BY MKUU AMANI

A new Caribbean-infused take on short story-telling is here in the form of a series of audiobooks produced by Rapper and record producer Mark Anthony aka Blak Prophetz.

Launched on December 24th, 2020, ‘No Competition’ is the first of the Pickney Dem series and an exciting new venture for the renowned artist, also known in the rap game as Sure Shot and for his works as an artist/producer under his Blak Prophetz moniker.

The audio-story, which offers a humorous take on a classic tale about an over-confident, fast-running hare, aims to encourage more youngsters to read books and enjoy audio stories. The episode enlists Anthony’s vocal talents, the versatile artist performing all of the character voice overs, including the hare’s role, a character with a distinctly Caribbean personality.

“The Jamaican patois is very funny, and I have a very strong dislike for how they speak it on British TV.” he told the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper.

“It seems like another dialect or an extremely watered-down version of something that was so originally pure. The nicest of phrases can be said in Jamaican patois, yet sound incredibly harsh, and it is this edge that makes the language so interesting to play with.”

This is how we spoke at school and is a clear reflection of my upbringing. I’m very proud of the way we speak and would not stop speaking it for anything. It is our culture.”

“Furthermore, there’s not enough of it,” he added.

“I’m not saying that it’s a reason why black kids may have such a disinterest in books, but the western educational system is very biased and does not cater for black children enough.”

West Midlands based Mark Anthony is an original member of the booming 80s rap group Audio Kings and the even more successful band The Blak Prophetz which released tunes on the Kold Sweat and Fatt Jointz record labels.

His forty years experience in the music industry includes a passion for creating cutting edge joints like his 2005 ‘The Second Coming,’ (also the name of the album), and a penchant for the ambience of the soul and funk flavours so solidly acquainted by his funk and soul-jazz outfit Funk Division.

He’s also worked with a wealth of recording artists including Joyce Simms, Justin Timberlake and reggae artist Dawn Penn to name a few.

Speaking about the colourful new audio story series, he said, “There are two reasons why I felt this was necessary. The first is that when I was about 11 years old, I discovered that I could record my voice on my father’s portable tape device.

Being young, energetic and creative was a great opportunity for me to experiment. I would come home from school and re-enact situations that had occurred from that day onto tapes. You could call it my very own diary, only that it was in audio.”

It wasn’t long before he began to experiment with sound effects. He would use slippers and shoes to make punching and slapping sounds and started including the atmospheric sounds of old records in his recordings. Like his father Levi Duffus, a soundman, DJ and vinyl collector, Mark Anthony also enjoyed buying music.

“I would buy records that contained drums, percussion and or vocal speech, which helped build my stories on tape.”

Pursuing his passion, he eventually went to college to complete a Radio Studio and Broadcasting course and learned new skills like reel-to-reel editing. He gained technical knowledge, learning about signals, recording and compression.

“After the course, life and work took priority, and for many years my tapes sat in the loft.”

His return to creating and editing audio stories seemed almost accidental.

He was already heavily involved with the music industry, and he’d signed a publishing deal with BBC Worldwide, after providing voice overs for Hasbro kids’ games. Then;

“On the 4th birthday of my niece’s child, she asked all his Godparents (which included me) to record a story and send it to him.”

What began as simple recording, soon developed into more as Mark Anthony’s old recording habits were reignited and re-surfaced.

“Before I knew it, I was back doing what I did when I was ten years old, only more full-on. When they heard it, my friends and family went crazy for it and demanded more. So as owner of a record label and having a direct distribution deal with Sony Music, it was clear what had to happen.”

What to expect from future episodes currently remains a closely guarded secret so listeners will have to await the surprises to arrive.

The talented artist and producer would only say that; “They are absolutely entertaining and even funnier. We have an entire series ready which shall be released approximately every 90 days.”

His daughter Alicia Duffus is also very involved in writing the new stories and part of the Pickney Dem production set-up, which her father describes as “growing to a full-on team of professional voice over actors and actresses.”

“We have a whole series already,” he said, “And as we have our own fully digital recording facilities these will all be released via Sony’s distribution, which means that it will now reach a wider global audience.”

Pickney Dem is available on Itunes, Amazon, EMusic, and Worldwide.

BY MKUU AMANI

If you are anywhere near my age, live in the UK and watched The Muppet Show during the 1970s, you may recall the two, grey-haired, grumpy men who sat in an upper balcony box. From their seats, they would continuously heckle the show.

Waldorf and Statler, as they were named, were perhaps most famous for giving the endearing stand-up comedian Fozzie Bear a hard time, and particularly for one hilarious conversation they had that went something like this;

Waldorf: “That was wonderful!”

Statler: “Bravo!”

Waldorf: “I loved it!”

Statler: “Ah, it was great!”

