Cam presents: Cousin Bang
I hope to God this isn’t the trailer for a real movie. Actually…
Can anybody verify this? It has all the makings of a hit- which leads me to believe it’s a one-off spoof (that, and it’s Cam’Ron).
Posted: January 31st, 2010
at 9:58am by music
Tagged with cam'ron, cousin bang, miss info, stupid
Categories: hiphop, movies, music, wtf?, youtube
Comments: No comments
Legacy in the Dust

There is a new documentary making the rounds about the Four Aces Club–a storied East London nightclub that hosted countless musicians beginning with its opening in the early 1960s. Legacy In The Dust: The Four Aces Story discusses the history of the club over the years, from its inception to its demise and eventual demolition as a result of the 2012 Olympics Urban Regeneration plans that are building a new tube line to Dalston. If the trailer is any indication, it looks like they spoke to a lot of people to put this together so it should be interesting, I just hope they get it out onto DVD sometime relatively soon. Check out the website for more information, and click here to watch another trailer.
Posted: December 20th, 2008
at 8:46am by trizlam
Categories: dancehall, movies, movies about musics, music, reggae, soul, videos
Comments: No comments
MNP Interviews: Duppy Art creator Scally Ranks

MNP – Who is Scally Ranks, where are you from?
SR – The name Scally Ranks comes from two direct influences in my life. ‘Scally’ is a name often given to a youth growing up in the Northwest of England, often dressing in a certain style—’trainer’s tracksuit bottoms and a baseball cap’—and of course ‘Ranks’ comes from Dancehall. Shabba was the first ‘Ranks’ I heard of and then later as I got more into it I came across others and I combined both names ‘Scally Ranks’ to show a diversity in my style of art and music. I was born in Manchester UK on a rough estate in Salford, and didn’t experience much ethnic diversity growing up in a mainly white area. I was always curious to see and hear culture from other places in the world. Seeing Bob Marley on TV for the first time with his dreads and big hat and speaking in a poetical manner my curiosity grew and I became interested in the Jamaican culture, including art and music.
MNP – How did the idea for Duppy Art first come about?
SR – It was purely by chance that I was developing my art style from sculpturing and painting to film and animation. I was learning how to do stop motion animation, but my sculptures where too rigid to me moved, so I experimented with a softer material and came to find I could make my work using plastercine. Also by chance I was heavily into dancehall and one day the idea came to me that I could make Deejays from the dancehall community in plastercine and then film them moving to their own soundtrack/song and I started to learn Claymation. The name ‘Duppy Art’ is hard to track back exactly when I started using it, although I feel it was influenced first by Yellowman’s “Duppy or Gunman” and also Bounty Killer using the phrase Duppy in many of his outbursts.
MNP - How long have you been working with claymation and animation?
SR – Roughly only about 3-4 years, although I have been sculpturing for round about 8 years.
MNP – How many people are involved in producing the videos or is it just yourself?
SR – With the Duppy Art video’s I am the soul creator. I made all the models, did all the animation, and edited all the content.
MNP – How long do you spend on each video?
SR – A 3 minute video could take up to 2-3 weeks depending on the content and if I had to build new models. Below 3 minutes and if I had the models made and the soundtrack edited I could film within a few days.
MNP – What gave you the idea to make dancehall claymation videos? This is a pretty unique project, where did your inspiration come from?
SR – I wanted to be part of the Dancehall scene. As a white English youth I thought it would be almost impossible to get my music out there and be taken serious. Letting my art do the talking takes away people’s pre-conceptions about the artist and concentrates their focus solely on the art. As I said earlier, I feel it came about randomly, just one of those things which seemed to work, and something i hadn’t seen before. The more I developed the style, the more I felt I had something worth keeping. I’m glad that I have brought a new style forward and even more glad that people seem to like and enjoy watching my video’s.
MNP – What kind of other projects do you work on outside of Duppy Art?
SR – I’m currently working on projects for Manchester Social Media ‘MSM’ keeping with the claymation style and making my videos on a much bigger scale, also constantly developing my dancehall song writing style with my band ‘El Bastardos’.

MNP – What kind of reactions have you gotten from the artists featured in your videos?
SR – I’ve had good reactions from the featured Deejays such as Twin of Twins, Tiger, Chris Goldfinger, Robbo Ranx, Dj Warm n Easy, and I’ve heard that other Deejays featured in my vids are also pleased.
MNP – How about Twin of Twins, are you in contact with them? Have they seen your videos?
SR – I’ve developed a good relationship with the management of the twins, working together with ideas for the ‘Beatin’ video and also the ‘Kirk’ and Tupac and Biggie vids.
I’ve always had great respect for the twins’ works and found working with their audio a great thing in my career.
MNP – Do you plan on releasing the 2007 videos as a series?
SR – I would like to, although pirates copied my youtube vids and tried selling the dvd’s via e-bay and audiomaxxx, which only gave me more reason to keep working on them
and produce a better product than they where selling. Watch this space…
Posted: June 21st, 2008
at 12:51pm by trizlam
Categories: dancehall, interviews, movies, movies about musics, music, reggae
Comments: No comments
champion sound

