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Wyclef Jean will be presiding over the upcoming Caribbean Music Awards, which will be held in Brooklyn this month.
The organization behind the Caribbean Music Awards, Caribbean Elite Group, made the announcement of that Wyclef Jean would be the host of their awards gala last Thursday (July 27). The awards show will be held in the heart of New York City’s Caribbean community, at Kings Theatre in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn.
In an appearance on NBC’s Today Show, The Carnival artist spoke about getting the opportunity to host the gala and cited the overwhelming success of the Verzuz battle between Bernie Man and Bounty Killa, which took place in Jamaica back in 2020. “[The success of that Verzuz] reminded us how much we love the Caribbean,” he explained. “For me what’s exciting is that Caribbean culture is shared, whether it’s fashion or music.”
A reference was made to a previous hosting gig by the rapper and singer at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards, which were held in Stockholm, Sweden. There, he made his entrance on an elephant and hopes to match that amount of grandeur at this event. “I want the entrance to be grand and very carnival-like,” he said.
The event will see artists receive awards in 26 categories spanning several genres including reggae, soca, zouk and kompa in addition to “Album of the Year,” “Song of the Year,” “Producer of the Year,” and “Video of the Year.” Michel Montano, the lauded soca singer and producer from Trinidad and Tobago, is slated to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award honoring his career, which includes ranking in the top spot on Billboard’s reggae charts with his G.O.A.T. album.
The Caribbean Music Awards will be held Thursday, Aug. 31. For those unable to attend, it will be livestreamed on YouTube beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Tickets are available at the gala’s website.
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AFROPUNK announced their lineup for their annual festival held in Brooklyn, with Jazmine Sullivan and Flying Lotus as headline performers.
On Thursday (June 22), the annual festival celebrating Black culture in an unapologetic form, announced its full lineup for the weekend in addition to a new location. “AFROPUNK isn’t just about the music, it’s a community of people who reject societal norms and embrace their true selves, no matter what anyone else thinks,” their announcement reads. Grammy Award-winning R&B songstress Jazmine Sullivan and producer/rapper Flying Lotus will be the main headliners for the event. Other artists on the bill will include Joey Bada$$, Vince Staples, Baby Tate, Sudan Archives, Madison McFerrin and Durand Benarr, and more.
The festival will also have a new location. Normally held for years at Commodore Barry Park in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, this year it will take place at the Skyline Drive-In, located on the waterfront in the Greenpoint neighborhood a few miles away. Organizers say that the theme for this year is “Circus of Soul,” where the space will be turned “into a carnivalesque exhibition that spotlights all aspects of Black creativity.” The festival will take place on August 26 and August 27.
AFROPUNK Brooklyn will also feature the Spinthrift Market, which will showcase local Black vendors and their wares in addition to the Bites and Beats concession area. The new festival shows how AFROPUNK has evolved within the past few years, expanding to hold festivals in Brazil, France and South Africa in addition to the “Black HERSTORY Live” event done in partnership with Lincoln Center this past February. The event honoring Black women for their contributions featured India.Arie, UMI and Danielle Ponder among the performers taking part. Tickets for AFROPUNK Brooklyn 2023 are available now at their website.
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One of the culture’s greatest commentators is going be immortalized in his hometown.Reggie “Combat Jack” Osse is getting a street named after him in Brooklyn.
As spotted on HipHopDX the late podcaster is going to live forever in New York City. On Friday, June 16, A-King, the co-host to The Combat Jack Show, took to social media to announce the forthcoming commemoration. According to the post, Bergen Street between New York Avenue and Brooklyn Avenue will soon be named after Reggie “Combat Jack” Osse.
“Family, Friends and Community at large, please join us to a momentous occasion as we come together to celebrate the passing of a City Council resolution that will forever honor the legendary Reggie “Combat Jack” Osse,” his caption read. “His immeasurable contributions to our community and the world of hip-hop deserve to be recognized and celebrated in a special way.”
A-King went on to detail why Jack is deserving of the honor. “Reggie “Combat Jack” Osse was not only an influential figure in music and media but also a passionate advocate for justice, culture, and the power of storytelling. With his pioneering work as an iconic podcast host and attorney, he touched the lives of countless individuals and brought marginalized voices to the forefront.”
Osse is largely considered a pioneer of the Hip-Hop podcast genre but got his start in the industry as an entertainment lawyer. During his legal eagle days he worked with several prominent talents including Loon, Jay-Z, and Usher. His stellar run in the podcast game came to an abrupt end when he announced he had been diagnosed with colon cancer. “In 7 years of podcasting, I’ve never missed an episode,” he wrote. “I got hit with some real life sh*t. I was recently diagnosed with Colon Cancer. I was rushed to the hospital, had some pretty severe surgery.” He continued. “I’m on the mend right now. I’m about to jump on this journey to health with chemo and alternative medicine. “Take care of your health. Your boy aint going nowhere though. We’re going to keep doing this. Keep rocking’ with us.”
Combat Jack passed on December 20, 2017. The street naming ceremony will take place Thursday, June 22 at City Hall at 1PM.
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The longest-running free performing arts Celebrate Brooklyn! festival unveiled its lineup of artists for the summer and a special celebration of Hip-Hop’s 50th Anniversary.
On Wednesday (May 3rd), BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn and the Prospect Park Alliance announced their full lineup for their 45th season of concerts. Each of the free shows (with a few benefit concerts) will be held at the historic Lena Horne Bandshell in the borough’s venerated park. Featured artists that will be performing at Celebrate Brooklyn! throughout this summer include Corinne Bailey Rae, Taj Mahal, Robert Glasper, NxWorries featuring Anderson .Paak and many more.
