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http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=192621
Bob Marley Celebration, Valentine's Day events
Published 01.31.07
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Courtesy Honor Music GroupFEBRUARY 3 SATURDAY
The late international reggae legend inspired BOB MARLEY'S 62ND BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION, a black music showcase organized by local promoter Uptown Top Rankin. Erica Newell, a vocalist with Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, previews tracks from her debut album, My Day, with New Orleans soul singer Kelly Love Jones, Atlanta roots vocalist Ras Kofi (pictured), Virgin Islands performer Spla "I" Jah, Sista P. Selassie and selector Aba Shaka rounding out the bill. $12-$15. 9 p.m. Apache Café, 64 Third St. 404-876-5436. www.apachecafe.info. (MR)
FEBRUARY 3 SATURDAY
It's a Lucky Charms kind of weekend in Alpharetta, where the 2007 ATLANTA IRISH MUSIC COMPETITION takes place today. Musicians and singers are ready to compete with fiddles and uilleann pipes and sing in both Irish and English. So grab a lassie, get your jig on and fill that craving for shepherd's pie. A concert with performances from the award-winning judges follows at Roswell's Red Door Playhouse. Competition: Free. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Alpharetta High School, 3595 Webb Bridge Road. Concert: $10-$15. 7-9 p.m. 587 Atlanta St. 678-372-9494. www.atlantairishmusic.com. (CM)
FEBRUARY 3 SATURDAY
Local nonprofit Happy Tails Pet Therapy holds its fifth annual WARM HEARTS COLD
- Creative Loafing
http://www.rastaites.com/news/hearticals/Atlanta/organicatlanta.htm
Report from the Atlanta Rastafari Community
at the
Third Annual Organic Fest, Saturday June 25, 2005
Rastafari Community, along with Rasses from Washington DC and North Carolina, participated in the Third Annual Organic Fest, Saturday June 25, 2005 at the Dunbar Neighborhood Center in SW Atlanta.
The Organic Fest was presented by WRFG (“Radio Free Georgia”), HABESHA & The Luv Garden and was hosted by Wanique Shabazz, Jason Skywalker, The Herb Sistah, Chris Askew and Lou Brown. Performances were made by Haile Ambessa, Common Ground Collective, Kwatamani roayal Family, Eastern Standard Band, Emmanual Faces, Messenjah Selah, Suns of Light, Ras Kimono and Ras Kofi. There were many other sponsors as well, including The Destiny Agency and Expo Africa 2005, Everyone’s Noni, blackgirl magazine, Rolling Out magazine, Jahteck Automotive, Vitamalt, and “Back to Our Roots” Educational Tours. Ras Ishawn and Ras Ishack of HABESHA, Inc provided Ital dinners using produce from their organic gardening project. Not only was the food delicious, it was a good fundraiser for HABESHA’s “Back To Our Roots” Education Tour which is departing for Ghana and then Ethiopia, July 25, 2005. Ras Kofi, who hosts a Rastafari radio program Friday nights from 11:00 pm to 2:00 am on WRFG 89.3, brought Rastafari roots reggae to the stage along with Messenjah Selah, the Suns of Light, and Wash DC breddren Ras Kwasi. Ras Kwasi accompanied Elder Mama Farika who attended the NCOBRA 16th Annual Reparations Conference. Ras Jahaziel forwarded from North Carolina to attend the event and was scheduled to show his recent video work “The Lamentations of Mother Earth.” Ras Jaberi and Ras Nathaniel displayed some of the furniture and crafts which he is manufacturing and teaching to youths as part of the Black Star Junior Achievement Program. In addition, there was public meditation exercises, poetry, and lots of vending. Overall, it was truly an ila event. After the event, several Rastafari Breddren and Sistren gathered to yant up Ises at the Organization of African American Rastafari Unity (OAARU) headquarters.