Waldorf: “Well, it was pretty good.”

Statler: “Well, it wasn’t bad…”

Waldorf: “Uh, there were parts of it that weren’t very good though.”

Statler: “It could have been a lot better.”

Waldorf: “I didn’t really like it.”

Statler: “It was pretty terrible.”

Waldorf: “It was bad.”

Statler: “It was awful!”

Waldorf: “It was terrible!”

Statler: “Take ’em away!”

Waldorf: “Bah, boo!”

Statler: “Boo!”

I wonder what they would make of 2020. I imagine if asked to look back at the year, the pair would offer a similar response. The dialogue makes a good case for being a running commentary of the year so far.

It was the Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 that began the UK tradition of treating January 1^st as the beginning of the New Year. Before that, in case you’re wondering, it had been March 25^th.

With each New Year has grown the tradition of celebration. So, as is typical, last December 31^st, many of the thousands gathered in London’s city centre, joined in with the countdown as Big Ben – the renowned timepiece chimed aloud to mark the start of the New Year. Thousands were there and will have witnessed the spectacular explosions of colour that decorated the London skies.

Muted is not a word you can ever use to describe London’s New Year’s Eve firework display. Its centrepiece, standing at over 400 feet high, is the country’s most visited tourist attraction, the London Eye.

Few cities in the world can match the dazzling, even enthralling display.

The sound of cheers, screams of appreciation, whistles and clapping, rippled along the River Thames banks as the display unfolded. It was once again a very bright start to the year.

Fast forward – September is now upon us. Three quarters of the year is behind us. With just three months of the year left, one thing is sure as we head into winter, 2020 has been a year that will live long in the memory.

Around the globe, we see change: some welcomed and some not. Some organic and some enforced. We find ourselves in a strange place, struggling to understand how best to cope with the here and now as we also prepare for the ‘new normal.’ Whatever that is.

The emergence and spread of COVID-19 have had catastrophic effects. With over 800,000 deaths caused globally, the pandemic’s most devastating impacts on our homes and lives are clear for all to see.

According to World Health Organization data, there have been 23,491,520 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally, and 809,970 people have died (at the time of writing).

By now, many communities will know the feeling that comes with being subject to government enforced curfew or lockdown. So alongside experiencing the tragic, deathly destruction caused by the virus, they will also have had their: schools, shops, sports centres, restaurants, cinemas, pubs, and other venues previously open to the public, closed.

By May 2019, when online market research portal Statista published its report on online grocery shopping in the UK, grocery shopping online had become the fastest-growing purchase channel.

The UK lockdown that began late March 2020 saw people practically confined to their homes. Online grocery shopping became a critical facility for many, and an inevitable surge in online grocery shopping pushed leading retailers such as: Tesco, Asda and Ocado to their limits.

Despite lockdown now easing, the demand for home delivery slots remains high. However, this compares favourably to times earlier in the year. During March, April and May, finding an available home delivery slot was like finding gold.

At the height of the ‘first wave’ (presuming there will be a second), when the lockdown was in full effect, even getting on to a store’s website became problematic.

A consumer friend of mine sent me a screenshot he’d captured late March, taken from a website where he was attempting to purchase groceries for his elderly mother. It showed his estimated wait time was 35 minutes. There were 55,569 people in the queue ahead of him, and that was to access the website.

The year 2020 could be remembered for years to come simply for the impact of COVID-19, but other events have also made their mark.

January saw some well-known personalities honoured by the Queen in the New Years Honours List.

Amongst them was former TV presenter The Baroness Floella Benjamin, OBE. The longstanding patron of Bowel Cancer UK became a Dame for her services to charity.

Actor Giles Terera received an MBE for services to theatre.

Terera won ‘Best Actor in a Musical’ at the 2018 Olivier Awards. During his acceptance speech, he said, “It’s been the joy of my life, my career – to be part of the most diverse company that I’ve ever known, [and] I’ve ever seen. You saw them at the start of the show. Our company is made up of as many different people as you can think of. Why? That’s the best way to tell the story. It’s not a box ticking exercise, it’s the best way to tell the story.”

He continued. “It is an honour and a blessing for me to be involved in a production which says so wholeheartedly that diversity is not a policy, it is life. Diversity is life.”

Further honours made included: actor Rudolph Walker (awarded a CBE), singer Billy Ocean (awarded an MBE), composer Errollyn Wallen (awarded a CBE), chef Ainsley Harriot (awarded an MBE), and film-maker/director Steve McQueen (awarded a knighthood).

In April, Labour Party politician David Lammy became the first Brit-African Caribbean Shadow Secretary of State for Justice. Lammy became Member of Parliament for Tottenham in 2000 when he succeeded Bernie Grant, who sadly died in April that year.

