Rebel Salute is back at full strength. The 29th staging of Tony Rebel’s festival ran over Friday and Saturday, January 20 and 21, 2023, at Grizzly’s Plantation Cove in Priory, St Ann, with a pay-per-view stream for the diaspora and the sixth annual Herb Curb alongside the main stage, according to the lineup announcement carried by Reggaeville.

The two-night bill stretched across generations. Friday was announced with Big Mountain, Bounty Killer — billed under his given name, Rodney Price — Tony Rebel, Third World, Yaksta, Kabaka Pyramid, Lady G, Duane Stephenson, Louie Culture, Pluto Shervington and Ernie Smith, The Abyssinians, Horace Andy, Glen Washington and Papa Michigan, among others. Saturday carried Luciano, Ghana’s Stonebwoy, Teejay, I-Wayne, Capleton, Sanchez, Beenie Man (as Moses Davis), I-Octane, Leroy Sibbles, Chezidek, George Nooks, Josey Wales, Ras-I and more.

Night one: a tight ship

The Gleaner picked out Jahshii jumping off the stage to finish his set in the crowd, a “spotless” set from Yaksta, Rodney Price retiring his Bounty Killer alter ego for the night, Big Mountain’s carefree 2000s grooves and Kabaka Pyramid’s lyrical salutes as the highlights. Louie Culture closed the night at roughly 7:45 on Saturday morning.

“The artistes have not let me down and have not let themselves down either,” Tony Rebel told the paper. “They adhered to the rules for the most part, and it only gets better and better from here on out with the example that has been set and for artistes to do well tonight.” He said the production had tried to start on time and “ran a tight ship because we did not want to go too long into Saturday morning, [so] persons could go home, rest and feel refreshed for more of our wholesome offerings.”

Bounty Killer used his set to weigh in on the Stocks and Securities Limited fraud affecting Usain Bolt, the Gleaner’s round-up of the weekend notes.

Night two: family, a chair and a pulled plug

Saturday opened with a family affair. Abatau, Davianah and Tanzania “Tanzie” Barrett — three of Tony Rebel’s children — were among the early performers, with Tanzie, whose mother is Queen Ifrica, making her big-stage debut and Davianah returning after time away, the Gleaner reports.

Beenie Man, nursing an ankle injury since November, called for a chair, came out wearing a different shoe on each foot and performed more than 20 of his hits — the most of any act on the weekend. Given 30 minutes, he told Tony Rebel from the stage he would “bad up” rather than beg for 15 more.

Not everything ran smoothly. Sanchez walked off on Sunday morning complaining about the microphone: “Unuh leggo the mic nuh, please, because the mic nuh sound good. Leggo the mic; mek me sound like me.” I-Octane went on almost three hours late, took his set into the crowd, called out Prime Minister Andrew Holness and had the plug pulled after three expletives, in a festival that has long enforced a no-profanity, no-alcohol policy.

Elsewhere, South Sudanese selector Dynamq defended the Rebel Salute sound clash title he first won in 2020, beating Gurl Power’s DJ Naz, and the Indigenous Village’s Nyabinghi session welcomed drummers and chanters from outside its community to the stage for the first time.

Tony Rebel is already looking to next year, when the festival marks its 30th — “Pearl” — anniversary. “We should be having regular festivals, live reggae shows, and more events that embrace our true culture to keep our locals and visitors engaged,” he said, “and also Afrobeats shows because there is a real connection there.”

Listen and dig deeper

Sources: Reggaeville — “Rebel Salute 2023 – Lineup Announcement” (Jan 3, 2023); Jamaica Gleaner — “Tony Rebel proud of opening night; expecting smooth Rebel Salute Night 2” (Jan 21, 2023); Jamaica Gleaner — “Tony Rebel’s children spark at Rebel Salute; Davianah makes a comeback” (Jan 21, 2023); Jamaica Gleaner — “Top 6 moments at Rebel Salute” (Jan 25, 2023).

Editor’s note: This story is part of an archive backfill covering Jamaican music news from 2022 to 2026. It is dated to the events it reports.