James Version 100% correct, when the translation seems to indicate that JAH created creation about 6000 years ago, in a state of desolation?

"Yes", say the Creationist. I beg to differ, however.

"IN THE BEGINNING": 6000 YEARS AND 6 DAYS AGO?

"IN THE BEGINNING": 6000 YEARS AND 6 DAYS AGO?
MESSIAN DREAD SPIRITUAL MEDITATION

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WWW, March 2009 - Is the King James Version 100% correct, when the translation seems to indicate that JAH created creation about 6000 years ago, in a state of desolation?

"Yes", say the Creationist. I beg to differ, however.

Creationism", unlike the popular idea, is not "just" the knowledge that creation was created by the Creator. If that would be the case, I could have been labeled a "Creationist" myself. However, I am not. And still, I believe that Jah created creation and no I do not believe that he did that through Darwin, so to speak. I do not believe mankind comes from the proverbial monkey.

A creationist believes, however, using slogans like "the Bible is the Whole Truth", that God created creation in 6 days, about 6000 years ago. A creationist believes in the traditional doctrines that came to us through Augustine, the Vatikan and it's "Reformers". A Creationist believes, that "in the beginning", the first words of the Bible, is also the "first day" of the week described in the first chapter of Genesis.

And I beg to differ, Sirs!

First of all, the Bible does not say at all that "In the beginning was the first day" at all. In fact, Genesis starts with the words:

"In The Beginning, God Created The Heaven And The Earth. And The Earth Was Without Form, And Void, And Darkness Was Upon The Face Of The Deep." (Genesis 1:1,2a)

When you read on, you see that Jah wipes the darkness of the earth and makes a difference between day and night. That wiping away of the darkness is the first act of the "creation week", which I would rather call a re-creation week.

First of all, the word "was" is not necessarily translated in the right way. The word could also be "became". Whether you use the word "was", or "became", therefore, requires more than literally translating the first lines of Genesis.

When you translate the word as "was", you make Genesis say, that Jah created the earth without "form and void", or, as the Hebrew phrase goes, "Tohu va Bohu". This phrase is used in the Bible only a couple of times, so let's take a look where they are used as well.

Let's go to Isaiah, where Jah speaks about His judgments:

"He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness" (Isaiah 34:11b)

Obviously, since you cannot "create destruction" and Tohu va Bohu does indicate destruction rather than a creative act, it is not right to translate the first lines of Genesis using the word "was" to describe the original state of creation "in the beginning".

But there is more usage of the word Tohu va Bohu. This next usage, also Isaiah quoting JAH, says this:

"For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I [am] the LORD; and [there is] none else." (Isaiah 45:18)

So here we have Jah Himself saying, that He did not create the earth "Tohu va Bohu". And since we already know, that the words describe a situation after the judgement of the Most High, we might get an indication as to what really happened, somewhere between "In The Beginning" and the first day of the week in Genesis.

Jeremiah helps us out. He was taken to that time, before mankind was created. He describes a situation that is in no way like the ones creationists describe when they make God in their image, a God that creates empty things. Take a look:

"I beheld the earth, and, lo, [it was] without form, and void; and the heavens, and they [had] no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, [there was] no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place [was] a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, [and] by his fierce anger. For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end." (Jeremiah 4:23-27)

Obviously, we speak about a situation that is not the original creation, even though Jeremiah is taken to that time when the earth was Tohu va Bohu in Genesis 1:1. It is obvious, that the earth became Tohu va Bohu!

So, now we have Jah Himself saying that He did not create the earth in this situation, we have two accounts that tell us Tohu va Bohu is a situation after a judgement of Jah, and we have Jeremiah who speaks about this time in more detail.

Jeremiah specifically says "there is no man", but he also speaks about "cities". He speaks about a civilization on this planet before mankind was ever created!

Creationists deny all of this. They obscured the translation in the King James Version in the very first sentence of the very first chapter of the very first book, and with that, they have created God in their image: a God that cannot create anything, for you cannot create emptiness.

Now, other than the fact that it is more than interesting to realize that there were civilizations before mankind was created, it is equally so that the God of the creationists is not the God that wrote the Bible in the original language. And not only because it is an oxymoron to "create emptiness".

A couple of months ago I wrote about Sodomy, which most people think is another word for homosexuality where the Bible uses the word heteros to describe what the Sodomites were doing. Here, too, do we see that very same God of the creationists at work. Their denial of the fact that there are more intelligent beings than just mankind, leads to their painting of a God Who makes people pay for His... mistakes!

We see the same God, who is sorry that He created mankind and since He seems to be unable to master time, He can do nothing but wiping out His creation with a flood. That is not the Almighty JAH that I know, that is not the perfect JAH that I know!

