Reggae
While stadium shows dominate this year’s live music headlines, there’s another interesting trend occurring at the arena level that’s signaling a new frontier for the live music industry – and it’s steeped in the sweet riddims of the Caribbean.
Vybz Kartel’s victorious comeback has dominated most of the conversation around Caribbean music this year, but Worl’ Boss’ two-night stint at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center came nearly a year after a string of historic headlining shows that have made Elmont’s UBS Arena New York’s hottest new venue for Caribbean acts. Elmont (a neighborhood that sits on the edge of Queens and Long Island) and Brooklyn are two New York City areas densely populated by Caribbean-Americans, which echoes the incredible impact of Caribbean immigrants across the city. You’ll find Dominicans in Manhattan’s Washington Heights; Jamaicans, Lucians and Trinis galore in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood; and at least one flag from every country in the West Indies along Eastern Parkway in BK.
Last spring (April 14, 2024) — about eight months before he made history with NPR’s very first Tiny Desk soca set – Machel Montano headlined UBS Arena for a 40-year career anniversary concert hosted by Caribbean Concerts & Sonjay Maharaj Events. Coming two years after the King of Soca teamed up with Jermaine Magras, president and CEO of Jay Upscale Marketing and Promotions, for Barclays Center’s first-ever soca headlining concert, Machel’s sold-out UBS show grossed over $885,000 from 8,350 tickets sold, according to Billboard Boxscore. That show kicked off a head-turning run of Caribbean-headlined shows at the four-year-old arena.
Trending on Billboard
Just three months after Machel lit up Elmont, Grammy-winning reggae and dancehall legend Buju Banton mounted a pair of sold-out shows that served as his first U.S. concerts since his 2011 incarceration. The two shows grossed $4.5 million from nearly 30,000 tickets sold, setting the scene for a historic close to UBS Arena’s 2024 run of Caribbean-headlined shows.
“Stepping into UBS Arena for the first time in my life was much more than I expected,” reflects Montano, who’s previously performed at NYC’s two other major arenas. “I hadn’t heard about the venue before, and I was in anticipation to see what the vibe [would] be. The production setup was wonderful, the backstage experience in the dressing rooms, the staff, everybody [and everything] was professional and on point to welcome soca music and the soca vibration.”
A few days before the world rang in 2025, iconic Haitian konpa band Carimi reunited for its first live performance in eight years at UBS Arena. Comprised of founding members Richard Cavé, Mickael Guirand, and Carlo Vieux, Carimi is something like “the Jackson 5 or the Backstreet Boys of the Haitian community,” says Magras. “They’re [their] R&B boy band.” In the nearly two-and-a-half decades since they formed in NYC back in 2001, Carimi has achieved international success through its blend of sociopolitical commentary and traditional konpa rhythms. Their 2013 Invasion LP reached No. 2 on World Albums, and their eight-album strong catalog continues to enamor konpa lovers across generations. While their Dec. 27 concert didn’t launch a full comeback, the show did mark the first U.S. arena show headlined by a Haitian act – and the band completely sold out the venue. With over 15,000 tickets sold, Carimi’s reunion show grossed over $2.4 million.
The Carimi show is an interesting nexus point for many reasons, mostly because of the band’s connection to the demographic breakdown of the Elmont neighborhood in which UBS resides. In Elmont, you’ll find a large Haitian population that’s even bigger than the already sizable number reported by the U.S. Census. The nature of cities like New York is that the census only tells a part of the story regarding the demographic breakdown of the city’s residents.
“With the Caribbean community, a lot of people tend to look at the census — but if you’re undocumented, you ain’t trying to give the government your information. It’s a benchmark, but it’s not that accurate,” explains Magras. “When we did a heat map of ticket sales for the Carimi show, a majority of people buying tickets came from Queens, in and around UBS [in Elmont].”
Now that America’s Caribbean population – spearheaded by a massive post-Civil Rights Era immigration wave, and, later, a 1980s and ‘90s wave — has established itself across several generations, they have the numbers and buying power to assert themselves as dedicated consumers in the live music space.
Before his current position as senior vice president of programming at UBS Arena, Mark Shulman spent over 25 years promoting shows across New York, including storied venues like Hammerstein Ballroom and Kings Theatre – two spots with smaller capacities that Caribbean acts often frequent. While Caribbean acts still headline those venues, alongside newly renovated music halls like the Brooklyn Paramount, their graduation from theaters to arenas signals “a maturing of the music and fan base,” according to Shulman.
“When we speak of the maturing of the audience, Caribbean shows were always late-selling events,” he explains. “Now, we’re seeing more advanced sales, and that enables the artist to plan better. They get to add a second show and plan accordingly, because the audience is being so proactive in their buying patterns.”
The original fans of acts like Carimi and Machel Montano and Buju Banton are, by and large, in more favorable economic positions than they were two decades ago. They’ve gotten to root themselves in their new homes, and they likely have the disposable income to buy pricier arena tickets. But their maturation only tells half of the story of how UBS, in particular, has become such a hotbed for Caribbean headliners.
For Valentine’s Day 2025 (Feb. 14), Grammy-nominated reggae giant Beres Hammond, Billboard Hot 100-topping reggae icon Shaggy and Grammy-winning dancehall legend Sean Paul teamed up for a joint concert that grossed over $1.6 million from 12,980 tickets sold. The following month (March 28), WAV Music Fest – featuring Spice, Dexta Daps, Chronic Law, Kranium, Skeng, Kraff and Valiant – grossed over $1.2 million from 10,360 sold. With five $1 million-grossing Caribbean-headlined shows in eight months, UBS Arena has emerged as not just a go-to spot for Caribbean acts stopping in NYC but also as a key venue in the evolution of Stateside Caribbean music consumption. And the arena’s management did it by embracing the existing immigrant population in an era where rampant gentrification seeks to stifle New York’s quintessential diversity.
Before UBS opened its doors in 2021, most arena acts across genres chose between performing at Midtown Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden and Downtown Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, which has only been around for 13 years. Prior to the turn of the decade, very few, if any, Caribbean acts were playing arena shows, period. Thanks to the increasing Stateside popularity of contemporary reggae, dancehall, soca and konpa music — and the opening of UBS — Caribbean acts are now getting an opportunity that they weren’t granted in the past.
Of course, NYC’s Caribbean population doesn’t exclusively attend Caribbean-headlined shows. If they wanted to see arena acts before 2020, those folks, who primarily live in Brooklyn (outside of downtown) and Queens, would either have to trek into the city to hit The Garden or waste away hours in downtown traffic. Thanks to its location, UBS is a venue that’s comparatively more easily accessible for the city’s Caribbean crowd. It’s also the only NYC-area arena with its own parking lot, a key draw for attendees who would rather hop in their cars than deal with the subway.
“When you get [to Barclays], you gotta look for parking,” says Magras. “The time that it takes me to [travel within] Brooklyn is probably the same time it takes me to jump on the belt and head to UBS. I think the customer weighs all those things out.”
While consumers get to cut down on travel time, promoters and artists also get to save a few dollars when mounting shows at UBS instead of Barclays or The Garden. Promoted by George Crooks’ Jammins Events, Banton’s dual comeback shows, which cost around a million dollars each, would have been at least $500,000 more expensive had they gone up at The Garden. “You’re paying for the location and the brand, you can’t take that away from [MSG],” he said. “But it’s very expensive. UBS is a lot more reasonable, and I hope it stays that way.” As the arena continues to grow in popularity, it’s certainly likely that it’ll become more expensive to mount shows there, which is probably why UBS banks on their accommodating nature to keep artists at their venue.
