On December 20th we here at Deadly Dragon put on a session that we had been planning and dreaming about for years. As with all long time plans, it takes a lot of things to align to make it all work out okay. In this case, we roped in the great producer DIGITAL ENGLISH to come celebrate his latest series of reissues and new releases while we brought in a host of singers and deejays who had both worked with Digital English or were people that we have always loved and admired. The final line-up was Deadly Dragon Sound with Digital English plus the great Screechie Dan, Knight Rider, Devon "Bobo Saw" Clarke and our great friend, the one CARL MEEKS! And upstairs, the great selector LIONDUB throwing down tunes and celebrating his new label. With the generous help of Puma, Gold Shop and all the artists and producers, we pulled it all together at our favorite venue, HAPPY ENDING!
And then the snow fell.......
Yes, on December 19th we were faced with the biggest blizzard that the east coast had seen in years. As with all great things, there can be no success without adversity; and after some dicey moments making sure that everyone was okay to travel from their respective locales...the night was on!!!!
First off -- I must say nuff respect to all the peoples that made it out that night...It was definately tough -- we know that and we appreciate all the support! So Roll Call of all crews and nuff respect to Jah Point, Bunny Punch, Digikiller Massive, Daniel, Red Rum Sound, Pak Pak, Maya, Kitano Hi Fi, Resting General, Joel, Brian Ken Chan & crew, Mush 1, Bintou, DVD Ray, Small Change, Doctor Tahl, Roger Boom, Roots Ambassada,Ticklah and anyone I forgot -- we still love ya!
For the first couple hours we Deadly Dragon folks kept the place nice and warm with some heavy duty digital selections and then the man Digital English came fi drop chune with his son as selector!
Digital English played a ruff selection of him classic tune and unreleased dub-plates. Some SERIOUS, heavy duty bass rumblers the man unleashed!!!!!!! After nicing up the place to absolute perfection, I heard the rumblings of the KORNER KING instrumental which Digital English recently released with the great singer DEVON CLARKE. Soon Devon came and grabbed the mic and just KILLED it. Trust me. Devon has been around since the 80s and comes from the serious, sufferers school of singers like Tenor Saw, but Devon has his own style and the moment his voice filled the room people just BAWLED fi forward!!!!
Devon ran through his big tunes pon the DIGITAL ENGLISH label like KORNER KING and HOLY MOUNT ZION and then dropped one of my all time favorites the mighty NUCLEAR BANGARANG pon the Ali Baba riddim.
One of my favorite Digital Roots tunes of all time is the Digital English 12" of Screechie Dan's OH WHAT A SHAME, so when I heard that bass line start to come in I just had to call for the ICON of New York Reggae, SCREECHIE DAN.
Screechie Dan is New York reggae. He came up in the 80s, made a huge mark in the 90s and continues as strong as ever as both a singer, deejay, rapper and just about anything else that an entertainer could think of. Alongside the great Shine Head, Screechie Dan is the most versatile and talented artist I have ever met as well as being one of the nicest, humblest and most positive guys out there. So when he touched the mic and started with OH WHAT A SHAME me just bust out a HUGE grin!
When Screechy finished that massive tune we had to call for the one called KNIGHTRIDER!!! Bwoy! You know how long we have looked for Knight Rider?!?!?! This artist has been one of my favorite NY Deejays of all time, and I had not seen him perform since the early 90s - so I was DEEPLY excited to see the legend in the building! And when he started to run the DEEJAY verse to OH WHAT A SHAME -- MAYHEM IN THE SPOT!!!!!!
Now when you got KNIGHT RIDER in the spot and he sounds that good -- BWOY you don't stop!!!! We had to throw down the versions to his 2 BROOKLYN BAD BOY classics! Bad Boy Stepping and Bad Boy Wadat!
At this point the room was so hype and the vibes so nice that the blizzard could have come right through the roof and no one would have even noticed. SOOO...that was when we had to call up the man....the one and only...CARL MEEKS who had traveled all the way up from Maryland to make it! Carl Meeks is one of the most unique singers to have blazed a path in the 80s. With his recordings on the Photographer and Redman labels he is truly an icon of 80s digital...and he has not lost a step!!!! He was brilliants running though all of his classics from Hey Bad Boy to Tuff Scout to Heard About My Love to Emotional Feeling to Wah Dem Fah.
We could have shut down at this point and still known that the evening was legendary but with all these great artists inna the place, let the riddims RUN!!!!
With all the artists running in pure rub a dub style more NYC icons began to reach for the mic including the great MARSHALL ONE who rocked this combo with Screechy.
Even the great Studio One singer K VIBES got into the mix throwing down her incredible tune FRENEMIES over EDDIE CONSTANTINE's TENEMENT YARD (a.k.a. Tonight) riddim.
Soooo...the night continued and the riddims flowed and all the artists sounded amazing and I just felt blessed. As a fan of this music, this was like heaven. In my dreams as a youth I would think...one day, I will spin the Firehouse Sleng Teng and Screechie Dan will pick up the mic and lay down serious lyrics and then pass it to Carl Meeks who will pass it to Knight Rider and all the while I'll be mixing it down and everything will be GREAT!!! So, when this actually happened on this night, I felt emotional and just grateful to be a part of something soo nice. This night was not about money, not about flexing, not about ego, not about who has the rarest 80s 7" -- it was about the music, the tunes, the vibes and all the fans and artists who were able to enjoy it together! Sooo nufffff RESPECT!!!!!! And keep an eye out for the CD of this night! Soon come!
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