We can go on, for example, and look to the battles of Israel against the Canaanites as described in Exodus and so on. We can look at JAH telling the Israelites to kill other human beings, or we can look at the original text and read how these were not human beings at all but descendants of the Nephilim, unholy offspring of angelic beings with daughters of men.

All of this, however, is lost to the creationists who do not seem to be able to grasp that although mankind is created in the Image of JAH, this by no means means that (wo)man is the only intelligent being in creation and that human civilization is all that ever was in Jah's creation.

It is clear, that the KJV is not 100% correct. The mistranslations start already in the very first line. How important is it, to know Jah personally in order to understand just what is written in the Bible, especially when you consider these mistranslations? Asking this question is answering it.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

THE WAR ON REGGAE (1)

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Dubroom Online - March 11 2009


"THE WAR ON REGGAE (1)" (WEBMASTER'S COLUMN)

WWW, March 11 2009 - Babylon like to have war talk. She comes up with the "War on Drugs", and since9/11, the "War on Terror".

Gradually, though I am starting to see that there is also a "War on Reggae".

No, the term isn't found in the warmongering rhetoric of the workers of iniquity, but when you look at everything objectively, there is a war on the music that has set so many people free throughout the last decades of it's existence.

The war is fought in many fronts, by different armies. Today, the Dubroom has a rather sad report about a vicious attack on the online (DUB) Reggae Artist community.

An attack that comes from different factions trying to get I and I into a war that is not ours.

One Love, Give Thanks,
Messian Dread (Dubroom Webmaster)

The above column is the personal opinnion of the Webmaster and does not neccesarily reflect the contents of the Dubroom Website and/or Message Boards and/or Weblogs.

ITEMS FOR THIS EDITION:

TARGET: REGGAEDUBWISE (DUBROOM DUB REGGAE NEW AND VIEWS)

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WWW, March 2009 - They are said to have invented the term Reggae with their track "Do The Reggae" back in the 1960's. Ever since, Toots and the Maytalls have been using Reggae Music as a vehicle to spread their upfull and energetic vibes.


TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS (DUBROOM MP3 REVIEW)

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WWW, March 2009 - They are said to have invented the term Reggae with their track "Do The Reggae" back in the 1960's. Ever since, Toots and the Maytalls have been using Reggae Music as a vehicle to spread their upfull and energetic vibes.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

AN IDEA...

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Dubroom Online - March 10 2009


"AN IDEA..." (WEBMASTER'S COLUMN)

WWW, March 10 2009 - About I week ago, I mentioned in this place that sometimes you're forced to improve as Webmaster/Editor.

Some improvements are not caused by a "crisis situation", though. These improvements usually start with an idea and it can take years before it is actually implemented.

The Dubroom Video Reviews, for example. for a long time, the domain video.dubroom.org only contained a picture saying something like.... "Soon".

In the meantime, there are literally hundreds of reviewed video's ready to be watched.

An improvement that is currently running through my head, is to make an artist page for each and every artist reviewed on the Dubroom.

One Love, Give Thanks,
Messian Dread (Dubroom Webmaster)

The above column is the personal opinnion of the Webmaster and does not neccesarily reflect the contents of the Dubroom Website and/or Message Boards and/or Weblogs.

ITEMS FOR THIS EDITION:

DEEP ROOTS 6: GHETTO RIDDIM (DUBROOM VIDEO REVIEW)

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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.


DENNIS BROWN - CAN'T TAKE ANOTHER DAY (DUBROOM MP3 REVIEW)

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WWW, March 2009 - The Crown Prince of Reggae rides again: nuff digital niceness in an upfull riddim with a heartical message on top of it.

A sufferers tune in a juggling style!

DEEP ROOTS 6: GHETTO RIDDIM

DEEP ROOTS 6: GHETTO RIDDIM
DUBROOM VIDEO REVIEW

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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.



Monday, March 9, 2009

DEEP, DEEP ROOTS

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Dubroom Online - March 9 2009


"DEEP, DEEP ROOTS" (WEBMASTER'S COLUMN)

WWW, March 9 2009 - The "Deep Roots" series that we feature on Dubroom Online in this time, surely gives a good look on the history of Reggae Music and Jamaican in general.

There are several documentaries on Reggae Music, many of them reviewed in the Dubroom, but "Deep Roots" indeed goes deep.

Personally, I like the fact that the scenes are long.

Both interviews and sessions in the studio are in-depth. Unlike many of the video's made today, where things go with the speed of light, here we take some more time.

Of course, this is because in six hours, you can put much more than in the usual one or two hours in the usual video.

One Love, Give Thanks,
Messian Dread (Dubroom Webmaster)

The above column is the personal opinnion of the Webmaster and does not neccesarily reflect the contents of the Dubroom Website and/or Message Boards and/or Weblogs.