Ahead of the Carimi show, Shulman “personally got on a Zoom with all the band members [to] hear their thoughts and hopes for the show and how [UBS] could accommodate them in any way possible.” Magras, whose Jay Upscale company promoted the Carimi show, seconds that sentiment, noting how willing the UBS team was to educate themselves on the band via the decks he pitched.
“[UBS] was more accommodating than probably any other venue that I’ve worked with,” he tells Billboard. “It was never ‘no’ as a final answer — they always helped find a way to make things work. [To help promote the show, they helped secure] comedians, a conference with about five media houses, the Carimi guys, lights and everything.” Crooks also echoes those feelings, saying, “Mark understands the business because he comes from doing business with a lot of Caribbean acts.”
But it’s not just Shulman’s experience that helped UBS so quickly become a stronghold for Caribbean headliners; it’s also the care he and his team take in listening to the arena’s staff, a notable chunk of whom are local Caribbean-Americans themselves.
“30% of our staff come from the local community,” Shulman says. “I would have conversations with them about soca music and reggae and konpa, and it was great to hear from them. I can [call on] my music experience, but it’s so much more validating when I can speak to members of the community who live with this music. That type of knowledge and experience can’t be replicated just by doing some research.”
UBS’ open relationship with their staff also mirrors the dynamic they’ve fostered with local vendors, navigating the present-day live music venue ecosystem with a distinctly Caribbean and community-centric approach. When Caribbean shows visit UBS, the arena rotates its in-house food and drink vendors with items that correlate to the nationality of the headlining act; they also invite local food trucks and businesses to set up activations in their expansive parking lot. It’s a relatively minor move that only makes the arena feel more “of the people” than its competitors. (Crooks acknowledges that the venue’s efficacy in this area still can vary between shows, saying he and his team head “some interaction with local vendors [for the Banton shows], but not as much as [they] would have liked to.”)
And the arena’s staff also understands the importance of not overstepping its bounds when it comes to engaging with the culture. “When you look at Caribbean people, they’re natural entrepreneurs,” notes Magras. “Once we see that there’s something big going on, we all converge and find [different] ways to make money. There [were] about 10 after-parties [for the Carimi show] — we [hosted] none. Why? Because we understand the ecosystem and what it means for other people to make money as well. We could have sold flags, but we allowed the flag man to sell his. We [also] brought in Haitian food vendors and liquors and barbeque brands.”
With two additional Caribbean-headlined shows this year – Aidonia (May 3) and Beenie Man (May 24) – UBS is looking to continue its hot streak in 2025 as various styles of Caribbean music ride a crossover wave that’s carrying the next generation of stars. From Yung Bredda’s Zess-infused soca hit “The Greatest Bend Over” and Moliy’s Billboard chart-topping Afro-dancehall smash “Shake It to the Max” to YG Marley’s reggae anthem “Praise Jah in the Moonlight” and Joé Dwèt Filé’s globe-conquering konpa banger “4 Kampé,” the 2020s are offering up a slate of stars that could be the next Caribbean headliners to grace UBS – and arenas across the country. They could even make that jump in the next 12 months, according to Shulman, as the success of Caribbean legacy acts eases promoters’ qualms about taking on younger stars – like Shenseea or Dexta Daps – looking to make the leap from support acts to headliners.
In just four years, UBS has become a preferred New York tour stop for Caribbean headliners – so much so that scheduling conflicts were the only barrier stopping the arena from hosting Kartel’s comeback shows – by leveraging its location, nourishing their relationship with the local population, and understanding the limitless potential of Caribbean talent. As the arena has established a distinct identity, it’s also helped buoy an entire region’s music, which was already creeping into a new era of Stateside crossover success.
But what about arena stops outside of New York? Last year, Buju Banton announced his Overcomer Tour, which was initially set to visit 14 arenas across the U.S. Ultimately, three shows were outright cancelled while a further five engagements have yet to have their rescheduled dates announced. Of the seven shows that he did perform on the tour, Banton grossed an average of $1.5 million per show from around 10,800 tickets sold. Notably, those seven shows visited North American cities with sizable Caribbean populations – NYC, Atlanta, Tampa, Toronto and Washington, D.C. — signaling that future Caribbean tours might not yet have accrued the power to headline arenas outside of specific areas. Nonetheless, a Caribbean act headlining seven North American arenas on a single tour indisputably marks a new era for West Indians in the live music space.
“I think the sky’s the limit [for Caribbean acts in the live music space],” stresses Shulman. “I’ve seen the growth and I’ve seen the performances. The shows are energetic, the fans are enthusiastic, and there’s an incredible vibe. It’s hard to envision any limit to just how high it can go.”
From the Caribbean Music Awards to the mounting of several arena shows — April kicked off a season of head-turning announcements for the world of Caribbean music.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
On April 9, Billboard exclusively revealed the 2025 Caribbean Music Awards nominations, which will once again grace Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre on Aug. 28. Fans had until May 1 to cast their ballots for over 40 categories featuring leading nominees Shenseea and Masicka, who snagged seven nods each. Soca superstars Patrice Roberts and Kes followed with six nominations, while King of Dancehall Vybz Kartel, genre-fusing soca star Nailah Blackman, and Jamaican dancehall stars Chronic Law and Kranium each earned five nods.
In addition to buzzy awards news, April also featured several blockbuster dancehall arena shows. On April 11 and 12, Vybz Kartel made his highly anticipated return to Brooklyn for his first U.S. live shows in 20 years. Worl’ Boss sold out two nights at Barclays Center just a few weeks before Aidonia headlined UBS Arena (May 3) for a 20th anniversary concert featuring Mavado, Sizzla, Govana, Jada Kingdom, Spragga Benz and more. Last week (May 1), Bounty Killer announced his first U.S. show in 15 years, The Return of the War Lord, which will grace Barclays Center on July 5. Later this month (May 24), Beenie Man will bring his headlining King of the Dancehall tour to UBS Arena, underscoring an impressive arena run for Caribbean artists this year.
Trending on Billboard
Naturally, Billboard’s monthly Reggae/Dancehall Fresh Picks column will not cover every last track, but our Spotify playlist — which is linked below — will expand on the 10 highlighted songs. So, without any further ado:
Freshest Find: KA$E & Green Lion Crew, “What’s the Word?”
Rising Jamaican recording artist Ka$e teamed up with production duo Green Lion Crew for an upbeat new reggae tune titled “What’s the Word?” Across easy-rocking guitars, Ka$e rattles off his observations of JA’s latest happenings, and carries the legacy of roots reggae artists before him by taking those in power to task and demanding they do more for the island’s orginary people. “Face it! Land we love is govern by some wastemen/ Who feed their need for greed and nepotize them favorite/ Quick fi blame artists when dem portfolio failing/ If a we dem wah fi run it then say less,” he declares in the second verse.
Tifa, “We Got It”
Late ’00s and early ’10s Jamaican dancehall star Tifa has slowly been making her way back into the public eye, and “We Got It” is the latest in a string of standalone singles helping her recalibrate her positioning in today’s dancehall landscape. Over DJ Bunpun’s “Deep Fake” riddim, Tifa delivers an empowering anthem centering women and all their flavor and flair they bring to the dancehall.
Jah Vinci, “Cover Me”
Back with another powerful message that bridges the sanctificed nature of gospel reggae with the street-adjacent feel of trap 808s and Auto-Tuned crooning, Jah Vinci has another winner in “Cover Me.” Aided by a backing choir, Jah Vinci pleads for Jah to “cover [him] with His love and make him whole again” — a moment of musical humility that finds him submitting to the Most High and spreading his message to the rest of the world.
