Trojan Records Celebrates 40th Anniversary

In 1967 Trojan Records released its first record in Jamaica by Duke Reid. Some time later, the legendary Chris Blackwell, always a vocal supporter of reggae, officially took the reigns of the fledging label and set up distribution through Island Records. Sanctuary Records took control of Trojan in 2001 and continued to cultivate the rich history of the label. Over the past 40 years, Trojan has given birth to some of the worldâ€™s most creative, soulful and eccentric musical talent. The Trojan label has proudly become synonymous with reggae.

Travel back in time and its clear how reggaeâ€™s influence soon made itself known via the genreâ€™s adoption by both skinhead culture and the punk revolution. From early Ska and Rocksteady right through to Dan cehall, the spirit of Trojan is very much alive. The sound and impression of reggae can be found in modern music from the likes of Sean Paul to No Doubt to Radiohead to Shaggy to Sublime.

So how do you celebrate forty years of all that musical goodness?

Kicking it all off is a unique release from the undisputed Godfather of reggae himself, Lee â€˜Scratchâ€™ Perry. Selecting his favorite tracks from his own prolific and highly experimental career, Perry takes us on a journey through reggae that includes chart topping hits, collaborations and his own personal high points.

Perryâ€™s jukebox collection is just one in a successful, curated series. DJ SPOOKY PRESENTS paved the way last summer followed by JONNY GREENWOOD IS THE CONTROLLER from Radioheadâ€™s discerning guitarist and the upcoming FURRY SELECTION, LUXURY CUTS OF TROJAN CHOSEN BY A SUPER FURRY ANIMAL (bassist Guto Pryce). Later this summer weâ€™ll see a double mix collection by The Orb featuring unreleased material by the Mad Professor.

In addition to Trojanâ€™s Jukebox Series, Trojan has mined numerous Definitive Collections and Anthologies, over 60 eye-catching Trojan Box Sets and a host of seminal Classic albums. Coming this summer are great classics by I Roy, King Tubby, and Lee â€˜Scratchâ€™ Perryâ€™s original Jamaican mix of SUPER APE will finally make its US debut.

To continue in the festivities, Trojan Records has also entered into a partnership with Starbucks for a compilation to be available in all stores across North America as of August 1. With a forward written by Lee â€œScratchâ€ Perry, this collection will celebrate Trojan at its best and most accessible.

The influence that reggae has had both musically and culturally is world renowned, with the Trojan label playing host to some of its most legendary performers such as Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, Lee â€˜Scratchâ€™ Perry, Dennis Brown, Desmond Dekker, Horace Andy and Gregory Isaacs. This year will be devoted to TROJAN 40, a celebration of not only the music and the artists, but the history that has made Trojan Records the foremost reggae label in the world.

Sacha Jenkins and Livingroom Johnston in Eyejammie Show on May 9

SHR and Livingroom Johnston Pair Up in “Write on Bros.”
Joint Show at Eyejammie Opens on Wednesday, May 9

The artist/writers Sacha Jenkins SHR and Livingroom Johnston are
teaming up to exhibit their works in a show entitled “Write On Bros.:
Paintings and Words by Sacha Jenkins SHR and the Legendary Livingroom
Johnston.” Hosted by the Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery, the show will begin
with an opening night reception on Wednesday, May 9, 2007, from six until
nine o’clock. It will remain up through Saturday, June 2, 2007. The
Eyejammie Fine Arts Gallery is located at 516 W.25th Street, Suite 306,
in Manhattan.

“Write On Bros.” will be devoted — in Jenkins’s words — to works
exploring “New York, slavery, clandestine emancipation, and the notion that
God is one of us.” For the most part, these works will be paintings on
canvas (Johnston) and on wood, canvas, and corrugated plastic
(Jenkins.)

Jenkins is variously known as the editorial director of Mass Appeal
magazine and co-founder of the ego trip collective, whose most recent
product was the reality television series “The White Rapper Show” for VH1.
His first show at Eyejammie, “Writers Convention: A Collaborative Study
of Pigments,” took place in November and December of 2005.

Johnston is a pioneering skateboarder, self-published novelist, and
painter. In 1989 he became the first black man to grace the cover of
Transworld magazine. Since March of 2004 he has written six well-received
hand-made novels, beginning with “Harlem Remembers the Bronx.”
Johnston’s first one-man show of paintings occurred in New York in July of
2006.

Cey Adams’s “Untitled: An Exhibition of Original Skateboard Art” will
remain on display at Eyejammie through Saturday, May 5.

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Phat Kat Representing Motor City To the Fullest With New Album Entitled Carte Blanche

Brooklyn, NY April 23, 2007) Detroit native Phat Kat, aka Ronnie Cash, is set to release his second solo album, Carte Blanche on May 8th on Look Records. Carte Blanche marks the first time Phat Kat was given total creative control to cherry-pick the best beats and the best emcees to work with. The result is an example of the finest in Hip-Hop Detroit has to offer.

In the early 90’s Phat Kat, the emcee also known as Ronnie Cash, was busy making his first album in the basement of his buddys’ mom’s house.ï¿½ The group was called First Down and his partner was Jay Dee, now known as legendary DJ/producer J Dilla (R.I.P.). Since then, Phat Kat has become a permanent heavyweight on the Detroit scene. He appeared on the Representing The Streets compilation with the now-classic “Front Street,” contributed to albums by Dilla and Slum Village, and in 2004, after inking a deal with Barak, he released his first solo album The Undeniable LP.ï¿½ Phat Kat is now set to release a new solo effort entitled Carte Blanche.