Frontline AV has put together a great looking exhibition on the history of sound systems in Coventry, England and that city’s contribution to the development of reggae music in the UK. Part of the exhibit is a 45 minute documentary on the same topic which I am very much looking forward to checking out. London sounds like Sir Coxsone and Saxon may be household names on both sides of the Atlantic, but smaller cities across the UK had countless sound systems whose stories are waiting to get told, interesting stuff, hope I can make it to the exhibition… There is a Champion Sound website here that looks like it will continue to compile information on the topic, so take a look.
Posted: May 16th, 2008
at 9:44am by trizlam
Categories: dancehall, events, movies, movies about musics, music, news, reggae
Comments: No comments
Baron Sound Vs. Jungleman (a T.T. Speshal Edition)

No video clips this week even though it is thursday, sometimes i feel like theres a little too much youtubery on the page, so… for today’s edition of throwback thursdays i point you to the recently released Baron Sound vs. Jungleman DVD (this is the dance that i featured a clip of last thursday). The video features never-before seen footage of a 1982 session held at the P.S.V. club in Manchester, UK. Given the relative lack of widely available recordings and videos of dances out of the Midlands, this one should be of interest to anyone looking to learn more about UK Sound history and Reggae music in general… check out the ReggaeFilms website for some previews and more information about the release.
****”Baron was one of the longest running sounds from the UK, originating from Hulme in Manchester they formed in 1974 with man called Barzy (Operator) and his bredrin Wizzy Dan (Selector), they started out doing small parties and they quickly built up a loyal following. The sound was the resident sound in Moss side youth club for about 10 years so it was more or less accepted that the sound was from Moss side. Graduating to the dancehall as the crowds that followed them could no longer fit into the smaller venues they had once played at. The system was built up and became a strong sound that could holds it’s own in any competition, “back in the 80’s & 90’s a war with another sound was always likely to happen, no matter what the dance was billed as so you always had to be prepared for war.” So the foundation was laid and Baron built up a solid reputation as an entertaining sound that was battle ready.” **** – From Reggaefilms.co.uk
Posted: March 27th, 2008
at 12:07pm by trizlam
Categories: Old School Reggae Videos, cop that playa!!, movies, movies about musics, music, throwback thursdays, videos
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Teo Macero Documentary

Yet another musician to pass away recently, Teo Macero died last week at age 82. A legendary producer who worked with artists like Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Miles Davis, Macero innovated the approach of sampling and editing tape from different recording sessions to create a final production. He did this most famously on Miles Davis’ influential Bitches Brew album. Here is some footage of Teo Macero discussing his production techniques and his work with Miles Davis

and here is a preview of the documentary Play That, Teo (website)
Posted: February 25th, 2008
at 8:45pm by trizlam
Categories: R.I.P, jazz, movies, music
Comments: No comments
musically mad

Yet another thing to look forward to in the year to come, Musically Mad is a documentary about UK roots and dub sound systems. From the people interviewed, to the slideshow and the preview clips, this looks to be a top quality film chronicling a truly unique and interesting music scene… Check out the website for a taste of what can be expected from this release.
(spotted @ uncarved)
Posted: February 25th, 2008
at 9:19am by trizlam
Categories: dub, movies, movies about musics, music, news, reggae
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film fridays: the spiritual boxer

As any self respecting fan of martial arts films should be, I am thoroughly devoted to just about anything that came out of the Shaw Brothers studio. This week i decided to rent The Spiritual Boxer, a 1975 release directed by Lau Kar Leung and produced by the slightly less famous Shaw brother, Runme Shaw (am i right on this? or am i just imagining that Run Run is more well known than Runme?). While it does not really rank up there with my ultimate favorite SB releases, The Spiritual Boxer is a well-made and highly entertaining flick. Yue Wong takes the lead role in this one, playing the young Hsiao Chen, a master of the Spiritual Boxing style, in which fighters invoke the spirit of various gods in order to perform unthinkable feats and overcome their opponents. Master Chen utilizes his skills in order to combat injustice, usually carried out upon the poor at the hands of wealthy land owners and local aristocracy. In this sense, the film gives off a sort of kung-fu robin hood type of vibe, and ensures lots of feel-good family moments in between fighting sequences. I dont know if theres much more I can say about this one, it contains all of the necessary elements: impressive kung fu, occasional humor, good costume and set design, and a love interest. According to my humble opinion, you cant really go wrong with this one, so pick it up and take a look if you get the chance.
Posted: February 22nd, 2008
at 10:38am by trizlam
Categories: MNP Film Fridays, cop that playa!!, movies, music
Comments: No comments
fidel castro retires

As you probably know by now, Fidel Castro announced his retirement today, declaring that he would not attempt or accept another term as Cuba’s leader. Like him or not, you cant deny the historical import of this larger-than-life figure, so I figured this event warranted a little drop. One legacy of the revolution has been the advances in music, cinema and visual art to emerge from the island, including some of my personal favorite films by the likes of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and countless quality records released over the years on the Areito imprint. Below is a clip from director Santiago Álvarez’s 1965 short film “Now” which deals with racial discrimination and violence in the United States during the civil rights era. Known for his innovative use of newsreel footage and photography in his works, Álvarez was possibly the most talented propagandist to ever create a film. In “Now”, he combines stock footage and memorable photographs with the powerful voice of singer/songwriter Lena Horne.
Posted: February 19th, 2008
at 12:10pm by trizlam
Categories: events, featured ninjas, movies, music, news
Comments: No comments











