You can read more about the 2011 Raggamuffin Music Festival here.

About Nesian Mystik

Nesian Mystik was formed by students in the music room of Auckland’s Western Springs College (although one member actually attended St Paul’s College) in 1999. Uniting the diverse cultural backgrounds of Polynesia to bring together Maori, Tongan, Samoan, Cook Island and English ancestry, Nesian Mystik became one of the biggest names in Aotearoa music. Their 2002 debut single Nesian Style followed by It’s On, and (the post album single) For The People all reached Top Ten, gold selling status. In an unprecedented achievement, the group’s fourth single Unity also achieved Top Ten whilst the album Polysaturated went straight to #1 and sold four times Platinum. In 2008 the track RSVP (featuring PNC) from the band’s third Elevator Musiq album became their 10th Top 10 making the group the first New Zealand artist to have ten top ten singles. In July 2010 Nesian Mystik released their fourth and final album titled 99AD (featuring the reggae classic Sun Goes Down) and announced the band was set to break-up. Luckily Raggamuffin has secured one of the bands final two farewell performances. Don’t miss the chance to say good bye to this legendary NZ band Raggamuffin style!

About 1814

Influenced by reggae greats such as Bob Marley, Steel Pulse, Burning Spear, Jimmy Cliff and Morgan Heritage, Northland band 1814 was formed in 2004 by Patu Colbert and his sons Shaun and Jimmy and has since grown to include five other members. Hailing from the hills surrounding Whangaroa Harbour, 1814 took their name from the year the Gospel arrived at Oihi, in the Bay Of Islands when missionary Samuel Marsden held the first sermon there on Christmas Day 1814. This event has become the band’s inspiration in delivering the message of peace, love and unity to all people throughout the world. Their debut album Jah Rydem was released in 2008 and made the NZ top 20 album charts and placed #1 along with three top 10 singles in the IMNZ (indie) charts.

About Sons of Zion

Sons of Zion are a six piece Auckland based reggae, rock, metal, dub and roots fusion band. They describe their sound as having a reggae groove with melodic vocals, phat dub base lines and metal inspired guitar riffs. Their self titled debut and independently released 2009 album and the single Be With You provides smooth R&B moments reminiscent of bands such as Katchafire. Expect big things from these sons (and one guitarist daughter too!).

Update: We’ve received word that Salmonella Dub are no longer playing the event.

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Performers at 2011 Raggamuffin will include:

• Mary J Blige, the R&B star from the United States, will headline the event.
• The Original Wailers are also confirmed for the show.
• Ky-Mani Marley
• Jimmy Cliff
• Maxi Priest
• Sean Paul

Additional New Zealand acts will be announced next week. Update: the New Zealand acts have been announced. Click here for details.

Tickets are expected to go on sale in a couple of weeks, at 9am New Zealand time on October 26. They’ll be available via TicketMaster.

The 2011 Raggamuffin music event will be held on February 5, 2011 at New Zealand’s Rotorua International Stadium. Organizers are predicting that at least 30,000 lovers of reggae music (and dub music and other kinds of music) will attend the festival this year. Last year’s Raggamuffin festival boasted a similar crowd.

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Here’s the Raggamuffin Music Festival 2011 details so far:

• Saturday 5th February, 2011
• Rotorua International Stadium
• Rotorua, New Zealand
• Early bird ticket prices (until Christmas):
  General Admission: $109.00
  Group Discount General Admissions (10 or more): $99.00

Raggamuffin 2011 tickets are scheduled to go on sale at 9am (New Zealand time) on Tuesday October 26. You can get tickets at www.ticketmaster.co.nz or at 0800-111-999.

Performers at 2011 Raggamuffin will include:

• Mary J Blige, the R&B star from the United States, will headline the event.
• The Original Wailers are also confirmed for the show.
• Ky-Mani Marley, son of Reggae King Bob Marley
• Jimmy Cliff
• Maxi Priest
• Sean Paul
• New Zealand’s own Salmonella Dub
• Nesian Mystik
• 1814
• Sons of Zion

The 2010 Raggamuffin lineup included Shaggy, Lauryn Hill, Sly & Robbie, Steel Pulse, Julian Marley, Sean Kingston, Katchafire, and others.

Tickets are expected to go on sale in a couple of weeks, at 9am New Zealand time on October 26. They’ll be available via TicketMaster.

The 2011 Raggamuffin music event will be held on February 5, 2011 at New Zealand’s Rotorua International Stadium. Organizers are predicting that at least 30,000 lovers of reggae music (and dub music and other kinds of music) will attend the festival this year. Last year’s Raggamuffin festival boasted a similar crowd. The event drew 30,000 attendees and raised over $14,000 for charity.

You can learn more about the festival at their website, www.raggamuffin.co.nz.

Headliner Mary J Blige is an international R&B powerhouse whose recording credits include superstars such as Dr Dre, Tricky, Ludacris, 50 Cent, U2′s Bono, and Aretha Franklin.

Raggamuffin Music Festival 2011 – 10 hot main stage bands, buskers, Dee-jays, V-jays, village stalls and so much more!