Patrice Roberts, “Ungrateful”
Trinbagonian superstar Patrice Roberts is best known for her soca smashes, but she veered into the Afro-pop lane for new “Ungrateful” single. Produced, mixed and mastered by Yannick Plate and featuring Kyle Ernest on guitar and Esther Tommy on backing vocals, “Ungrateful” finds Roberts kissing a no-good old flame goobye. With a promise to focus on herself, she proclaims, “Boy bye/ Take you s–t to somebody else.” Melodically, this is much more subdued than her previous power soca entries, but the relaxed soundscape allows for her voice’s character to shine through — and for her emoting skills to get some shine.
RajahWild, “Show Me a Sign”
Originally debuted as an “On the Radar” freestyle earlier this year (March 25), RajahWild’s “Show Me a Sign” finally arrived on April 11. Marked by its notable omission of foul language, “Show Me a Sign” effortlessly positions Rajah as one of dancehall’s brightest new stars,” his come-hither lyrics pairing perfectly with trap-forward Zimi Records production. “Mi hope yuh know mi nuh nice/ Hope yuh know you a star/ Hope yuh know you a baddie/ Mi hope yuh know you a shine,” he croons in the second half of the chorus, presenting something of a shift in dancehall lyricism where the man is, even if just for a moment, centering the feels and self-image of the woman he’s pursuing.
DJ Big Skipp, Yung Bredda & Hey Choppi feat. Pndrn & BYFar Mega, “Cho Cha!”
There’s essentially half a soccer team on this song, but it truly is a “the more, the merrier” situation. With the help of Yung Bredda, a triple nominee at this year’s Caribbean Music Awards, Hey Choppi, Pndrn and BYFar Mega pull from New York drill to inform they cadences they employ across the skittering snares of DJ Big Skipp’s production. While the union of dancehall and drill isn’t anything new, it’s very cool to hear Bredda bar up after dominating the first half of the year with “The Greatest Bend Over” and other soca and calypso hits.
Kaka Highflames, “Jackie Chan”
Just a few weeks after assisting Ding Dong on “Street Jump,” the lead single from the “Badman Forward Badman Pull Up” singer’s debut album, rising dancehall star and renowned dancer Kaka Highflames has unleashes his own new single: “Jackie Chan.” Accompanied by a new dance challenge, “Jackie Chan” find Kaka rapping across an old-school, early ’90s hip-hop-evoking beat with the constant refrain of “Don’t let my Jackie Chan kick ya.” Clearly engineered for dancers as opposed to average listeners, Kaka’s new single will certainly help keep the art of dancing at the forefront of dancehall culture.
Ky-Mani Marley, “All This Love”
For the third single from his forthcoming Love & Energy album, Ky-Mani Marley pairs his slightly raspy voice with sweet reggae guitars, ebulliant horns and a whistling background flutes. “So let’s shine our lights together/ So that we can heal/ So the world can feel/ All of this love/ Jah give me all this love,” he sings over Grammy-winner Llamar “Riff Raff” Brown’s lush production. From Ky-Mani to YG (who appeard on Coco Jones‘ recently-released debut album Why Not More?), the Marley legacy continues.
Yaksta, “Haffi Bun”
Yaksta is always full of surprises; a new single from his could be a three-minute look into virtually any genre in the world. With “Haffi Bun,” which he dropped two days before 4/20, Yaksta dipped into his ska bag and added smalls nods to doo-wop along the way. Produced by Partillo Productions, “Haffi Bun” is Yaksta’s aptly titled ganja tribute; he sings in the first, raps in the second and ties it all together with a jaunty hook that maintains the levity of the whole affair. “It was foolish of me to abstaining from the tree!” he sings, delivering the line with a slight decrescendo to add more verve to his vocal performance.
Armanii, “XOXO”
One of the buzziest names in dancehall right now, Armanii has just added another banger to his string of homeruns. Kicking things off in a delightfully nasty and classicaly dancehall way, Armanii attacks the trap beat with, “Open yuh mouth fi mi mek me see yuh throat back/ Dah bumpa deh gwan throw it back/ Cocky a buss inna yuh face, tell yuh hold dat/ She seh di f–k strong like Hulk Hogan.” With a strikingly melodic flow reminsicnent of Kartel himself, Armanii is quickly establishing himself as a dancehall force to be reckoned with.
When asked where he was most excited to perform after finally regaining his freedom following a 13-year prison stint, Vybz Kartel responded, “The entire Caribbean and New York — that’s Jamaica outside of Jamaica!”
In the eight months since he walked out of prison, the King of Dancehall has barely taken a minute to sit down. To ring in the new year, Kartel mounted Freedom Street on Dec. 31, 2024, marking Jamaica’s largest live music event in almost 50 years. The stadium-sized event featured appearances by dancehall giants like Skeng and Popcaan, as well as Kartel’s sons — both recording artists in their own right — Likkle Vybz and Likke Addi. Freedom Street kicked off a global comeback tour for Kartel that has since included an appearance at February’s Grammy Awards (where he enjoyed his first nomination for best reggae album, thanks to his 2024 Party With Me EP), a performance at the U.K.’s MOBO Awards (where he was honored with the impact award), and the announcement of a set at Wireless in support of Drake‘s three-night takeover of the Finsbury Park festival.
In 2025, any Worl’ Boss performance is a special one, but the Billboard cover star wasn’t joking when he called New York “Jamaica outside of Jamaica.” On Friday (April 11), Kartel played his first of two sold-out shows at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center — his first Stateside headlining concert in over 20 years, organized by Reggae Fest. Brooklyn, which has an incredibly high population of first, second and even third-generation Caribbean-Americans, was the perfect host borough for Kartel’s return. For every BK neighborhood the DJ shouted out (Flatbush, Canarsie and Utica rightfully got a lot of love), a different island got the same amount of shine (Grenada, Trinidad, St. Vincent and, of course, Jamaica were among the most mentioned isles of the night). Kartel didn’t hit the stage until shortly after 10 p.m. E.T., but DJ Milan primed the crowd with over two hours’ worths of reggae and dancehall classics, spinning anthems by everyone from Buju Banton and Shenseea to Elephant Man and Teejay.
Kartel made his triumphant return to the stage with his legendary remix of Akon‘s “Locked Up.” “Look! 13 years inna prison, and mi come out a general!” he declared, sauntering across the stage and soaking up the rabid screams from the 19,000-capacity arena.
Worl’ Boss then launched into his litany of hits, tearing through “Dumpa Truck,” “Benz Punany,” “It Bend Like Banana,” “You and Him Deh,” “Street Vybz,” “Come Breed Me” and “Turn Up the F–k.” Kartel, who is currently dealing with Graves’ disease and a heart condition, smartly split up his set with cameos from several surprise guests, allowing him ample time to catch his breath and pace himself throughout the show.
Early in the night, Kartel brought out two former Portmore Empire affiliates, Jah Vinci and Black Ryno, both of whom helped amp the energy in the room. In fact, Black Ryno had so much energy, he got a little ahead of himself and wiped out while walking down the stage’s catwalk. Other special guests throughout the night included Latin Grammy-nominated producer Rvssian, Queen of Dancehall Spice and rap legend Busta Rhymes (who effortlessly rapped his entire “Look at Me Now” verse). Almost more impressive than Kartel’s stamina was just how much power he held over the crowd. If anyone sat down during his two-hour set, it was only for a brief minute to find their bearings after a particularly wicked wine. Kartel’s catalog isn’t littered with Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hits or U.S. radio smashes, but none of that mattered on Friday night. When a catalog is so beloved that fans are rapping deep cuts that dropped before they were even born, there’s something very special taking place.