- RASTA ITES IZINE
http://knowearth.blogspot.com/ - Basil Waters of Jamaican Observer
Discography
SINGLES
Definition Of An Angel.......New Life Music 1991
In The Name of Allah.......New Life Music 1993
Just Another Picture W/ Poppa Doo.......Duumark 1994
Jah Made Dem All......Wesu Trax / Watoto Musik 1996
What's Da Meaning? .......Watoto Musik World 1996
I See Dem Coming........Blacklife Productions 1998
Lyrical Guns...........Blacklife Productions 1998
Ghetto Watoto.....Wesu Trax 1999
Wife Beater.........Fingaprint 2001
Crazy Drums........Prideland 2001
Planet Earth.........G Phenomenon 2001
Sharpen Da Sword W/ Liuns Den........G Phenomenon 2001
Materialist.......Sunland / Watoto 2002
Cheese and Bun .......2005
Expose W/ Messenjah Selah .....2005
The Healers .......Sunland 2005
Black Liberation Sound.....Lustre Kings 2005
Reverence......Lustre Kings 2005
So Long.......Footprintz 2006
E.P's
Sound Roots...........Watoto Musik World 2002
ALBUMS
First Fruits............Watoto Musik World 1997
Wake Da Town Sounds ...........Isat Music 1998
Organic Sound Mix Vol 1.......Watoto Musik World 2004
RADIO PLAYING SONGS
Sanctify W/ Messenjah Selah.....currently playing
The Healers (European Charts)
Family Life W/ Scion Success ....currently playing
Black Liberation Sound....currently playing
Let The Music Play (pre release)...currently playing
African Soldier (pre release)....currently playing
Photos
Bio
While the borders that separate musical genres continue to fade, on the rise is a new genre known simply as “good music”. Rising out of this borderless musical landscape is Ras Kofi, a child of the hip hop generation, a product of the rising reggae revolution and an offspring of South America’s political landscape…all of which have shaped his musical offering on the forthcoming album titled Sound Roots produced by gold selling musical childhood prodigy, The Boyz, now known as the Sunz Of Light. . Molded by his Rastafarian spiritual groundation and his vivid experiences as a world traveler Ras Kofi’s music, escaping modern classifications, blends reggae chanting, rapping and singing with lyrics that vividly tell stories, uplift the mental and heal the soul.
Imagine the colorful stories grandma use to tell set to the melodic music of reggae, hip hop with jazz inflections and you have the universal makings of this modern day musical griot. With titles like, “The Healers”, a soothing lullaby celebrating our ability to heal, and “Family Life”, featuring long time Jamaican sound system crooner, Scion Success and “Hold On To Your Culture” a non preachy directive celebrating our cultural past, Ras Kofi’s music are modern urban lullaby’s that touch the soul, move the body all while urging you to think. His music, a showcase of his lyrical gifts and production savvy will have you reminiscing about the days of old at times, while other times making you think about the perplexities of the socially imbalanced urban landscape of which we find ourselves. But most of all his music takes us on a beautiful and danceable ride to a place of deep thought and reflection.
High School Teacher at one of Atlanta’s inner city high schools, lecturer and radio personality by day, this Guyanese born and bred musical revolutionary is a songwriter, producer and entertaining stage performer by night. On a journey that began at birth, Ras Kofi’s was raised in a politically charged household on the forefront of the often tumultuous nature of Guyanese politics. As a child he was greatly influenced by the harsh reality of South American politics and the soft and comforting beauty of a nurturing village in which nature and all things African were revered. The landscape of sunny California and later the southern tradition of Augusta, Georgia would later add to the foundation of what would be his first musical journey as an artist/lyricist in the legendary hip hop group, The Black Ingels. With a deeply rooted underground following from one end of Georgia to the other, The Black Ingels were ahead of their time, blending socially conscious lyrics in a hip hop, reggae and jazz stylee.
With a musical collection that includes everything from Donny Hathaway, to John Coltrane to Bob Marley to Buju Banton to KRS One and the traditional riddims from South America to Africa you can only begin to get the picture of the many and varying influences that have given birth to this modern day mic chanter and musical griot. A devout traveler, in any given year, he can be found rocking the mic in the townships of South Africa, hills of Tanzania and Kenya, villages in Guyana, pon the lawns and beaches in Jamaica, in the dirty south and the up and down the east and southern coasts. He has shared the stage with the likes of the Last Poets, Mutabaruka, Luciano, Sizzla, KRS-One, Pharoh Saunders and many more.
Even on the first listen, Ras Kofi’s music is strangely familiar to our soul. Reminiscent of a long lost cousin, who arrives to tell us stories of our past, present and the beauty and potential of a future filled with Universal love and void of all barriers and borders, Ras Kofi’s music is simply “good music”. Good for the soul.
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