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Billboard Magazine reports that Barber has begun a campaign targeting reggae artistes, bands, and reggae music producers regarding participation in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the group that bestows the Reggae Grammy every year. Her objective is to increase the number of reggae-related voters in the Recording Academy in time for the 2011 Grammy nominations by at least 100 people from around the world.

Barber has gone on to tell Billboard that “the only people voting in the reggae category are those who are not in the know” and “the few who are actually voting do not represent our industry.” She explained that when a typical non-reggae member of the Recording Academy is handed a list of 40 – 60 qualifying albums, they tend to simply opt for familiar names. This process leads to the widely-criticized process that seems to favor well-known classic reggae artistes.

Currently, there is only 1 Jamaican voting on the Reggae Grammy award in the Recording Academy.

For starters, Barber will hold an industry conference in Jamaica from January 21-25 to explain the Grammy nomination process to Jamaican music executives. A key component of the conference will be a discussion of the Academy’s requirement that a Reggae Grammy nomination must be returned to the Academy’s Los Angeles offices within 2 weeks of the original postmark. This process makes it difficult for Jamaican and other international participants to vote in time, so many potential Caribbean participants never even explore the other requirements of gathering creative credits and paying a membership fee.

Barber has worked hard for several years to finally achieve her goal of allowing participants to vote electronically, via email. This year she has finally succeeded, so the postal problems will no longer be an issue for the 2011 Reggae Grammy nomination process. The form also includes a “referred by” option for new members. She promises to assist any new Academy members with the voting process if they list her as the referrer. Bill Freimuth, the VP, Awards of the Recording Academy says it’s likely that all Grammy voting will switch to an online process in the coming years.

Now she’s working to build participation and awareness within the reggae community, explaining that “winning a reggae Grammy offers a level of recognition that impacts sales, radio play and concert demands, essential elements in establishing a new generation of reggae stars. I wouldn’t be doing the genre, the artists or Jamaica justice if I didn’t embark on this campaign.”

Barber would know: she produced the 2005 Reggae Grammy-nominated Def Jamaica album. She’s also the former President of the Marley family’s Tuff Gong and Ghetto Youths labels. Her next step will be to work to add a Dancehall Grammy category.

The Best Reggae Album Grammy was first awarded in 1985 and is typically won by Jamaican reggae artists. The 52nd Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday at 8 p.m. This year’s nominees for the Best Reggae Album Grammy are Gregory Isaacs, Sean Paul, Stephen Marley, Julian Marley and Buju Banton.

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Shaggy and Birch rounded up a who’s who of Caribbean artists to appear on Rise Again, including:

• Sean Paul
• Sean Kingston
• Tessanne Chin
• Etana
• Haitian artiste Belo
• Barbadian artists Alison Hinds, Shontelle Layne, and Edwin Yearwood
• Trinidadian soca artists David Rudder, Kees Dieffenthaller, and Destra Garcia

After being approached by Digicel to write the song, Shaggy went straight into the studio with Christopher Birch, producer of his diamond-selling album Hot Shots. The song was written in less than a day and the riddim produced in 5 days. An international cast of reggae, pop, dancehall, soca, and other musical artists such as Sean Paul and Sean Kingston quickly joined the lineup to lend their talent and support. Rise Again is being released worldwide and 100% of the proceeds will go directly to the Digicel Haiti Relief Fund.

Speaking about the launch of the song, Shaggy said:

Rise Again is for the people of Haiti. It is to show them that we are here for them and that we will support them each step of the way as they begin rebuilding their lives which were shattered by the earthquake. I am very proud of this song and the collaboration with Digicel. With today’s launch of Rise Again, we can raise much needed funds to support the relief efforts in Haiti.

Digicel Group CEO Colm Delves said

As part of the Digicel Haiti Relief Fund, we wanted to collaborate with international artists to produce a song that would support the people of Haiti who lost so much as a result of the earthquake. People across the world can purchase Rise Again and all proceeds will go directly to the relief efforts in Haiti.

Rise Again is already making waves in the US with E! News carrying a preview of the song on the E!TV Entertainment News.

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One of these nominees will win the best reggae Grammy at the 52nd annual Grammy awards:

• Rasta Got Soul by Buju Banton on Gargamel Music, Inc.
• Brand New Me by Gregory Isaacs on Tad’s Record
• Awake by Julian Marley on Ghetto Youths/Tuff Gong/Universal Republic
• Mind Control — Acoustic by Stephen Marley on Ghetto Youths/Tuff Gong/Universal Republic
• Imperial Blaze by Sean Paul on VP/Atlantic

Sean Paul‘s Imperial Blaze won the 2009 MOBO award and includes the single So Fine.

Last year’s Grammy Award was won by Burning Spear. (Even though the awards are provided in 2010, this isn’t the 2010 Reggae Grammy – that will be next year.)

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The VP Records, perhaps the leading contemporary reggae label, recently released this video documentary of their history, including their work with dancehall and reggae hitmakers Shaggy, Sean Paul, and Elephant Man.

From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSy6tqOM9WA.