To close out his set, Kartel fired off his biggest crossover smashes, including “Summertime,” “Clarks,” “Fever” and, of course, “Brooklyn Anthem,” gifting Kings County one of the most memorable nights of live music in the borough’s storied history.
Here are the five best moments from Vybz Kartel’s first U.S. headlining show in over 20 years.
Rvssian Hits the Stage for ‘Straight Jeans & Fitted’
Grammy-nominated pop-dancehall princess Shenseea and Jamaican dancehall hitmaker Masicka lead the nominations for the 2025 Caribbean Music Awards, with seven nods each.
Notably, Shenseea, who won her first Caribbean Music Award last year for female artist of the year (dancehall), scored her first solo Grammy nomination earlier this year. Her sophomore album, Never Gets Late Here, was recognized in the best reggae album category, ultimately losing out to the Bob Marley: One Love soundtrack.
Soca superstars Patrice Roberts and Kes follow with six Caribbean Music Awards nominations. Dancehall legend Vybz Kartel, genre-fusing soca star Nailah Blackman and Jamaican dancehall stars Chronic Law and Kranium each have five nods. In addition, Trinidadian soca titan Bunji Garlin and reggae luminaries Romain Virgo and Lila Iké are next in line with four nods each.
Trending on Billboard
The Caribbean Music Awards recognizes artists, producers and industry professionals who have significantly contributed to the Caribbean music landscape. This year’s nominations list includes more than 150 nominees across 40-plus categories spanning a diverse range of genres including reggae, soca, dancehall, calypso, R&B and gospel.
This year, the Caribbean Music Awards is introducing seven new categories: Caribbean R&B and Zess-Steam Artist of the Year, International DJ of the Year (Female), Reggae Collaboration of the Year, and Reggae, Gospel, and Caribbean Fusion Song of the Year. The new categories reflect the breadth of Caribbean music and the increasing consumption of particular styles and sounds. “The Greatest Bend Over,” Yung Bredda’s Full Blown-produced smash, became one of the biggest soca crossover hits of the year thanks to its incorporation of Zess.
“Zess has a very large following among the youth in Trinidad, but [those artists] have been struggling to be accepted by mainstream Trini music – which is soca,” Kevon Hart of Full Blown told Billboard in March. “For us, this was a very clever way of combining the two and showing the Zess artists that they do what we do, just in a different way.”
Other notable nominees include Jada Kingdom, Spice, Mical Teja, Lady Lava and Dexta Daps — last year’s most nominated artist — with three nods each.
The awards are presented by the Caribbean Elite Group, which also produces Caribbean Elite Magazine – a print and digital publication that highlights Caribbean entertainers, artists, producers, promoters, cuisine, travel, fashion and entrepreneurs.
Voting is currently underway at the Caribbean Music Awards website, and will conclude on Friday, May 1. Winners will be celebrated on Thursday, Aug. 28, at King Theatre in Brooklyn, N.Y.
For the complete list of nominations, visit the Caribbean Music Awards website. Here are the nominees in selected categories:
Reggae — Album of the Year
Various Artists — Bob Marley: One Love – Music Inspired by the Film (Deluxe)
Bugle — Apex
Etana — Nectar of the Gods
Mortimer — From Within
Romain Virgo — The Gentle Man
UB40 — UB45
Dancehall — Album of the Year
Dexta Daps — Trilogy
Govana — Legacy
Shenseea — Never Gets Late Here
Spice — Mirror 25
Vybz Kartel — First Week Out
People’s Choice Award
Joé Dwèt Filé
Kes
Lady Lava
Shenseea
Skeng
Skillibeng
Vybz Kartel
Yung Bredda
Dancehall Song of the Year
Squash, “Big Breeze”
Vybz Kartel, “The Comet”
ArmaniI, “HAAD (Fiesta)”
Busy Signal, “Happy Birthday”
Kranium & Chronic Law, “Higher Life”
Shenseea, Masicka & Di Genius, “Hit & Run”
Jada Kingdom, “What’s Up (Big Buddy)”
Masicka, “Whites”
Reggae Song of the Year
Romain Virgo & Masicka, “Been There Before”
Bugle, Buju Banton & Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley, “Thank You Lord”
Lila Iké & Joey Bada$$, “Fry Plantain”
Pressure Busspipe, “Haunted”
Protoje, “Legend Legend”
Marlon Asher & Sizzla, “Never See Us Fall”
Alaine & Usain Bolt, “Pile Up”
YG Marley, “Praise Jah in the Moonlight”
Soca Song of the Year
Patrice Roberts, “Anxiety”
Nailah Blackman & Lyrikal, “Best Self”
Blaka Dan, “Blessing”
Bunji Garlin, “Carnival Contract”
Problem Child, “Carnival Jumbie”
Mical Teja, “DNA”
GB Nutron & Farmer Nappy, “In the Center”
Trilla-G, Lil Boy & Quan, “Someone Else”
Musical Event of the Year
Buju Banton — Long Walk to Freedom
Dominica World Creole Festival
Patrice Roberts — I Am Woman
Konpa Kingdom
Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival
Soca Brainwash
Stink & Dutty
Vybz Kartel — Freedom Street
With the first days of spring finally gracing New York City, the summer is just a few breaths away — which means dancehall riddims and reggae grooves are about to be heard on every block from Flatbush to the Heights.
After picking up some hardware at February’s MOBO Awards, Vybz Kartel picked up two more trophies at last month’s International Reggae & World Music Awards (March 30), taking home the Peter Tosh Award for recording artist of the year and concert of the year honors for last Decemeber’s Freedom Street extravaganza. New York will experience their version of Freedom Street when Kartel graces Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on April 11 and 12. On Tuesday (April 1), Worl’ Boss dropped the official DJ Khaled-starring “God Is Greatest” music video to reflect on his whirlwind journey since his release from prison last summer. Spice, who many hope will join Kartel at his New York shows next month, picked up a major win of her own with her victory at Red Bull Culture Clash London 2025 (March 7-8).
On the reggae side, we lost a legend. Jamaican singer Cocoa Tea passed on March 11 after going into cardiac arrest shortly after a recent six-month battle with pneumonia and his 2019 lymphoma diagnosis. Known for classics like “Rikers Island” and “Young Lover,” Cocoa Tea often infused poignant sociopolitical messaging into his hits, bolstering his cross-generational impact.
Trending on Billboard
Naturally, Billboard’s monthly Reggae/Dancehall Fresh Picks column will not cover every last track, but our Spotify playlist — which is linked below — will expand on the 10 highlighted songs. So, without any further ado:
Freshest Find: Joé Dwèt Filé & Burna Boy, “4 Kampé II”
Late last year, the original version of Joé Dwèt Filé’s “4 Kampé” appeared in our weekly Trending Up column, which tracks the myriad songs and trends that are catching the industry’s attention. Just a few months later, the Haitian zouk-konpa singer has reinvigorated his global hit with an assist from Grammy-winning Afrobeats superstar Burna Boy. “Deja konnen mwen pral brile sa/ Excuse-moi, veux-tu danser konpa/ Mwen pat konn fanm ayisyen dous konsa/ Ou met mande, mwen se yon neg naija,” he croons in the intro, dipping into Haitian Creole to set the scene and introduce himself to a lady he’d like to dance konpa with. Burna Boy’s and Filé’s tones are an excellent match; their rich lower registers nicely contrast with the track’s seductive background guitars.
