The folks at LargeUp have posted a great feature with Belizian artist Hubert Neal, Jr. discussing his 26-piece show The Dudus Chronicles which is currently showing at the Grosvenor Galleries in Kingston, JA. Check out the details below…

When Belizean artist Hubert Neal, Jr. arrived in Kingston, Jamaica on May 20, 2010 to start a residency at Melinda Brown’s Roktowa studio, he had plans to paint Jamaica. Three days later, the military and police invaded Tivoli Gardens in hot pursuit of Christopher “Dudus” Coke, a man who had been, for months, wanted for extradition by the United States of America. The hunt for Coke and its accompanying media coverage was impossible to ignore, and Neal began to paint. The results of this process was a series of twenty-six works titled The Dudus Chronicles, on display now at the Grosvenor Galleries in Kingston. It’s colorful and varied–but also quite disturbing, never shying away from depicting the violence that accompanied the search for Dudus. Largeup caught up with Neal during his last few days in Jamaica to talk about his process, his work, and his position as an outsider looking in.

Images of a few of his paintings are below…

Read the full interview here: Large Up » Drawing Dudus: Exclusive Interview with Hubert Neal, Jr..

From the aforementioned new album Shotta Culture, which drops today. Based on what I’ve heard so far, it’s looking to be a rather major affair. This one, like the others, is produced by Salaam Remi.

Check out the audio below…

Download it here: Spragga Benz feat. Nas - “This is The Way”.

…via.

Official video after the jump…

Also, if you’re lucky….you’re at the album release party…

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via: The Guardian

This morning I was reading news from one of my favorite soccer blogs dirty tackle, that Usain Bolt wants to play soccer. There is no question dude has got athletic skills (mainly fast running skills) but I don’t know if he has football skills… Manchester United Football skills at that. Here is what Bolt says about it in his autobiography:

“Ideally, if I was to play football, I’d sign for my favorite team — Manchester United. People say it’s not realistic but nobody has seen me play so you never know. If Alex Ferguson saw me in one of those charity matches he might think I could replace Ryan Giggs.”

The Gaurdian explained the lifetime Man U supporter is serious about playing.

I ask about his ambitions. Ultimately, he says, he’d love to make a go of playing football professionally. He’s being deadly serious. One of the perks of being Usain Bolt is that sporting stars love to meet him, so whenever he’s travelling and there’s time, he tries to train with a top football team. Last year it was Manchester United, a few days ago it was Bayern Munich. He’s still carrying a copy of the French sporting newspaper L’Equipe, which features a spread on his football skills and praise from Bayern manager Louis van Gaal. He shows me a photo of himself with his arm wrapped round the dwarfed 6ft German forward Miroslav Klose. “If I keep myself in shape, I can definitely play football at a high level,” he says.

Here is some footage of a recent trip Bolt made to Bayern Munich FC and there’s a quick shot of his “football skills”.

The Daily Mail has put together a great photo essay on the weekend’s activities in London town. Check a few of their shots below…

Hundreds of thousands of revellers descended on the capital today for Europe’s biggest street festival - the Notting Hill Carnival.

Dancers wearing vibrant costumes paraded along the packed three-and-a-half-mile route in west London from 9am today to the sounds of traditional steel drums.

The lines of colourful floats were accompanied by more than 40 static sound systems and scores of Caribbean food stalls….

Check out the full set here: Notting Hill Carnival 2010: Thousands descend on capital for weekend of partying
| Mail Online.

….I also came across this great set on Flickr.

Check out a video of Kardinal Offishall throwing down during carnival after the jump…

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Rodney Price aka Bounty Killer has influenced a lot of different artists in a lot of different ways. This documentary pays tribute to his influence on artists like Aidonia, Assassin, Wayne Marshall and more…

Can’t front on this one at all. This is TUFF. Federation’s Max Glazer on the boards. Check the details below…

…Vybz Kartel is on top form on top of driving drums, a bubbling bassline and strong simple synths. A wining tune featuring a melodic, old school ragga flow and lyrics in Spanish is always going to be a winner!

…via.

Our peoples at F.O.K.U.S. are hooking up another great event in Brooklyn this week, after their success at The Stoop this past Saturday. They’ve teamed up with the Brooklyn Children’s Museum & Ky-Mani Marley for a pair of events to promote his new book, Dear Dad, tomorrow night and Friday afternoon. Check out the details below…

This Thursday at La Grand Dakar, Ky-Mani will be promoting his new book “Dear Dad,” with a book signing, live performance and conversation session with attendees.

7:00pm start
La Grand Dakar
285 Grand Ave. btw. Clifton Pl. & Lafayette Ave.

In addition, on Friday at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Ky-Mani will be doing a family-friendly reading from another novel “My Little Island” as well.

1:30pm start
Brooklyn Children’s Museum
145 brooklyn avenue at st. mark’s place

For more information on both events, check out this PDF or The Brooklyn Children’s Museum’s Calendar.

Music site Breath Of Life comes through with another mixtape fans our our site can dig, this time featuring live music from Nas & Damian Marley. Check out the mix and details below…

These tracks are taken from two different sessions. The first five selections are from a live in-studio BBC 1xtra radio program recorded in London. The remaining selections are from a May 17, 2010 performance at the Highline Ballroom in New York City.

I am very impressed that the live performances are on point. If you get a chance to see this show, you might want to reserve tickets at the earliest possible moment. Unfortunately, these recordings are not commercially available. Fortunately, however, sharing music is the raison d’etre of BoL.

So, whether you get to see Damian and Nas, here is close to an hour of live versions of music from their new and aptly titled album, Distant Relatives.

—Kalamu ya Salaam

Download the mix here: Via BoL: Damian Marley & Nas - Distant Relatives Mixtape.

The above image is a peek into the new online portfolio of Jamaican photographer, writer and filmmaker Peter Dean Rickards.

Check out a few more sample images below…

For more, check out the full website by clicking here: Peter Dean Rickards | Photography, Cinematography, Direction.

No lie, but Distant Relatives is my father’s favorite album right now. He’s 63.

That said, I know he’d be happy to hear this right now. This is from their BBC 1Xtra Taping last week. Check out the audio below…

More after the jump…

audio via.

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