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International dancehall deejay Sean Paul recently released his 4th dancehall album, Imperial Blaze, in August 2009. Imperial Blaze includes the dancehall single So Fine (download Sean Paul So Fine and buy Imperial Blaze here). Although it hasn’t performed as well domestically as his previous releases, Imperial Blaze is tracking to be his best international seller, having sold almost a quarter million albums outside the US so far. He’s broken reggae and dancehall album sales in Japan, has gone gold in France, and is hitting top 10 charts around the world.

The 2009 MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards were held in Glasgow’s Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC). The MOBO awards began in 1996, founded by Kanya King as the first urban music awards show in Europe.

Sean Paul was born in Kingston, Jamaica and won a Grammy award for Best Reggae Album for his second album, Dutty Rock, in 2002. His other albums include Dutty Rock and The Trinity, which went platinum. His hit singles include Temperature, Get Busy, and Baby Boy.

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I guess it’s cool to name drop every current top 10 dancehall pop star in a release, but they lose me when they say “his capacity to attune his vocal delivery to any beat, in any genre, has indefinitely catapulted his star” and so on. You want to make art? Pick your voice and blast it. As someone much smarter than me once said, it’s better to create something new, because followers have to spend their energy keeping up with trends. More specifically, Mojo Morgan also released an album that demonstrated his ability to sing to “any beat, in any genre,” and the album sales weren’t on fire. If it’s not a winning formula for reggae royalty from Morgan Heritage, then it’s probably not a great play for a newcomer.

As to the track? It’s pretty standard pop dancehall fare. If you’re interested, check out KC Jockey at http://www.myspace.com/kcjockey.

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“After the positive response from fans and critics for ‘Courage to Grow’ and touring in support of it for the last few years, we are glad to finally reveal our new material to the fans who have waited so patiently,” says Rebelution.

Bright Side of Life features 12 new tracks that follow the contemporary trend of blending reggae, rock, and hip hop sounds. It’s an independent album, released under Rebelution’s newly founded record label, 87 Music. “We’ve played many of the new songs live, but the recorded versions will have that ‘studio magic’ from all the time we’ve put into them, and there are surprise songs that people haven’t heard yet,” says the band. Rebelution also worked with Controlled Substance Sound Labs and the California-based music collective Silverback Music on the reggae album. (Silverback is also home to artists Slightly Stoopid and Pepper.)

You can discuss Bright Side of Life on this Dub & Reggae message board post from rscience (who seems like they might be associated with Rebelution somehow.

Rebelution Outta Control

Listen to Outta Control, the first single from Rebelution‘s new Bright Side of Life album.

Like what you hear? Post a comment here and let the band know!

Rebelution’s competition on the reggae charts

“We are excited to see the continuation of the pathway being built by independent artists,” explained Rebelution. Their previous reggae release, 2007′s Courage to Grow is also on the charts at #8 for US reggae. Rebelution hasn’t had the same success internationally, but they have managed to break into a space that is typically dominated by Bob Marley albums, especially the popular Legend Remastered edition by Bob Marley & The Wailers, which is an updated 2-disc version of the original, including bonus tracks.

Sean Paul‘s Imperial Blaze, scheduled for a US release on August 18, might end Rebelution‘s dominance of the US charts – his dancehall reggae album is already #1 on the German charts and his Press It Up single is #2 on the iTunes reggae songs download charts. Meanwhile, Rebelution‘s title track, Bright Side of Life, hit the #3 spot on the iTunes reggae songs charts but has since fallen off, replaced by reggae music mainstays such as Bob Marley, Shaggy, Eddy Grant, and UB40.

Rebelution Bright Side of Life tour

Rebelution is supporting the album release with a “25+” city tour across the United States. What is a “+” in a tour? Does that mean they play at a truck stop or something? Anyway, the tour runs through August and early September 2009.

Rebelution‘s early and continued success is due in large part to their aggressive performance schedule, which has built a national fan base. Get tickets for these new tour dates early – Rebelution have sold out previous performances at The House of Blues, The Fillmore, and other prestigious locations. Additional Rebelution reggae tour dates and Bright Side of Life album information is available at www.Rebelutionmusic.com and www.myspace.com/Rebelution.

Rebelution has also announced that they’ll appear on the iTunes Live Exclusive at the Palms in Las Vegas album later in 2009.

Rebelution Safe and Sound video

For a taste of Rebelution‘s brand of rock reggae, check out this video of Safe and Sound, their hit single from 2007′s Courage to Grow reggae album:

About Rebelution

Reggae/rock band Rebelution (Rebby to the hardcore fans) formed in 2004 in Santa Barbara, California. The Rebelution lineup includes lead vocalists and guitarist Eric Rachmany, keyboardist Rory Carey, drummer Wesley Finley, and bassist Marley D. Williams. Former vocalist and guitarist Matt Velasquez helped found the band but left after the release of their first album, the 2006 self-titled EP Rebelution

Rebelution considers their second album, the 2007 Courage to Grow, to be their debut. Courage to Grow was selected as an iTunes Editors Choice for Best Reggae Album of 2007 and peaked at the #4 spot on the Billboard reggae chart.

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