Ding Dong feat. Skeng & Kaka Highflames, “Street Jump”
Last month, “Badman Forward Badman Pull Up” singer Ding Dong announced his forthcoming debut album — 20 years after “Badman” became an intergenerational and international anthem. Keeping with the spirit of dance that’s grounded his entire career, Ding Dong calls on Kris Kross’ 1992 Hot 100 chart-topper “Jump.” Not only does he reimagine that song’s timeless hook into a more dancehall-flavored affair, but he also recruits dancehall superstar Skeng and rising Jamaican dance-turned-artist Kaka Highflames to bring their own delightfully manic energy to the track. When it comes to dance anthems that actually make you want to dance, few can stand shoulder to shoulder with Ding Dong.
Protoje, “Big 45”
Protoje isn’t one to inundate us with an incomprehensible amount of releases, but when he does drop music, it’s always worth the wait. He teased “Big 45” for several weeks before finally unveiling the official track, which boasts booming bass and sultry reggae groove courtesy of The Indiggnation and Winta James. Protoje’s rap-sung cadence pairs perfectly with their soundscape, effortlessly capturing the full-bodied sound of the peak sound system era.
Aidonia & Di Genius, “Agony”
“She waah agony oh she waah agony/ Early morning me a sleep and she a bother me/ She waah agony oh she waah agony/ Gyal waah wood, me give har the mahogany,” rhymes Aidonia at the onset of his new Di Genius-helmed single, “Agony.” Making the word “agony” shorthand for boning is certainly a choice, but if any deejay can make it work, it’s Aidonia with his sticky flow and devil-may-care delivery.
Yaksta, “Unconditional Love”
For his contribution to Crawba Production’s new Reggae Alive compilation, Jamaican singer Yaksta delivers a sweet, easy-rocking midtempo about the breadth of his unconditional love for his special someone. “I got this unconditional love/ And it’s only for you, baby/ No else but you,” he croons over steady classic reggae guitars and drums — a perfect soundtrack to a breezy summer evening. With an equally tender and earnest vocal performance, Yaksta infuses Crawba’s soundscape with the reverence that unconditional love often mirrors.
Mr. Vegas & Etana, “Trapped”
One of the best parts of trap dancehall is how the genre’s sparse, spooky snares allow artists the space to muse about society’s endless ills. “Trapped,” the new Rick Wizard-produced single from Mr. Vegas and Etana does just that. The two stars trade heady, heavy verses that zoom into the psyche of a child living in a fear and neglect-ridden household that only primes them for darker horrors. “Trapped, careless mumma wah mek you do your own pickney dat/ Yuh know sey di man a touch har and yuh nuh tell him fi stop/ Yuh turn yuh back pan har when di demon attack,” Mr. Vegas begins the song, immediately setting a chilling scene of child abuse and the nuanced conversations around it.
Pamputtae, “Rum Sexy”
To make a long story short, all Pamputtae needs is some rum to buss a wine. Though “Rum Sexy” has percolated on YouTube for a few years, the Jermaine Bailey-helmed track is finally on DSPs. A well-executed soca track that would sound right at home on any pre-game playlist for the road, Pamputtae’s animated delivery and bright tone are as effective as ever on this track.
Chronic Law, “Altar”
“If yuh pray, Jah will answer/ No weh yuh own anuh weh u can sponsor/ Have nuff things fi gave thanks for/ So me pray inna eh booth like altar,” Chronic Law sings at the end of the opening chorus of his new single, “Altar.” One of the hottest acts in dancehall, Chronic slows things down for a quieter, introspective moment in which he ruminates on the throughlines of prayer and his connection to God that have coursed through his life. Hungry Lion Records grants him the space to do so with an almost-morose mixture of trap snares and synths that invites listeners to focus on his soul-baring lyrics.
Najeeriii & Franc White, “Uptown”
Najeeriii doesn’t necessarily rewrite the trap-dancehall template — in fact, he explicitly leans on its most frequently used tropes here — but he does put his own stamp on it. Expected to appear on his forthcoming debut album, Book of Bob, “Uptown” finds Najeerii delivering a club anthem that sources its idiosyncracies from the way his youthful tone and nimble flows accentuate different pockets of Zini Record’s pristine beat.
Skeete, “Dem Dead”
Nottingham-hailing Afro-dancehall and R&B artist Skeete dropped his new 10-track mixtape Excuse My Language last month (March 20), and the saucy genre-melding set is every bit as global and unapologetic as its title suggests. Among the standouts is the tape’s penultimate track, “Dem Dead,” a fast-paced track that fuses the energy of ’90s dancehall with the melodic flourishes and warm electronic synths of ’10s R&B-informed hip-hop. He dexterously weaves in and out of different flows and dialects, never wavering in how comfortable he sounds playing the role of a dangerous uptown lothario.
Tucked away along California’s Central Coast is a small yet growing music festival that managed to survive one of the most tumultuous periods in the music business thanks to a little ingenuity and a heaping helping of support from its fans.
Launched in Monterey, Calif., in 2010, the California Roots Music and Arts festival celebrates its 15th anniversary this summer with a packed lineup that includes Jamaican artist Buju Banton’s first performance in the United States in more than a decade. The Memorial Day festival, set for May 23-25, also includes headliners Rebelution, Slightly Stoopid and Dirty Heads with sets from Collie Buddz, Iration, T-Pain, The Elovaters, Protoje, Atmosphere, J Boog, The Movement, SOJA, Common Kings, Steel Pulse and Matisyahu.
“It’s kind of cool when you see fans out there that have been coming to California Roots for 10 years, and they met their future wife or husband here, or they were pregnant at California Roots,” says Dan Sheehan, who created the festival with his wife Amy through their Central Coast production company Good Vibez.
Trending on Billboard
California Roots was once considered the largest reggae festival in the U.S., but competition from events like Cali Vibes in Long Beach, coupled with rising costs for festival talent and production, has made it much more difficult to do business since the end of the pandemic.
“We’re ahead of last year and right now we’re about even with 2022, which was a hard year to beat because we were on sale three years” due to the pandemic, Sheehan says. Unlike his competitors, California Roots has a limited marketing budget and focuses primarily on artists who don’t get much airplay or media support.
Billboard sat down with Sheehan to break down the long-term success of California Roots and zero in on the four reasons he believes the festival is on track to have one of its best years ever.
Cali Roots festival
@rileykathleenimages
Remember That Your History is Your Brand
When it comes to California Roots’ longevity in the festival space, Sheehan says part of its success stems from its longtime home at the Monterey County fairgrounds.
“This was the site of the 1967 Monterey Pop festival,” explains Sheehan, referring to the three-day concert series featuring Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix and The Who that would inspire the creators of the Woodstock Festival to launch an East Coast counterpart to Monterey Pop in 1969.
“Knowing the history of this site and the energy here — it’s very special,” says Sheehan, adding, “I think there’s a lot of similarities between California Roots and Monterey Pops…each have their own approach to counterculture and going against the grain.”
Sheehan’s long history on the site has been critical for overcoming one of the festival’s biggest technical challenges: correctly mixing the audio for the site’s large metal seating bowl, where about half the headliner performances take place each year.
“There’s a science to mixing the bowl and angling the speakers” that dates back to Monterey Pop and has been refined over time by fairground staff, Sheehan says. “It’s technically pretty complicated because the shape of the bowl means if you don’t hit it right, the sound can bounce around.”