Phat Kat speaks of major players in the rise of Detroit such as Proof, Eminem, D12 and Dilla with the insight of a sibling. “We all knew Detroit hip-hop had some real lyricists, more than the drug dealing, violent types that everyone assumed Detroit would be full of, and whether it was in 5 or 15 years the songs we were putting down would get their due. Unfortunately for Dilla, he had to be gone for people to come out and say he was the greatest ï¿½ I’ve always said that,” says Phat Kat.ï¿½ In the wake of Dilla’s passing and with the national spotlight securely focused on Detroit Hip-Hop for more than a minute now, Phat Kat puts it on his shoulders “To give the world a crash course of Detroit Hip-Hop. This is what it is.” Almost everyone associated with Carte Blanche represents the D. Dilla contributes five tracks, but the work of up-and-coming producers Nick Speed, Young RJ, and Black Milk is just as impressive. Other guests include SV’s Elzhi and T3, Truth Hurts, Melanie Rutherford, Fat Ray, Loe Louis and Guilty Simpson. Rather than pursuing cameos and features from overexposed stars, Phat Kat chose instead to work with his peoples from the D, figuring “The people I got on my album is just as hot as people that’s out.”

Detroit Hip-Hop appears to be a mainstay on the mantle of Hip-Hop’s elite cities. Phat Kat has been in the mix before it was on anyone’s radar and associated with all the major players thereafter.ï¿½ With Carte Blanche, Phat Kat delivers an album that gives us all we’ve come to appreciate about Detroit MCs: it is intricate but still intimate, hardcore but still lyrical.ï¿½ Along the way, we are introduced to the up-and-coming torchbearers of Detroit Hip-Hop and we are also given another chance to vibe with a fallen legend.ï¿½ Carte Blanche will be released on May 8th on San Francisco based Look Records.

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Book Review:Total Chaos

Hip-Hop’s transformation from an organic folk culture bred in the Bronx with roots in Afro-diasporic cultural practices into a commercially-successful zeitgeist of cool has put a lot of the artform’s core values at stake. After 30 years of popping, scratching, emceeing, tagging, Phat Farm, Def Jam, BET and The Source questions of hip-hop’s death, authenticity and its ability to empower future hip-hop heads are some of the concerns addressed in Total Chaos. Veteran hip-hop journalist Jeff Chang who’s Cant Stop Wont Stop history of hip-hop earned him the Deems Taylor award last year assembled various practitioners to tease out these arguments about the past/present/future of hip-hop. Understanding the cultural rhythm of hip-hop by dissecting its creed seems to be the adventure of hip-hoppers 30 and over. The fans who lack the initimate knowledge of the Golden Era and before don’t gripe as much about the various turns corporate politics has created in the mainstream distributions of the music. Some argue that times have changed and the old guards of the art need to accept the new voices and their values which reflect contemporary times. Nas’s declaration that hip-hop is dead has stirred this conversation both ways and it situates the concerns of Chang’s book which hopes to dismantle hip-hop’s canon from the inside. Chang’s interview with Tim’m West and Juba Kalamka tramples the official idea that hip-hop is hetereosexual art. The two founders of the Bay Area homohop group Deep DickCollective address the invisible queer history of hip-hop by their presence and discussion of downlow boys in the cipher and gay visual pioneers Keith Haring and Jean Michael Basquiat. Long before the praises of hypermasculinity hip-hop heads and house music lovers shared the same dance floor but openly gay emcees are still new to the mainstream. You can “hear” the chip on their shoulders obviously coming from the irony that hip-hop was a response from the powerless to take power and by the early ’90s the artform was mimicking its original oppressor.

Accomplished grafitti writers Cey Adams and Brent Rollins argue that the same big company attitude that has enveloped hip-hop has caused its commercial art direction to suffer as well. From spray-painting trains to pen and pixel images and the popularity of professional photo-editing software Photoshop, hip-hop’s visuals have been cheapened. Snoop’s Doggystyle is cited as the best example of poor illustration thanks to nepotism (his cousin did it) and Public Enemy’s Fear Of A Black Planet’s superior visuals and sales captured the awe of record companies, fans and fellow artists. As much as the computer is derided for making lesser quality optical outings cheesiness has always had its place in hip-hop one specific example being the Jazzy Jeff and Fresh Prince second album cover. The usual issue of misogyny in gangsta rap is traced to its roots in American stereotypes about Black women by Joan Morgan and Mark Anthony Neal. They compare notes from racist ideologies of the red-hot mamas to the words and actions of male rappers and journalists. Morgan’s previously unknown admission that Mike Tyson’s rape trial was handled by tax lawyers who cast him as a small-brained big phallus-carrying animal explains why hip-hoppers of both genders need to leave the hypermasculinity and hoedom alone. By the end of the book Chang successfully travels over several mini histories of hip-hop that answers Nas’s decalaration with proof of hip-hop’s life in crisis not death. KRS-One said that Nas’s stance was more of a warning than a definitive casket-closing. These essays within the anthology stake out problem areas in the music and culture that can be healed and force hip-hop to turn on its head and reclaim its insurgent but fun spirit.