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In addition, there will be a special two-day concert held in conjunction with BRIC celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop. The lineup for that event has yet to be announced. Those interested can RSVP early at the concert series website.
“BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! at the Lena Horne Bandshell in Prospect Park is a beloved flagship event and a clear sign of summer for our community,” said Morgan Monaco, President of Prospect Park Alliance in a press release. “Music and performing arts are what help keep us thriving in good times and in bad, and I’m grateful that the park serves as an important inspiration for artists of all kinds. The festival has brought a wide range of free music, performances, and family programming to Brooklyn’s Backyard and we look forward to coming together this season with the many diverse communities of Brooklyn.”
“BRIC is about community, art, and culture and there is no greater example of that than BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!,” said BRIC President Wes Jackson in the same press statement. “For 45 years our team has brought free and affordable programming to Prospect Park, and low-cost media education to the people of Brooklyn. We’re honored to serve our neighborhoods in this way every summer, and we look forward to 45 more years at the Bandshell and beyond. Thank you to our friends and partners at the Prospect Park Alliance and the Parks Department. I’ll see you out there.”
For those seeking to RSVP for the free shows and purchase tickets for the benefit concerts, the Celebrate Brooklyn! website is now up and running.
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The Center For Black Literature will focus on the success of Black authors in speculative fiction for this year’s national convention to be held later this month in Brooklyn, New York.
For those fans of Black literature and the tradition of speculative fiction, the upcoming 2023 National Black Writers Conference Biennial Symposium will satisfy their desires. The conference, organized by the Center for Black Literature at Medgar Evers College in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York will be held beginning next Friday (March 31st) and Saturday (April 1st) at the academic institution. The theme of the event this year is Diasporic Visions: Celebrating Black Speculative Fiction.
In accordance with the theme, the three panels slated for the conference will hone in on the various factors of speculative fiction and Afrofuturism employed by Black authors across the diaspora. There will be a slew of notable writers who are attending, which include Tananarive Due, Jewelle Gomez, Tim Fielders, and Christine Taylor-Butler among others. The penultimate event of the conference will be the NBWC Honorees Spotlight, which will be a conversation between authors and the honorees for 2023, Sheree Renée Thomas and Jewell Parker Rhodes. Both women will receive the Octavia E. Butler Award, named after the award-winning late author and pioneer of the genre.
The conference will also feature a selection of other events to take place before the symposium, aimed at students interested in writing speculative fiction from the primary school level to the high school level. Booksellers will also be in attendance on-site and virtually throughout the conference.
The NBWC was first founded by the literary giant John Oliver Killens in 1986 at the City University of New York school and has been held on the last weekend in March since its inception. From that point, it has become a well-regarded event for emerging Black writers and those of note, spanning all generations.
For more information on tickets for the conference, you can check out their website here.
Buzzing Brooklyn rapper Dusty Locane pleaded guilty to two charges of criminal possession of a weapon stemming from 2019 and 2020 offenses.
On Nov. 24, the drill artist posted to Instagram that he would be turning himself in on Nov. 30 to serve his sentence, which includes a mandatory minimum of one year with a maximum sentence of three years. “Been fightin [these] cases for damn near 4 [years],” the 23-year-old wrote in an Instagram caption. “Now I gotta go handle up ima take care of dis short bid n ima be bacc nine five times stronger ‼️”
Dusty Locane hasn’t let the time behind bars detract from his release cycle. The rapper dropped an EP, CATCH DA FLU, on Dec. 5 and shared a music video for album cut “WAY BACC,” re-released on his Halloween project, NIGHTMARE ON DA FIFTH. The burgeoning EMPIRE artist who boasts 3.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify alone is poised to be a major voice in the drill scene, with 2020’s “ROLLIN N CONTROLLIN FREESTYLE” peaking at No. 2 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.
A childhood friend of the late Pop Smoke, Dusty Locane was born and raised in the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn. New York Mayor Eric Adams has openly expressed his disdain for the rap subgenre, telling the press in February, “We pulled Trump off Twitter…yet we are allowing music, displaying of guns, violence. We’re allowing it to stay on these sites.” He went on to add that he wasn’t privy to drill until recently when his son, rapper Jayoo, showed him a few songs. “I had no idea what drill rapping was, but I called my son and he sent me some videos, and “It is alarming,” he said of the genre, suggesting that it should be banned on social media platforms.
In September, a number of drill rappers including Sha Ek, Ron Suno and 22Gz were removed from Rolling Loud New York’s lineup just one day before the festival was set to begin. The removal came at the request of the NYPD. “I don’t understand,” Suno told Billboard following the removal. Suno, who hails from the Bronx, claimed he has no criminal record or “problems with nobody in New York City.”
In 2019, five rappers, including Pop Smoke, 22Gz and Sheff G, were all removed from the Rolling Loud NY lineup mid-festival due to allegations of them being “affiliated with recent acts of violence citywide,” as the police department said in a letter to festival organizers at the time. The letter continued, “The New York City Police Department believes if these individuals are allowed to perform, there will be a higher risk of violence.”
In addition to Dusty Locane, other drill hopefuls including fellow Brooklyn native Sheff G and Bronx rapper Kay Flock are behind bars: Sheff G for second-degree gun possession and Kay Flock for a first-degree murder charge.
Per his Instagram, Dusty Locane is looking forward to serving out his sentence and returning to music. “ALIVE IS THE BEST PLACE TO BE. THEY LOCCED ME PHYSICALLY BUT MY MIND IS FREE,” he wrote on an Instagram post showing him in a blue prison uniform. “I APPRECIATE THE LUV N SUPPORT, FREE ME‼️”