Invest Early and Invest Often in the Genre
Sheehan and his wife Amy have long been key supporters of the California Roots movement, celebrating the state’s contribution to the reggae genre while creating a music lane distinguished from the reggae’s foundational Jamaican roots.
Distinguishing a difference between traditional Jamaican reggae — which includes acts like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Barrington Levy and Toots and the Maytals — and stateside counterparts including Slightly Stoopid, the Dirty Heads, Iration and Sublime is largely about respect for reggae’s Caribbean origins and avoiding allegations of cultural appropriation. Creating a clear off-ramp for California-rooted reggae also means creating a unique identity for the genre that fans can actively support.
“There’s artists like Stick Figure who were playing on our small stage 10 years ago and are now headliners,” says Sheehan. “I think as festival producers, especially in a niche, it’s something that we have to do, continuing to develop these artists to sell tickets and stream their music. That message to support these acts really resonates with fans, who are looking to be part of a musical movement.
California Roots festival
@eyesofjem
Build the Community
One of the biggest challenges facing Sheehan and other festival organizers is the increasing costs of staging large events, as everything from staging to insurance and backline equipment has increased significantly since the end of the pandemic.
“My biggest concern is that the fan says, ‘I can’t afford this anymore,’” Sheehan says. “We can’t operate at a loss — we have to stay affordable while also making sure we make money each year. We have to make money. But if money is the byproduct of putting on a great event and it’s not the primary focus of it, then I think there’s a little bit more soul to it.”
Sheehan says his focus is to continue to “develop artists to keep selling tickets and selling streaming music and all the stuff that kind of goes with it. That’s a big part of the development of California Roots.” He adds, “A few years ago, we decided not to do streaming, and we ended up bringing it back after we got so much heat for canceling it. There’s a lot of people who have made it part of their Memorial Day tradition, and maybe one year they can’t afford it. So instead they can stream it. So we brought it back that year and people responded positively to the news.”
Find Ways To Keep It Affordable
Payment plans have become an important tool for keeping prices down, Sheehan says, noting that 65 to 70 percent of fans use payment plans to pay for their tickets each year. Fans can pay as little as $29 to reserve tickets and then make monthly payments for the festival, which costs $158 for one day and $358 for three days.
“If you buy them on the loyalty on-sale, you have almost a year to pay off your ticket,” Sheehan says. “You pay once a month on an auto withdraw. It’s easier for people to afford and a lot of people utilize it.”
Sheehan has contingency plans in place for fans who default on their payments to help them bring their accounts current, though he adds the default rate is quite small.
“It’s a free, no-interest loan and a lot of people are thankful we offer it,” he says.
Jamaican singer Cocoa Tea, whose celebrated career blurred the divide between roots reggae’s righteous convictions and dancehall’s feel-good ethos, passed away on March 11 at age 65 in a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Cocoa Tea’s wife, Malvia Scott, speaking to Jamaican newspaper The Gleaner, said the cause of his death was cardiac arrest, which followed his diagnosis of lymphoma in 2019 and a recent six-month battle with pneumonia.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Cocoa Tea released a plethora of popular songs, characterized by his pristine, honey-toned vocals and the timelessness of his lyrics, which alternated between romantic, religious and reality themes. Decades after these songs were released, Cocoa Tea remained an in-demand act on reggae festivals throughout the U.S., Europe and the Caribbean. Cocoa Tea’s final performance was aboard Damian Marley’s Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise in 2022. “We were honored to have Cocoa Tea perform on the Welcome to Jamrock Cruise more than once; he was one of reggae’s sweetest voices and always left the audience smiling. Cocoa Tea was an original, top class, whether on stage or on record; he will truly be missed, but his music will live on forever,” Dan Dalton, Damian Marley’s manager and co-founder of the Welcome to Jamrock cruise, told Billboard.
Born Colvin George Scott in the rural fishing village of Rocky Point, Clarendon, Jamaica, he released his first single, “Searching in the Hills,” in 1974. When that single stalled, he trained to become a racehorse jockey, and later worked as a fisherman, while honing his vocal craft on local sound systems. In 1983 he met Henry “Junjo” Lawes, who produced his initial hits “Rocking Dolly” and “I Lost My Sonia.”
Cocoa Tea’s exquisite tenor effortlessly conveyed romantic musings (“Love Me Truly,” “She Loves Me Now”) and as a Rastafarian, he also delivered stirring spiritual convictions (“Holy Mount Zion,” “Israel’s King”) and uncompromising commentaries: “Oil Ting,” which opposed the first Gulf War, was banned from radio in Jamaica and the U.K., and his 1997 single “New Immigration Law” sounds like a statement on the current political climate in the U.S.
His songs have been sampled by artists ranging from 2Pac to Joss Stone to The 1975. His 2008 song honoring the first Black president of the United States, “Barack Obama,” released on his own Roaring Lion imprint, garnered international attention; in recent interviews Cocoa Tea expressed disappointment in Obama’s unwillingness to pardon Jamaica-born pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey.
Although short in stature, Cocoa Tea was a musical giant with a remarkable ability to adapt to dancehall/reggae’s shifting soundscapes while retaining his distinctive musical identity. Here are 10 crucial Cocoa Tea cuts.
“Moving On” (1996)
Two months removed from his Billboard cover story, Vybz Kartel is effortlessly maintaining his comeback momentum.
After attending last month’s Grammys (Feb. 2) on the heels of his very first nomination (best reggae album for Party With Me), Worl’ Boss received the Impact Award at the MOBO Awards, where he performed a medley of “Fever” and “Clarks.” This summer (July 13), he’ll join three-day headliner Drake as a special guest alongside PARTYNEXTDOOR, Summer Walker and Burna Boy.
Of course, the Caribbean music scene has been buzzing outside of Karrtel and dancehall. Earlier this week (March 3-4), Trinidad celebrated its Carnival with a explosive collection of new soca anthems. Machel Montano’s “Pardy” was crowned the Road March winner, racking up 267 plays. Bunji Garlin’s “Carry It” — a heavy favorite for the title — landed in a close second with 253 plays. The Arima-born artist also placed in third with “Thousand.” Montano’s victory marked his 11th Road March title, tying him with the late Aldwyn “Lord Kitchener” Roberts for the most of all time. The King of Soca also claimed first-ever Chutney Soca Monarch title with “Pepper Vince,” but he came in fifth place at Calypso Monarch behing Yung Bredda’s third place-finishing “We Rise.”
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Naturally, Billboard’s monthly Reggae/Dancehall Fresh Picks column will not cover every last track, but our Spotify playlist — which is linked below — will expand on the 10 highlighted songs. So, without any further ado:
Trending on Billboard
Valiant, “Whole Lotta”
One of dancehall’s brightest stars, Valiant continues his streak of solid rap performances and trap dancehall offerings with “Whole Lotta.” Fingerpicked guitar introduce the track, eventually slinking into the background and serving as warm complement to the dark underbelly of the song’s dancehall soundscape. “Rick Owens beats currency/ Gyal, come with me cah yuh man n’ave no sense/ Travel ’round the world, we nuh travel inna comments/ Compare me and me take that as a offense,” he raps in the first, immediately establishing an arresting cadence that nods to the agression of classic gun chunes without visiting that space lyrically.
