On The Set: Nas and Damian Marley "As We Enter"

Nas and Damian Marley shot the video for "As We Enter" in LA over the weekend.

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Click HERE to see the pics!

Ash forces Nas and Damian Marley to cancel London show

The Nas and Damian Marley show in London has been canceled as a result of the shutdown on flights in the U.K.



However, travel restrictions have been lifted and flights began landing again in the U.K. on Tuesday night (April 20). The volcanic ash from Iceland closed U.K. airspace for six days, and across Europe more than 95,000 flights were canceled.

The TCO-promoted Nas and Damian Marley Show at the Electric Ballroom has been canceled, though. They have collaborated on the "Distant Relatives" (Island) album, out May 17. Tickets will be valid for the July 20 London Hammersmith show.

Melissa Auf der Maur had to cancel shows last weekend in Oslo and London, where she had a sold-out date at Cargo. But she has been traveling across sea and land to make a newly-booked date at London Jazz Café today (April 21). There is also an April 21 screening of the film accompanying the new album, "Out Of Our Minds" (Roadrunner), and a Q&A at London's ICA.

LCD Soundsystem had to pull its Dublin dates but the act said on Twitter "we will make it to London." They traveled from L.A. to Spain and will continue to the U.K. for April 23 at Brixton Academy.

Other acts have been unable to make shows in Europe. Swedish act Nina Kinert and U.K. band Delphic both canceled French shows, and Bobby McFerrin pulled his April 18 Paris gig, which is rescheduled for May 3.

U.K. singer-songwriter Newton Faulkner has been stuck in Hong Kong. His April 21 Paris show has been postponed to June 14.

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New Music: Nas and Damian Marley feat Dennis Brown- "Land of Promise"

Distant Relatives is the title of Nas and Damian Marley's hotly anticipated upcoming album. Already we have mentioned the powerful tune "The Strong Will Continue" on this site. Well another song has been leaked. It's called "Land of Promise" and features the Prince of Reggae the late Dennis Brown.

Click HERE to listen!

Damian Marley to close WOMAD fest in Abu Dhabi

In what will be his first ever visit to the United Arab Emirates, reggae star Damian Marley will close the three day World of Music Arts and Dance (WOMAD) festival on April 24 in Abu Dhabi. The second ever WOMAD festival also comes just a few weeks before the release of Marley's highly anticipated collaboration album with Nas, titled 'Distant Relatives.' As GulfNews reports, Marley will perform alongside some of the biggest names across the globe, including Femi Kuti, Tinariwen, Babylon Circus, and Transglobal Underground. Check out the full announced lineup abelow:



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WOMAD Abu Dhabi 2010 Lineup, April 22 - 24:
Damian Marley
Illham Al Madfai
Mayra Andrade
Amparo Sanchez
Faiz Ali Faiz
Drummers of Burundi
Titi Robin
Sierra Maestra
Rachid Taha
Tinariwen
Musafir Gypsies of Rajasthan
!Gubi Family
Habib Koité
ABRI
Debashish Battacharya
Chemirani's
Transglobal Underground
Rango
Femi Kuti
JAADU (Faiz Ali Faiz with Titi Robin)
Hanggai
Hakim
Babylon Circus
Le Trio Jourban
Zawose Family

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Stars support Haiti once more with the SOS telethon.

Celebs came out in full force to support Haiti at BET’s “SOS Save Ourselves: Help for Haiti” telethon which was held Friday Feb. 5th at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. Reportedly the event was spearheaded by Queen Latifah, Diddy and Pharrell who had the support of many stars including Common, Monica, Chris Brown, Wyclef Jean, Debra Lee and more.

The event started of with Haiti's most popular entertainer Wyclef Jean. He was joined by several Haitian artists for his song "Hold On" originally featuring Mavado.

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Take a look at the video below of him shaking hands with President Bill Clinton before going into a medley which included his song "Sweetest Girl" featuring Akon, then came Black Dada with Imma Zoe and Haitian Fresh. They broke into Rara and Clef asked the crowd to wave something as they chanted Sak Pase Nam boule!






Here is Justin Beiber who starts off his song "One Less Lonely Girl" in French. He was also joined on stage by Ludacris. Talk about an unlikely pair.


India Arie who had been in Jamaica the night before for the EME awards performed at the event as well.

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Busta Rhymes also performed a new song for Haiti.

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Nas and Damian Marley performed "The Strong Will Continue" from their Distant Relatives album.

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“This is for the strong,” Nas shouted. “This is for Haiti!”

I am so glad that Chris Brown is on somebody's stage. They boy is talented and I think he deserves to contribute to the event. I love the song "Crawl" which he performed and it is definitely inspiring.

cb sos
by yardie4lifever2

The show ended with a "Lean On Me" sing-a-long by hosts Diddy, Pharell and Queen Latifah. They were joined on stage by the performers and other stars such as Sean Kingston and Gloria Estefan.

Here's some pics from the event below:

Black Dada (brown top) and other Haitian artists join Wyclef on stage

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Akon with a Haitian flag

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Chris Brown, Justin Beiber, Sean Kingston and Monica at BET's SOS telethon for Haiti Feb. 5th 2010 at the Ameican Airlines arena in Miami FL.
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Izolan from Berikal, Keri Hilson and Wyclef Jean

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Wyclef taking calls at BET's Haitian Relief telethon

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Sean Paul on phones too!

