It is now being reported that all four former Minneapolis police officers involved in George Floyd’s murder have been charged! Additionally, the charges for the officer that had his knee on Floyd’s neck were elevated from third to second-degree murder.
Over the past few weeks, Irie Jam Radio, which is based in New York, has been giving us quality digital concerts to tie us over while we were all on lock-down and in quarantine.
Even though a lot of the stay at home orders are now being relaxed the show will still go on this Saturday, June 6th, at 6:00 PM EST. There will be performances from Chris Martin, Nadine Sutherland, Jesse Royal, D Major and Zac Jones. The concert will be streamed live on Irie Jam Radio’s social media platforms.
As protest against police brutality and in support of black lives erupts all across the United States, several celebrities are chiming in. Below is a statement from hip-hop and R&B star Lauryn Hill.
“The rules of engagement need to change, and most, if not all people, need to rehabilitate the mental programming that we’ve been indoctrinated with. There needs to be an acknowledgment that these mental attitudes are deeply embedded in the psyches of many many Americans, regardless of race, about who deserves to feel safe and who doesn’t.
There also needs to be honest dialogue about the different needs of people without defensiveness and insensitivity. That kind of nuanced conversation needs to be led by informed, compassionate, and no-nonsense communicators who can both advocate for their own collective security, while considering the collective needs of people who occupy a different space and vantage point.
We need highly capable people who can help rebalance an economic paradigm that was born from a system of free labor and exploitation, and only works as long as certain people are excluded from the full promise of freedom.
We have the potential to create new educational paradigms and community economic support systems that help remove people from the CONDITIONS of desperation that lead to violence and looting. Capitalism should be challenged to evolve.
Community, we have the know-how and the intellectual and spiritual resources to help give birth to a new world that promotes more balance and thereby better health for everyone. My goal is to help connect some of this energy so we can help set in motion the ground work that so many have already begun to lay.
#blackrage”
Ghanaian reggae artist, Rocky Dawuni, has just released the official video for “Champion Arise,” which is featured on his “Beats of Zion” album. The visuals were captured in both Aburi, Ghana and Malibu, California, with each region’s natural beauty on full display.
Click here or on the image above to watch the video and remember to like, comment and share.
Perfect Giddimani was born Greg Rose in Bamboo, St Ann, Jamaica, and like many reggae artists his mother sang in church, and his grandfather also had a banjo band, so he was exposed to music from birth. His father was an electrical repair man and among the many things he repaired were jukeboxes. Some of the jukeboxes were left behind by the customers and his father rigged one so that Greg and his siblings could play it without having to insert money. The box had several musical genres including, soul, country, pop and reggae so he was introduced to a wide range of music at an early age.
Perfect Giddimani started singing popular reggae songs at a very young age when he would flip the record, play the instrumental version and sing back what he had heard on the ‘A’ side. At the age of nine (9), known as ‘Mr. Perfect’, he started performing publicly and gaining a reputation in the region. When in St Ann’s York Castle High School, while regularly entertaining as ‘Little Ninja,’ he realized he couldn’t continue covering other artists so he started writing his own lyrics. When I asked who his major influencers are, Perfect Giddimani told me that no one artist influences him, he takes a little of something from the many artists in many genres that he admires, in his words ‘You can’t bake a cake with one ingredient.’ He gathers all the good he gets from them and then improvises on it.
After high school, Perfect Giddimani headed for Kingston where he began honing his performance in clubs. At the same time, he recorded in many of the top studios. Not long after that he and his brother Kirk opened the first digital recording studio, named Askum, back in his home town of Bamboo, with help from their father who located the latest studio gear from New York. They taught themselves the art of recording by reading the equipment manuals for days. It wasn’t long before they were producing music for themselves and also other local talent. Greg made the rhythms with drums and keyboard and Kirk was in charge of vocal engineering. Together they formed the Chalice Palace Music label. Changing his name to Perfect Giddimani, he made his first self-produced songs which he took to Europe and DHF Records in Austria gave him his first deal.
Perfect Giddimani’s company also formed Giddimani Records, a label that records upcoming Jamaican artists on compilations that feature some Giddimani tunes, to give the artists exposure. Perfect Giddimani started as a roots artist and will always be considered a roots artist although, as the music scene changes, some of Perfect Giddimani’s songs are recorded on Dancehall beats he always stays true to his conscious, positive lyrics. In his words ‘We keep it 100% clean, conscious and with a message.’
“I can’t breathe.” These were the last words of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Minnesota man, a beloved friend, brother, and coworker.
Floyd, a black man, died on May 25th, 2020, at the hands of police officer Derek Chauvin, a white officer who used his knee to pin Floyd’s throat to the ground, choking him beyond motionlessness for over eight minutes, despite Floyd’s cooperation and desperate pleas to live. Three other officers – Tou Thao and two unidentified officers – backed Chauvin up and held Floyd down while bystanders screamed, filmed, and begged the officers for mercy on behalf of Floyd, to no avail.
George Floyd was being arrested for potentially using a counterfeit bill for groceries. Police video shows that he did not resist arrest.
The four officers have been terminated by the Minneapolis Police Department, but this is not enough. We are demanding the attention of Hennepin County District Attorney Mike Freeman and the immediate arrest and second degree murder charge of all four officers involved in this senseless and merciless killing.
Tonight, Monday, June 1st, Royal Voices and Radio Mart NL will host a digital event dubbed Boom Boom Livestream Party.
We are being told that several reggae artists will be featured, namely: Glen Washington, Third World, AJ Brown, Cat Coore, The Gladiators and many more.
Persons can tune into the Boom Boom Livestream Party at 7:00 PM (NL time) via radiomart dot nl, as well as on their Facebook page.