Kraff Gad, “Chant”
Leaning even more into trap than dancehall, Kraff Gad’s latest track is one that you can’t help but “Chant” along too. Kraff probably has the most interesting flow of his class; it shapeshifts effortlessly, going from rapid fire delivery one second to a more laid-back cadence that plays on the kick drum instead of the skittering hi-hats another. Less of a club track and more of a vibe, “Chant” offers an interesting look at what happens when you slow down the tempo and temper your trap with Jamaican patois.
Lila Iké, “Too Late to Lie”
One of the leading female voices in contemporary reggae, Lila Iké has been on a roll with her recent releases, including collaborations with Joey Bada$$ (“Fry Plantain”) and H.E.R. (“He Loves Us Both”). On this tender roots reggae ballad, Lila croons of the specific pain sourced from betryal and shattered trust. “I know my life will never be the same/ You made your choice and I will not complain/ Don’t raise your voice/ Please don’t speak my name,” she sings in the chorus. “Just say goodbye/ It’s too late to lie.”
Likkle Vybz, “Miss Independent”
Last month, we named Likkle Addi one of 10 Caribbean Artists to Watch in 2025. With the release of his Valentine’s Day-themed Love Lane EP, Likkle Vybz — Addi’s brother and fellow offspring of Vybz Kartel — lets it be known that he’s also one to keep an eye on. “Miss Independent,” a smooth, guitar-inflected dancehall midtempo dedicated to the baddest lady in the room, is a surprisingly solid showcase of Likkle Vybz’s vocal abilities. He tenderly sings the hook, bleeding into verses that echo his father’s cadence while opting for a notably lighter, flirtier tone.
Voice & Bunji Garlin, “Flatten”
Though he came up short for the Road March title at Trinidad’s Carnvial, Bunji Garlin was once again an inescapable voice and presence this season. Outside of “Carry It” and “Thousand,” “Flatten” stands as a winning tribute to the fetes of soca’s golden era. Anchored by relentless “Hand up, hand up, hand up” chants, vigorous drums and jaunty background brass, “Flatten” isn’t just a reflection of the road; it’s a reflection of the road before the commercialization of Carnival started significantly altering its vibe.
Lutan Fyah, “Pieces of Broken Soul”
“Abundance of weed, crack pipe and liquor so cheap, there’s a lot of hungry mouths to feed/ There’s a lot of hungry mouths to feed!” Lutan Fyah cries out in “Pieces of Broken Soul,” a heartwrenching reggae ballad that yearns for humanity to achieve some semblance of wholeness. Fyah’s voice is at once forlorn and cautiously hopeful, just like the horns that wail in the background across Zion I King’s lush roots reggae production.
Patrice Roberts, “The Great Escape”
“I’ll take you to a place not too far away/ Where all of your dreams come rushing in like a tidal wave/ You could be my Carnivl dahlin’/ And we gon’ fete till we fall in love,” sings soca queen Patrice Roberts. Written and produced by Tano alongside Kitwana Israel, Mical Teja Williams and Jovan James, “The Great Escape” is a classic, no-frills Carivnal jam. With her lyrics painting a gorgeous portrait of the road and Kyle Peters’ guitars adding a melodic touch to those pounding drums, “The Great Escape” is a welcome taste of musical escapism.
Yung Bredda, “We Rise”
This song helped Yung Bredda place third in his first-ever Calypso Monarch appeance — and it’s clear to see why. The Ato Williams-helemed track shifts Bredda away from soca and zess and toward classic calypso. His charismatic, animated vocal performance appropriately honors the message of the song: that Trinidad and her people will rise again despite the ever-changing forces of oppression that seek to keep them down. Written by Leeanna Williams, Kester Stoute and Ato, “We Rise” is calypso that you must listen and dance to — another stellar offering from Trinidad’s hottest new star.
Kes & Tano, “Last Drum”
Kes has been dominating the season with both the Full Blown-assisted “No Sweetness” and their own “Cocoa Tea,” and they’ve once again teamed up with longtime collaborator Tano for another anthem for the aunties. With his pleas for his lady to “show me your wild side,” Kes continues his streak of clean, digestible soca tunes that are perfect for all ages and audiences, while still maitaining the unbridled energy at the center of the genre.
Aidonia, “Waste Har Time”
Though Aidonia preceded the trap dancehall wave, he’s routinely proven that he can hang with the best of them in that space. As X-rated as the come, “Waste Har Time” is Aidonia’s personal lesson in seduction. “You don’t know what fi do with it/ She wine pon di cocky right to the tip,” he rhymes before slightly dipping in his falsetto for a hook that would make any avid reader of “spicy books” blush. “I get you wet, I make you cum/ She like when sex is fun/ We haffi go one more time when we done,” he proclaims.
Last year, the returns of Buju Banton and Vybz Kartel catapulted Jamaica back to the forefront of the global music conversation. With reggae and dancehall giants coming back to the stage as several subgenres of the two styles continue to gain traction worldwide, the future is looking particularly bright for Caribbean music.
Back with Blood & Fyah, his second full-length album (due late spring/early summer 2025), Keznamdi is looking to add his flair to that momentum as an independent reggae artist. Combining traditional reggae with dancehall, Afrobeats, R&B and hip-hop, Blood & Fyah continues Keznamdi’s yearslong exploration of the limitless potential of contemporary reggae. He introduced the new set with “Time,” a heartfelt single accompanied by a cinematic video shot in Ghana, one of several African countries that significantly impacted Keznamdi’s life and the new record.
“In the process of making the problem, the music just sounded like Africa,” he tells Billboard. “It was a far-fetched idea at the time [to shoot the video in Ghana] because we didn’t know anybody there, but we just packed up our things, brought two cameras and went down there with the whole team. The reception was crazy; [on] the second day, we were summoned by the Ghanaian president. At the time, his parliament won some kind of office, and they wanted to play my song with Chronixx called ‘Victory’ on the radio. They called the station, and the DJ told him that I was actually in Ghana at the time. Shortly after that, we were at his palace.”
Trending on Billboard
Before he received royal welcomes, Keznamdi lived a regular life across Africa for years. Born in Jamaica, he lived on the island until he was 13, by which point he and his Rastafari family moved to Tanzania, where they lived for three years. They then moved to Ethiopia, where Keznamdi lived for another three years, eventually graduating there as well. To support Blood & Fyah, Keznamdi is formulating a tour that will reach parts of the world that the reggae industry tends to neglect.
“Reggae is huge for the next generation in Africa,” he stresses. “There’s a lot of countries like Burundi that listen to reggae every single day and not one reggae artist has gone there. Africa is a very untouched place for reggae, which is a genre that sings to Africa. Our generation is playing an important role in bridging that gap and continuing the work our elders have already done. We spend so much time touring in America and Europe, and, truly, Africa is where the music is really made for. We’re singing about that third-world struggle. Everything is pointed towards Africa, which was something that all of the elders inna reggae and inna Jamaica and inna Rastafari always prophesize.”
While reggae is the core of Blood & Fyah, Keznamdi is also treating fans to a pair of two blockbuster dancehall collabs. Dancehall superstars Mavado and Masicka – whose “Whites” single continues to dominate the Caribbean – will both appear on Keznamdi’s new record. Through Vas Productions’ Richardo Vasconcellos and producer Don Corleonie, Keznamdi (who also co-produced the track) was able to get in contact with Masicka for “Forever Grateful,” which features production contributions from Off Grid and Major Seven.
“I always envisioned him on this record,” Keznamdi gushes. “Masicka is the voice of the streets right now. He’s inspirational and uplifting; when you listen to him you want to get up and do better in your life, so I wanted him on this track.”
