Mavado is known across the world for his hard hitting lyrics and Gangsta for Life attitude and his performance was no disappointment to his fans in Montego Bay on Thursday evening for Dancehall night at Reggae Sumfest 2008. Mavado and his mentor Bounty Killer have been touring the country relentless and his stage show is solid and well rehearsed. Mavado had a great performance at SumFest. He puts on a great show and if you ever get the chance to see him perform live in Jamaica its a must do experience.
Ninjaman is a notorious hardcore Jamaican musician with roots in Dancehall but from the harder side of the dance floor. Ninjaman is well known for his gun loving lyrics and nasty on stage performances. Reggae Sumfest 2008 was no different. The Ninja was not so silent and neither were his fans as he dazzled the crowd with his act performance.
Ninjaman is a local favorite and his show was high energy and powerful. It’s always nice when the crowd knows an artists music and that was certainly the case on Thursday night at SumFest. The crowd seemed to know every word to every song as he belted out some fan favorites.
If you ever get thew chance to see ninjaman in concert then I suggest you do so. If not then download some Ninjaman mp3 files from Amazon and play Ninjaman on your Zune
I made it through the first night of Reggae SumFest and I had a great time. I did not make it to the final act of the evening and I missed “The Doctor” and Jamaica’s reigning “King of Dancehall” Beenie Man on stage. I woke up at 5am and watched the sun rise on Thursday morning and was not able to squeeze in a nap during the day so when the sun started to pop up again this morning I thought I was hallucinating at the pretty light show and remembered the hour long drive home ahead of me. I called it quits and drove home early for some short sleep and now I’m up again with little hope for any sleep again before the show tonight. I may end up missing some part of tonights show as I expect I’ll take a nap during the day at some point. My van is parked within easy access and a sleep break is easy with the press pass. I can walk in and out as I wish with the armband I’m wearing and not even the cops say much to me. I did notice like 100 police dogs all over and when I tried to snap a shot of one the guy made me put my camera down. It was a beautiful all black German Shepard with perfect form. I just wanted a pic of the dog but he would not have it. I don’t question Jamaican police I just go with the flow.
I was out gunned for interviews and the little bit of video I did get is probably crap because my camera with built in mic could not compete with all the noise in the room. Many of the people running interviews had much nicer cameras with attached microphones which made the interviews possible. I was stuck alone with my handheld video camera and no tripods allowed because of space constraints and tripping hazards. It was sad really but I had my digital camera and I got some good still photos. I spent much of the night networking and the show turned into a huge opportunity I think with a number of Jamaican artists expressing interest in working together with me on some online music projects. I’ve found so many musicians with a MySpace page and not their own website. I show them how powerful and easy something like Wordpress is and they can manage it from there. Having your own website allows you to generate your own income, builds a better brand with your music and gives you greater creative control. Anyway lets hope I can get a short nap and move on today. If not tonights coverage may be even weaker.
I had my Zune and WiFi on but I never caught a signal anywhere. not very surprised at the fact there are no Zunes in Jamaica but I was hoping for someone from the media or maybe an artist or band member to have something with them. No Zuners at SumFest except MAX and me.
