News archive — page 3
Music Jimmy Cliff Dies at 81: Reggae Pioneer Crosses His Final River, November 2025
Latifa Chambers announces that her husband died on 24 November 2025 after a seizure followed by pneumonia — closing a six-decade career from Beverley's ska sides to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, two Grammys and Jamaica's Order of Merit.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Culture Hurricane Melissa Hits Jamaica as a Category 5 — Studios Dark, Sumfest’s Home Underwater, Music Community Mobilises
The most powerful storm ever to strike the island made landfall near New Hope, Westmoreland on October 28, 2025 with 185 mph winds. Western Jamaica’s studios and venues took the worst of it; Kingston’s Tuff Gong and the Bob Marley Museum were spared and became relief centres. Updated November 6 with the industry response.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music Vybz Kartel Drops ‘Heart & Soul,’ an 11-Track Surprise Album, on the Night of His Barclays Center Show
Released at midnight on August 29, 2025 through Greedy Lion and Vybz Kartel Muzik, the set opens with a dedication to his fiancée, carries the TikTok hit ‘I Know,’ and features Ishawna on ‘Bad Bad Bad.’ Voiced largely in marathon sessions with engineer RedBoom, it arrived the same night Kartel headlined Reggaefest in Brooklyn.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music ‘Heart & Soul’: Vybz Kartel Drops a Surprise Album Months After Freedom, August 2025
Eleven tracks arrive without warning at midnight on August 29, 2025 — a lovers-rock turn from the Worl’ Boss that showcases lyrical range beyond the hardcore dancehall that made his name. The project lands the same night as a sold-out Barclays Center return.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Reggae Sumfest Vybz Kartel Crowned King of Dancehall at Reggae Sumfest 2025
Fourteen years after his last Sumfest appearance and a year after walking free, Vybz Kartel closed an hour-long set at Catherine Hall on July 19, 2025 by taking a throne — with Queen of Dancehall Spice placing the crown. Organisers reported a capacity crowd in Montego Bay.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Reggae Sumfest Crowned King of Dancehall: Vybz Kartel Takes the Throne at Reggae Sumfest, July 2025
Fourteen years after his last Sumfest appearance and a year after walking free, Kartel closes an hour-long set at Catherine Hall on July 19, 2025 with Spice placing a crown on his head. Organisers report a capacity crowd in Montego Bay.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music ‘Bob Marley: One Love – Music Inspired by the Film’ Wins Best Reggae Album at the 67th Grammys, Over Vybz Kartel, Shenseea, Collie Buddz and The Wailers
The 10-track covers album — Skip Marley, Mystic Marley, Shenseea, Wizkid, Kacey Musgraves, Daniel Caesar, Leon Bridges, Farruko, Jessie Reyez and Bloody Civilian singing Bob Marley — took the category at the Premiere Ceremony in Los Angeles on February 2, 2025, a year after Julian Marley’s win. Kartel and Shenseea, both first-time nominees, were in the room. ‘Bob’s legacy continues,’ Olivia Grange said; not everyone in Jamaica agreed.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music Vybz Kartel Marks a Decade of ‘Viking (Vybz Is King)’ With Seven New Songs — His First Recordings Since Walking Free
Two days before his first Grammy ceremony, the Worl’ Boss releases the 10th Year Anniversary edition of his 2015 album on January 31, 2025 through Adidjahiem Records and TJ Records: four Viking originals alongside ‘God Is the Greatest,’ ‘It A Tape,’ ‘Polite,’ ‘Dreams Are Made Of,’ ‘Str8 Vybz,’ ‘Porn Flick’ with Ishawna and ‘#AmOut,’ all cut with TJ Records since July.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music Rebel Salute 2025 Returns to One Night: Maxi Priest, Luciano, Queen Ifrica and a Valiant Debut Over 12 Hours at Plantation Cove
The 31st Rebel Salute ran from 7 p.m. on Saturday, January 18, 2025 to 6:44 the next morning — 23 acts on a single night for the first time in a decade, in what Tony Rebel called a ‘strategic restructuring.’ The crowd was thinner than usual; the festival’s first overseas date, in Miramar, Florida, was announced for April 20.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Nardo Ranks, the Deejay Behind ‘Dem A Bleach’ and ‘Burrup,’ Dies in New York
Gary ‘Nardo Ranks’ Henderson, whose 1992 hit topped the RJR chart for six weeks and whose early-90s run crossed dancehall into New York hip-hop radio, died in Queens on Sunday, December 22, 2024, colleagues announced. He was in his late 50s. No cause has been given.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Robert ‘Ducksie’ Russell, Reggae Sumfest Co-Founder and Pier One Patriarch, Dies at 76
The Montego Bay businessman who helped found Reggae Sumfest in 1993 when Sunsplash left the city, chaired it for close to two decades and later sold the brand to Joe Bogdanovich died at Hospiten hospital in Rose Hall on Wednesday, December 11, 2024. He also co-produced the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival and served as assistant director on The Harder They Come.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Culture Vybz Kartel Walks Free: Court of Appeal Declines Retrial and Acquits Four Co-Accused, July 2024
On July 31, 2024 — the eve of Emancipation Day — Jamaica’s Court of Appeal rules that ‘the interests of justice do not require a new trial’ for Adidja Palmer and his three co-accused. Kartel leaves Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre after thirteen years in custody.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Culture Vybz Kartel Walks Free After 13 Years as Court of Appeal Rules Out a Retrial
