Tom Laing— AS a budding entertainer in the 1990s, Tom Laing was influenced by several singers. One of them was Gregory Isaacs. The New York-based Laing salutes his hero by covering Front Door, which Isaacs did in the 1980s when he was riding high as the Cool Ruler. “I’m the biggest fan there is, I have known ‘Toothache’ (his nickname for Isaacs) from I was 12 years of age. Front Door is my favourite Gregory,” Laing said. Laing produced Front Door for his Top Tier label. It may be included on his debut album which he plans to release next year. He was in his early teens at the time Isaacs cut Front Door with the Roots Radics band in 1981. Isaacs died from cancer in 2010. It was not until 2006 that … Read entire article »

  By Kevin Jackson—  Kevin Crown— AS a teenager, Kevin King had big dreams of being a basketball player. That all changed after he went through his father’s stash of vinyl records and ended up playing them on a turntable. He has long given up hopes of shooting hoops. Today, he is known as Kevin Crown, one of the top disc jockeys in the tri-state area of  — New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. “I started as a DJ as a hobby but after listening to my father’s records my interest in music developed. I was also a dancer and I would gravitate towards anything that had a beat including soca, dancehall, reggae and hip hop,” Crown said in an interview with the Sunday Observer. The 30-odd year-old Crown was recently in Jamaica, playing two nights … Read entire article »

By Simone Morgan— A female patron does a head stand, another dangerous practice in the dancehall—. THERE has never been a shortage of the daring in the dancehall: be it lyrics, fashion, or dance. Trends in the latter, however, have been raising a few eyebrows over the years. Bottle sucking, the latest trend to emerge, sees females poking several glass bottles in their mouths and seductively sucking on them while dancing. Recently, a photograph of a female sucking on four beer bottles made the rounds on social media sparking rousing debates. General practioner Dr Orlando Thomas said that although the muscles of the mouth were made to stretch and return to its regular position, jawbone dislocation can result from such a practice. “As with the case of persons who participate in regular eating competitions, pain and … Read entire article »