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BET boss lady Debra Lee giving a thumbs up!

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Common working on the phones

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Nas and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley

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Damian Marley on stage

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Ky-Mani Marley issues statement about his book "Dear Dad, Where's the family in our family

“Dear Dad: Where’s the family in our family, today?”-the story the Marley family apparently doesn't want you to know."is a semi-autobiographical book about Ky-Mani Marley's life released on Amazon.com earlier this week. I say semi as he had help from an outside source, and also because it seems their is bad blood between him and the co-writer Dr. Farrah Gray. I remember when I interviewed Ky-Mani for Caribbean Maco, he spoke of growing up in the ghetto in Florida. Life was not glitz and glamour, he did not even want to sing-at first anyways.

Well like I said the book is out, but he is not happy about what's inside. I think maybe it's a case of Ky-Mani just pouring out his heart (what some people may see as airing out his dirty laundry) and now he doesn't want the rest of the world to see. Maybe some of the information is damaging to his siblings, with whom he has a good relationship now. He issued the following statement about the issue:

I’ve done many things that I am not proud of. I have turned what was largely a destructive lifestyle and turned it into a constructive one. I chose to share my story with the hope that many may be moved to something more positive by the end of the book.

I partnered with a gentleman, Dr Farrah Gray, who I grew to have a great deal of respect for. My journey writing the book was initially very easy and I thought we had built a relationship of respect if nothing else.

During the final edit of the book, I spoke with my sister, Cedella, and I advised Dr Farrah Gray that some changes had to be made and until the changes were made, I was not willing to do any promotion for the book. I could NOT support and promote something that is not 100% mine and that I believe in. Dr Gray apparently thought that by turning something that was written from the heart into something seemingly malicious was going to benefit him in some way.

I did not mean to hurt anyone... The book was only to tell my story, as I know it... What I was led to believe while growing up. The book was not an attack on my family! I love my brothers and sisters more than anyone can know.

I did not expect that Dr Gray would have been unprofessional and malicious in twisting my words or using things that were discussed in confidence to create controversy in an attempt to sell a book.

I did NOT authorize him to make any changes to the cover of my book nor do I condone any of the captions he has written!

At this point I do not know if the content of the book has been altered in any way due to the fact that I have not communicated with Dr Farrah Gray in over a month because he has neither accepted nor returned any of my phone calls.

Damn, son. It's kind of late to unwrite the book. Will let you guys know how this develops.

Stephen and Ziggy Marley win at 2010 Grammys

Big congratulations to the Marley brothers Ziggy and Stephen who each won a Grammy at tonight's award show- Ziggy for Best Children's Album and Stephen for Best Reggae Album!


Marley Brothers (L-R) Ky-Mani, Julian, Ziggy, Damian and Stephen.
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This Grammy won for his Family Time album which features noteworthy stars such as Paul Simon, Willie Nelsoon, and Toots Hibbert marks his fifth such award.

Younger by four years, ziggy's brother Stephen won his seventh Grammy with his Mind Control-Acoustic. This album is a follow up to this 2007 album Mind Control.

This is the fourth time in the last five years that a Marley has won the award. Last year there were no Marleys nominated and Burning Spear won the Best Reggae nod.

Brother Julian's Awake was also up for Best Reggae Grammy, his first nomination.
Interestingly, their father Bob has never won a Grammy. In 2001 he got a lifetime achievement award and this year, his 1973 album "Catch a Fire," was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Smile Jamaica called off!

Ghetto Youth’s International, organizers of the annual Bob Marley concert Smile Jamaica, have announced that the 2010 staging of the celebration of the King of Reggae’s birth would have to be called off, due to numerous circumstances.

Smile Jamaica spokesperson Norman Bryan, said yesterday that while the organisation was looking forward to staging the concert after “there are some extenuating circumstances that just cannot be ignored, and there’s no way we could proceed with the concert bearing them in mind.”

He added that the Marley family will still be celebrating Bob’s birthday and honouring his legacy in private.

Bryan also said that the Ghetto Youth’s International would be redoubling its efforts to make a 2011 staging possible.

“Ghetto Youths International will continue spreading the message of the Hon. Robert Nesta Marley, and we will be definitely putting our heads together to make 2011 the year Smile Jamaica returns from its hiatus.”

Smile Jamaica saw its historic birth in December of 1976, when it was held at the National Heroes Park in Kingston. The event took place a mere two days after gunmen almost ended Bob Marley’s life, and he was recuperating in the Blue Mountains. It was there that Marley magic reigned supreme yet again, as an injured Bob agreed to perform one song for the 80,000-strong throng of patrons. That one song turned into a magical 90 minute performance with Marley and the Wailers.

Distant Relatives Album cover

On Decemb er 12th 2009, Damian Marley and Nas held a special forum in Washington DC shedding light on their forthcoming album, and reflecting on the cultural traditions linking Hip-Hop with Africa and the Caribbean. The event was streamed live from National Geographic’s Grosvenor Auditorium, and featured a diverse panel of authors (Jeff Chang), emcees (Rakim), and, pioneers (DJ Kool Herc, DJ Red Alert, Big Youth).
The two mentioned at the event the release date for the Distant Relatives LP, which is March 13th 2010.
Check out the cover1