Patricia Meschino is a Manhattan-based journalist who specializes in writing about Caribbean music/culture. Patricia is a longstanding contributing writer with Billboard and she has freelanced for numerous media houses including Grammy.com, Rolling Stone, NPR Music, The Associated Press and The Miami New Times. Patricia is the proud recipient of numerous awards including the Caribbean Media Exchange Journalism Excellence Award, the Tropicalfete Award of Excellence, the Irie Jam Media Group Caribbean Heritage Award and a legislative resolution from New York Senator Jesse Hamilton for her ‘eminent work as an American journalist.” In Jamaica, her work has been recognized with the Reggae Sumfest Golden Pen Award in 2018 and in April 2023, she received a special citation at the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association’s annual awards for her extensive coverage of Jamaican music over the years in Billboard.
One of popular music’s most expansive and prosperous lineages has its roots in the west Kingston ghetto of Trench Town. There, in 1962, childhood friends Bob Marley and Bunny Livingston met Peter Tosh in the yard of their mentor Joe Higgs, and formed the Wailing Wailers. The group’s initial success arrived with their 1963 ska hit "Simmer Down," recorded for…
In late 1995, 19-year-old Jamaican artist Miguel Collins made his debut on a Manhattan stage. Dressed in an oversized striped shirt with a multicolor woolen tam on his head, his ferocious vocals, and the gravity of his lyrics, espousing the importance of having African representation in the form of a Black Messiah ("I no have no white god, don't teach…
"I always like things that go against the grain of what’s going on," Shaggy tells GRAMMY.com. Shaggy’s eagerness to buck musical trends, and create new ones, has yielded some of the biggest hits of his illustrious career, and the first album to take Jamaican dancehall fully into the mainstream, Boombastic. Released on July 11, 1995 via Virgin Records, Boombastic elevated…
Designating a king or queen of a genre is a futile endeavor, made ever more difficult with the passage of time. The dancehall space in particular has never been a sovereign empire with one appointed monarch; rather an oligarchy where a privileged few dominate as a result of their numerous hit songs, enduring popularity, influence, and ability to command the…
The 2025 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 67th GRAMMY Awards, will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, Feb. 2. Watch highlights from the 2025 GRAMMYs on live.GRAMMY.com. The 2025 GRAMMYs telecast will be reimagined to raise funds to support wildfire relief efforts and aid music professionals impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles. Donate to the Recording Academy's…
The 2025 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 67th GRAMMY Awards, will air live on CBS and Paramount+ on Sunday, Feb. 2. Watch highlights from the 2025 GRAMMYs on live.GRAMMY.com. The 2025 GRAMMYs telecast will be reimagined to raise funds to support wildfire relief efforts and aid music professionals impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles. Donate to the Recording Academy's…
June 12, 2009: a Friday night at popular Kingston nightclub Quad. Minutes after 2 a.m., the evening’s special guests DJs/producers Wesley "Diplo" Pentz and David "Switch" Taylor will take over the club’s DJ booth and premiere their new collaborative project: Major Lazer. In addition to the club’s usual Friday night clientele, in attendance are dancehall scene makers and music industry…
Prior to performing his first song at Reggae Sumfest 2024, Jamaica’s largest music festival, legendary vocalist Beres Hammond shared a concise but important message. "Jamaica," he bellowed, seemingly as a greeting, which he followed by shouting "brand." "We are a brand! I am, you are. Brand! Say it," he instructed. "Brand, Jamaica!" Throughout his July 20 Sumfest set, Beres interspersed…
GRAMMY-nominated singer Spice has ascended the throne, to be crowned the queen of dancehall reggae for this generation. However, she could also be called dancehall’s first lady due to her unprecedented accomplishments over the course of her 25-year career. Known for her numerous risqué hit singles, creative videos, bawdy stage shows, social media savvy and bold fashion sense, Spice became…
The result of audacious experimentation by studio musicians and producers, reggae originated in Jamaica circa 1968 in Kingston, Jamaica. Along with its various subgenres of lovers rock, roots, dub and dancehall, reggae has influenced many music forms and found adoring audiences all over the world. An authentic expression of the singers and musicians’ surroundings and experiences, reggae evolved from its…
On April 30, 2004, producer Clement Seymour "Sir Coxsone" Dodd — an architect in the construction of Jamaica’s recording industry — was honored at a festive street renaming ceremony on Brentford Road in Kingston, Jamaica. The bustling, commercial thoroughfare at the geographical center of Kingston was rechristened Studio One Blvd. in recognition of Coxsone’s recording studio and record label. Dodd…
In the late '90s, a time when synthesized dancehall riddims dominated Jamaica’s airwaves, Rastafarian sibling band Morgan Heritage remained steadfast in their dedication to roots reggae. Their passion would resonate internationally via 1999's Don’t Haffi Dread, an album that brought renewed vitality and youthful enthusiasm to roots reggae. Released via New York label VP Records on March 23, 1999, Don’t…
Living Legends is a series that spotlights icons in music who are still going strong today. This week, GRAMMY.com spoke with eight-time GRAMMY winner Stephen Marley. The reggae multi-hyphenate is the youngest son of Bob and Rita Marley. Stephen Marley is a reggae Renaissance man. An eight-time GRAMMY winning singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, Stephen's nuanced releases retain an authentic…
When Buju Banton emerged on Jamaica’s dancehall scene in the early 1990s, his ferocious vocals were seemingly incongruous to his youth and slim build, which set him apart from his colleagues. So too did his flurry of early hits: "Bogle," "Batty Rider," "Big It Up," and "Champion." But the precocious teenage sensation also offered serious commentary on such hits as…
Living Legends is a series that spotlights icons in music who are still going strong today. This week, GRAMMY.com spoke with reggae icon Burning Spear. His latest album, No Destroyer, is his first release in 15 years. Fifty years ago, venerable Jamaican artist Burning Spear released his debut album, Studio One Presents Burning Spear. While not as well-known as the…
On Aug. 11, 1973, high school student Cindy Campbell threw a party in the recreation room of her family’s Bronx apartment building to earn money for new back-to-school clothes. Cindy hand wrote invitations on index cards and charged a modest admission fee (25 cents for ladies, 50 cents for "fellas"); she asked her 18-year-old brother Clive to play the music. …
When 12-year-old Clive Campbell, a.k.a. DJ Kool Herc, migrated with his family from Kingston, Jamaica to the Bronx in 1967, he brought with him a love of his island’s music and an understanding of the best way to experience that music: at a sound system dance. The Jamaican sound system began quite humbly with a single turntable and a hand-built…
Half a century after its release, the breakthrough 1972 film The Harder They Come remains remarkable for its unfiltered depiction of Jamaica, its people, their speech and their music. Produced and directed by the late Perry Henzell, The Harder They Come was the first movie made in Jamaica by an entirely Jamaican cast and crew, premiering in Kingston to an…
Raucous, adrenaline-pumping and oftentimes euphoric, soca has provided the energetic soundtrack to Carnival in Trinidad — the larger island in the twin island nation of Trinidad and Tobago — for the past 50 years. Trinidad’s world-renowned pre-Lenten carnival, which attracts thousands of visitors and was held this year on Feb. 20 and 21, is the most important event on the…