Vas Productions also helped Mavado and Keznamdi join forces. “Bun Di Ganja” — which also features Marlon Asher — was initially created for a Vas project, but the irresistible banger found a home on Blood & Fyah.
“Because I’m so focused on what I’m doing, it’s hard for me to do features unless the track is inspiring,” Keznamdi explains. “As soon as I heard it, I sent him my vocals the next day. It was a little struggle getting Mavado for the video because he’s an elite artist, but we were able to shoot it in Miami with him.”
Listen to “Time” below.
From Theodoros Bafaloukos’ classic film Rockers (1978) to Steve McQueen’s more contemporary anthology entry Lovers Rock (2020), the luscious melodies and charming lyrics of lovers rock – a particularly romantic reggae subgenre – have been enrapturing and inspiring artists for decades. Montreal rapper Skiifall (pronounced “skyfall”) is the latest rising star to be bitten by the lovers rock bug, but he’s not wholly unfamiliar with the style.
Hailing from Barrouille in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Skiifall moved to Montreal, Canada, with his family as a child, and spent his high school years falling in love with Atlanta rap, moving away from the soca and reggae that soundtracked in his childhood. After a few years of toiling in local bands and honing his chops with partially government-funded studio time, he released his breakthrough debut single, “Ting Tun Up,” in 2020. The song garnered massive buzz in the U.K., leading to a remix with Knucks and increased eyeballs and ears on Skiifall. Though his sound morphed into something closer to hip-hop than soca, Skiifall’s sonic profile never completely abandoned his roots: think of the infectious dancehall pulses on “2 Charming” from his 2023 Woiiyoie Vol. 2 – Intense City EP.
Montreal-based producer and DJ YAMA//SOTO is billed as a co-lead artist on “Ting Tun Up,” and that song kicked off a professional relationship that would soon bring both parties into brand new creative spaces. The idea of making a lovers rock project started with “Yama sharing this playlist with me in 2022,” says Skiifall. “From there, I went to Spotify and learned how to use the algorithm to find new music. Once I found one, I couldn’t stop there. It’s now a 12-hour playlist, filled with lovers rock.”
Trending on Billboard
In his exploration of lovers rock, the music became more than the background noise he used to disregard it as. He and Yama worked on a few early cuts and “from that first session, we knew that we were going to make a whole project – but we didn’t know exactly what we were going to make,” Skiifall recalls. In less than two weeks, the pair had three songs they worked on with Kenny Beats, a genre-agnostic producer whose penchant for live instrumentation made it easy to wade into the world of lovers rock. Their sessions eventually culminated in Lovers Till I’m Gone: a breezy, earnest seven-song lovers rock set that explores stories of contemporary Vincy love and includes a guest appearance by Grammy-nominated U.K. R&B star Jorja Smith. The full set arrived on Jan. 10, with the Smith-assisted “Her World” garnering over one million Spotify streams in less than a month.
In a candid conversation with Billboard, Skiifall recounts how his producers helped him find the coverage to reimagine lovers rock for the 2020s.
When did your family move to Montreal?
My mom moved away before I did; she got me to come join her about two years after in 2009. I was around eight [years old] at that time.
I used to love this movie called Monster House, and the only way I would imagine overseas was through that lens as a kid. I thought that when I got to Canada it would be autumn all the time, but when I arrived, it was fully snowing – like snow to your knees-type s—t [laughs]. I remember being held by the flight attendants waiting for my mom to come pick me up. It felt like a movie, like a new start.
Did you grow up listening to a lot of Vincy music?
When I was small, yes. Soca music has always been a part of my life, reggae music as well. When I got older and went to high school, it was the first time [I had my own phone] and was able to download music. I automatically gravitated towards rap; I started listening to a lot more American music from that age: Rich Homie Quan, Young Thug, Migos, Travis Scott, K Camp, 2 Chainz, etc
It’s only in 2021 that I tapped back in with reggae. I didn’t like it so much because I felt like everywhere we went, it came on. Parties, barbecues, everywhere – that’s all you’re hearing. I wanted to hear some rap.
When did you start working as Skiifall?
Around 2018. But I really started making music as Shamar, at 12 [years old]. I was a vocalist in a band, and we did summer sessions together where we would write albums and perform in front of a bunch of people. We would [also] have studio sessions, which are offered to you while you’re in school. While I was in high school – from 12 to 18 – there were studios in Montreal that allowed you to record for free. You get free recording and free mixing and mastering, so I’ve been going there for a long time. Most of my early music that came out was made there.
I’m super open to exploring and seeing what I can pull from, whether it’s jazz or classical. I take bits and pieces and merge them all together. For [Lovers Till I’m Gone], it was important to try something like that. Me and Yama made a few good songs and then later showed them to Kenny. That spiraled into us like making “Mystery Man” in our first session in 2022. From there, we knew that we should definitely continue to build it. In our first three sessions, we made “Mystery Man,” “Sandy” and “No More.” I remember walking around L.A. at the time and blasting [“Mystery Man”].
I automatically knew what to do [in those sessions], but I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to do justice to some of my faves. Yama, Kenny, Venna and Nami [Ondas] really gave me that boost — whether it’s lyrics or the beat or just saying something that might inspire me. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to make [this project] by myself.
What was it like working with Kenny Beats and bringing him into the reggae world?
I think it just came naturally. If you’re a fan of music, you’re able to make whatever you wanna make. If the right parts are there, then the machine is gonna move. Kenny’s aura is the perfect vibe; he makes you feel at home. If you’re not inspired, he’s not gonna force it. He’s gonna let it be and try again the next day. I’m looking forward to making more music [with him] for sure.
Our managers are friends, so that’s how we met. He’s also a fan of my music as well. The first time we met was at his home in 2022 after he DMed me on Instagram. That’s the day we made “Mystery Man.”
How did you get Jorja Smith on “Her World?”
She’s been a fan of mine ever since I blew up, and I was always a fan of hers as well. Her name kept coming up during the process of figuring out who would be the best person to join forces with and build a great song. Luckily, at the time our managers were friends, so she was down to work on the song. She got the song, and she was pretty down, so I waited for her to send her verse back and the rest was history.
At first, I didn’t like “Her World” because I didn’t think it sat on the same level as “Mystery Man,” but Jorja brought it to that level. She gave it a different flow. She bodied that because I’d never heard anybody do lover’s rock like that; she just broke it down and built it back up.
What are your plans for the visual world of Lovers Till I’m Gone?
I have this film coming that’s supposed to be sort of like Rockers (1978). I worked on it super closely with my director Simon [Davis] and my dad; we went back to Saint Vincent to shoot. It’s about 17 minutes and is meant to showcase the country and the vibe going on there.
I remember speaking to Kenny about not wanting to [recreate] the ‘80s or what people looked like back then. We wanted to keep it [focused on] how it is currently – what people are going through right now and how they’re living and all that. It’s kind of like a documentary but with music.
What should we know about the Montreal music scene right now?
I think you should know nothing because… yeah.
Do you plan to stay in the lover’s rock space a bit longer?
This project was recorded a long time ago, so I already have all the stuff that I’ve been working on ready to go. I’m ready to be out on the road as well. If this lifetime grants me the time, I will definitely keep making reggae. I love rap, so reggae is gonna be occasional. But when it’s done, I have to make sure that it’s done well because I feel like it’s not been treated well in some ways. If I’m going to personally attack it, then I have to do right by it.
Who are your top three favorite lovers’ rock artists?
Billy Boyo, Dennis Brown and Johnny Osbourne. My favorites of all time are two very different people: Sister Nancy and Yellowman. Jah Cure is in there too.