ITEMS FOR THIS EDITION:

DEEP ROOTS 5: MONEY IN MY POCKET (DUBROOM VIDEO REVIEW)

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WWW, March 2009 - Named after the classic Dennis Brown track, the fifth hour of the six-part Reggaementary hosted by Mikey Dread tells us more on the political situation of Jamaica in the time wherein Reggae Music was born and shaped.


BUJU BANTON - PAID NOT PLAYED (DUBROOM MP3 REVIEW)

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WWW, March 2009 - The flying cymbals, invented in the 1970's, are revisited in the Drum Computer and stripped of everything else. Enter a Hip Hop beat and some synthesizer sounds, et voila...

DEEP ROOTS 5: MONEY IN MY POCKET

DEEP ROOTS 5: MONEY IN MY POCKET
DUBROOM VIDEO REVIEW

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WWW, March 2009 - Named after the classic Dennis Brown track, the fifth hour of the six-part Reggaementary hosted by Mikey Dread tells us more on the political situation of Jamaica in the time wherein Reggae Music was born and shaped.

The time was hot. Politics, crimes, violence, people suffered big time. Something had to be done and the King of Reggae was needed. However, Bob Marley was in the UK. He was there for a reason too: he merely survived after having been shot himself.

Leaders went to the UK and asked Bob Marley to help them out. The result was the now famous One Love concert, where Bob Marley managed to have the two main political leaders, that split the country in two, shake hands together.

We see the historical recordings, and are then taken to an interview with both political leaders. How do they think about it all, looking back? We see and hear them as they speak about Bob Marley, Reggae, and the influence on the political and social situation.

One of them, before getting into politicks, was also in the music industry. He worked with Prince Buster and Duke Reid, but also with Dennis Brown, the singer who gave the name to this episode of Deep Roots.

Time to take a closer look to the Music Business. National and international. We meet up with the major distributor during a business talk over the phone. We meet up with producer Harry J in the studio, too, as he records one of the top female singers.

The tapes are rolling, as the sistren sings words of wisdom into the microphone. Producer and engineer are listening concentrated: this has to be recorded with the highest care.

Harry J's studio has an Ire Sound, which attracted Bob Marley and the Wailers. In an interview, he speaks about his own history as well as that of Bob Marley as they used his studio. Just a year after he started off in 1971, they already wanted him and in 1972 Catch a Fire was recorded in Harry J's.

This is also where Chris Blackwell enters, the former owner of Island Studio's who was influential in selling Reggae Music to a western audience, by adding all kinds of things to the raw rhythm. This is where Reggae was indeed made ready for a world wide audience.

We also hear about a huge argument between the three original Wailers: Bob, Bunny and Peter. Chris Blackwell then decided to record Bob Marley separate from the others. This happened during the recording of Burnin', the second album. Harry J was there, when the Wailers became Bob Marley and the Wailers with the I-Three's on backing vocals. We see live performances Rita, Marcia and Judy as well.

With shots of Randy's, the record store, Mikey Dread introduces us to another influential female in Reggae Industry: Sonia Pottinger, aka Mrs. P. As she sits behind her desk, she tries to explain that for her there is a big difference between business and religion. Business, being the music of course.

We then turn to Marcia Griffiths, who is sitting there with Mrs. P. Before she joined Bob Marley's backing vocals, she was around Sonia Pottinger who had already told her that her voice would get her far. She tells us about the influence of Bob Marley and the Wailers, of Reggae, of Music. But when she's asked about her religion, she looks at Mrs. P and smiles, saying: "I don't wanna talk about it".

We also meet up with Dennis Brown. The songwriter is announced as the Prince of Reggae, as he sings in the studio with only a guitar to accompany himself.

From the Recording Studio to the Radio Studio, where a young Deejay is waiting to give some crucial Rub a Dub style toasting Live and Direct.

Back to the Recording Studio. Dennis Brown is ready, waiting to voice another crucial riddim, this time without guitar. Shots from the impressive mixing board in the Studio that is getting rather cloudy...

When the session is over, Dennis Brown is interviewed. He speaks about his time at Studio One, which for him was like a college. Coxsone's Studio is where things took place back in the 1960's, and as Dennis brings up memories, shares reasoning and singing a bit it becomes clear where the Prince Of Reggae coming from.

Towards the end of this fifth episode of Deep Roots, Dennis Brown talks about the song that gave the title to this hour, after which he ends with a cry for repatriation.



BUJU BANTON - PAID NOT PLAYED

BUJU BANTON - PAID NOT PLAYED
DUBROOM MP3 REVIEW

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WWW, March 2009 - The flying cymbals, invented in the 1970's, are revisited in the Drum Computer and stripped of everything else. Enter a Hip Hop beat and some synthesizer sounds, et voila...

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