On July 31, 2024 — the eve of Emancipation Day — Jamaica’s Court of Appeal ruled that ‘the interests of justice do not require a new trial’ for Adidja Palmer and his three co-accused, four months after the Privy Council overturned their 2014 murder convictions. Kartel left Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre that evening.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Reggae Sumfest Reggae Sumfest 2024: Lauryn Hill’s Surprise Set With YG Marley, Beres Hints at Goodbye, Babyface Crosses Over and Notorious Wins the Clash
The 31st Sumfest ran July 14–20, 2024 in Montego Bay. Lauryn Hill walked out unannounced during her son YG Marley’s Friday opener; Capleton took a Living Legend Award; Valiant, Jada Kingdom and Kraff never appeared. Saturday brought a reflective Beres Hammond, R&B star Babyface at 2:40 a.m. and a hometown honour for Nigy Boy.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music Shenseea Releases ‘Never Gets Late Here,’ Her Second Album, With Wizkid, Anitta, Coi Leray, Masicka and Di Genius
Out May 24, 2024 through Rich Immigrants and Interscope, the 14-track follow-up to Alpha is executive-produced by London on da Track and arrives with a Kingston-shot video for ‘Flava.’ ‘Still maintaining my Jamaican authenticity, I infused my affinity for other genres such as Pop and R&B,’ Shenseea says.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music JaRIA Honour Awards 2024: Beres Hammond Takes Lifetime Achievement, Teejay’s ‘Drift’ Is Song of the Year and YG Marley Is Breakthrough Artiste
The Jamaica Reggae Industry Association’s 15th-anniversary honours, staged March 27, 2024 at the Jamaica Pegasus, saluted Beres Hammond, Sister Nancy, Sean Paul, Pluto Shervington and Black Uhuru, named Stephen Marley’s Old Soul and Masicka’s Generation of Kings albums of the year, and introduced the Ibo Cooper Icon Award.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Culture Privy Council Quashes Vybz Kartel’s Murder Conviction Over Juror Bribery Attempt, Sends Retrial Question Back to Jamaica
On March 14, 2024 — ten years to the day after the verdict — the UK’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council unanimously overturned the 2014 convictions of Adidja Palmer, Shawn Campbell, Kahira Jones and Andre St John for the murder of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams. Letting a juror accused of offering J$500,000 bribes stay on the panel was ‘fatal to the safety of the convictions,’ the Board ruled.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Culture Privy Council Quashes Vybz Kartel’s Murder Conviction: Juror Misconduct Renders 2014 Verdict Unsafe, March 2024
Exactly ten years after the jury’s guilty verdict, the UK’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council unanimously overturns the convictions of Adidja Palmer and his three co-accused. Allowing a juror accused of offering J$500,000 bribes to remain on the panel was ‘fatal to the safety of the convictions,’ the Board rules.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music Peetah Morgan, Lead Singer of Morgan Heritage, Dies at 46
Peter Anthony Morgan, the voice of ‘Don’t Haffi Dread’ and ‘Down by the River’ and frontman of the Grammy-winning family band founded with his siblings in 1994, died on Sunday, February 25, 2024. The family announced the death on social media without giving a cause. His father, Denroy Morgan, died in 2022.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Culture ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ Opens Worldwide on Valentine’s Day
Paramount’s biopic, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green and starring Kingsley Ben-Adir and Lashana Lynch, opens in the United States and the UK on February 14, 2024, three weeks after its world premiere at the Carib 5 in Kingston. Sevana, Naomi Cowan, Alexx A-Game and Aston Barrett Jr are among the Jamaican musicians in the cast.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music YG Marley’s ‘Praise Jah in the Moonlight’ Debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 — the First Reggae Entry Since ‘Bam,’ and a Sixth Marley on the Chart
Six weeks after its release, Bob Marley’s grandson enters the Hot 100 at No. 74 on the chart dated February 10, 2024, on 6.2 million US streams, as the song climbs the UK top 40 and tops New Zealand. Updated March 9 with its Hot 100 peak of No. 34 and UK peak of No. 5.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music Julian Marley Wins His First Grammy as ‘Colors of Royal’ Takes Best Reggae Album
Third time lucky: after nominations for Awake and As I Am, the London-born son of Bob Marley won Best Reggae Album with producer Antaeus at the 66th Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024, beating Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Burning Spear and Collie Buddz. Marley was on stage in Australia; Antaeus accepted and dedicated the award to ‘the people of Jamaica, who have accepted me as one of their own.’
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, Bassist and Backbone of the Wailers, Dies at 77
The Kingston-born bassist whose lines anchor ‘Stir It Up,’ ‘No Woman, No Cry,’ ‘Jamming’ and ‘Could You Be Loved’ died on February 3, 2024 after what his family called a long medical battle. From the Upsetters to four decades leading the Wailers, Family Man defined how reggae bass is played.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial
Music Rebel Salute’s 30th Anniversary Ends Abruptly as Police Stop the Show — After Capleton, Queen Ifrica, Etana and a First-Ever Sean Paul Set
The ‘30 for 30’ staging at Plantation Cove, St Ann, on January 19–20, 2024 was halted shortly after 7 a.m. on Sunday when police went on stage at the end of I-Wayne’s set, leaving Fantan Mojah and Turbulence unperformed. Before that: Capleton’s fire, Queen Ifrica’s 23rd Rebel Salute, a 40-minute Etana set and Sean Paul’s festival debut.
By JamaicansMusic Editorial