Lammy’s appointment coincided with the departure from the Shadow Cabinet of Diane Abbott, whose role as Shadow Home Secretary came to an end after almost four years.

Abbott (alongside Bernie Grant) was the country’s first Brit-African Caribbean MP. She remains the longest-serving Brit-African Caribbean MP in the House of Commons.

Finally, the death of George Floyd in America triggered the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement’s resurgence, and the issue of race relations has been in and out of an intense spotlight since.

The 46-year-old died on May 25^th while in the custody of police officers. His death and the manner of his arrest sparked a wave of protests in and outside of the country.

In the UK, where according to a 2019 Home Office report, the majority of hate crimes recorded in 2018/19 were race hate crimes, accounting for around three-quarters of offences.

Across the country, including Manchester, Hull, London, Norwich, Shrewsbury, Brighton, and Tamworth, BLM events took place. Racism was being called out and challenged.

Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton, heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua, actor John Boyega and Local Equality Commission director Khady Gueye are just a few of the high profiles that have added their voice and action to the cause.

2020, though already akin to the most memorable and dramatic of rollercoaster rides, is far from over.

One wonders, with all that has happened so far, what else does this most peculiar, at times traumatic, and demanding year have in store for us?

BY MKUU AMANI

“We will take a dynamic leadership role.” Jaddoo on We Matter, the new movement that will challenge inequality.

 “The whole concept of We Matter is this…”

It’s just before 2:00 pm on a swelteringly hot Sunday, August 9^th, 2020.

I’m in Birmingham’s Centenary Square, speaking to human and race rights campaigner Bishop Desmond Jaddoo about the ‘Justice in the City’ event taking place that afternoon.

I was trying to find out more about ‘We Matter,’ a new political movement aiming to ‘unite the fight across the Midlands for black political and economic change.’

“If someone else matters, then we matter.” Jaddoo continued. “If you matter, I matter. No matter the colour of our skin. It’s a basic message of equality.”

“But we have a particular focus on the black community because clearly, we fall foul of everything. And it is no longer business as usual, it’s now that God has told us what to do, which is to lead our people to greater prosperity.”

“We need to level the playing field of inequality, and we need to do this through dynamic leadership and getting round decision-making tables, and that’s exactly what we plan to do.”

The city centre event centred around We Matter’s emergence as a new political movement. The actual launch takes place later this month, August 29^th.

What can we expect from this new movement?

“We will take a dynamic leadership role.” he said. “We have to look at the socio-economic and the disproportionality issues that we face – which are countless, and the only way to change that is by taking a political stand, and making sure that we are around the decision making table.”

“Birmingham is yet to have a black African or Caribbean MP [Member of Parliament] – now that speaks for itself. Clearly we’re being left behind, and we need to address that.”

And as far as today’s event was concerned? What could we expect to take away?

“You can expect empowerment and a constant message encouraging our young people, encouraging our elders – and that call to stand for justice – that’s what you’re going to hear today.” he said.

As part of the pre-launch, there were performances and guest speakers, including Reverend Val Benjamin and Bishop Jonathan Jackson. Alongside civil rights campaigner Charlie Williams, Bishop Jackson kept the crowds updated.

Free bottled water, face masks and hand sanitizer were also available.

Renowned Gospel Reggae artists Annette B and Lytie were just a part of a lineup that included a host of musicians, singers and the performance poet Keith Panton.

“We want the authorities to know that we are here, and we are here to stay. The We Matter movement is here, and here to stay,” Panton told the crowd before reciting a poem he’d written for the event, entitled ‘We Matter.’

Annette B was in effervescent form and treated the crowd to a rendition of her infectious track ‘Pop God Style,’ a song inspired by Althea & Donna’s chart-topping single, ‘Uptown Top Ranking.’

Silver-tongued lyricist Mikey Radical was also on hand to share his unique brand of reggae-infused worship. He did so in a thumping duet with Pastor Owen Uriah.

Marie Thompson and Simin Adewale, and sisters Cheryl and Adelle Rhule-Martin, of The Rock – New Testament Church of God combined to treat the city centre to some popular worship songs, including ‘Lord, I Lift Your Name On High.’

The UK’s black community has its heroes and heroines. A visit to the 100 Great Black Britons website should quickly remove any thoughts to the contrary.

But does it have a civil rights campaigner to match someone with the stature of America’s Martin Luther King Jr, or South Africa’s The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu?

If not, then with the emergence of this new political movement, and Bishop Jaddoo, one of the key figures at the spearhead, could this be about to change?

“Today is the commencement of that journey into power around the decision-making table.” Bishop Jadoo said.

“One of the things that we haven’t done – unlike the civil rights movement in America, we haven’t grasped the importance of the church leadership when it comes to political equality, and we now have to do that.”

To find out more about We Matter, visit the We Matter Facebook Page