Cultural appropriation

What is cultural appropriation? I heard the term used now and then, usually from activist people, or people behaving as such. Actually, I know of its use for decades, including finding it in academic studies about Caribbean culture, publications I had to index and describe for a library catalogue, of a scholarly (historical, anthropological) institute I worked in that period (2001-2014). This was in Leyden, the Netherlands, in an institute called the KITLV, that had a large Indonesian collection, as well as a Dutch Caribbean (Suriname, Antilles), but also wider Caribbean collection.

Besides these work-related encounters, I also encountered the same term “cultural appropriation” as said in some cultural debates and media discussions, by self-proclaimed activists, often of colour.

The Reggae scene I know well, and also the Rastafari scene in the Netherlands. To be honest, I joined both – in my own way. That “joining something” is however I think the crux of whether the term “cultural appropriation” makes sense.

ARGUMENTS AND COUNTERARGUMENTS

“Appropriation” implies “theft”, while – as US (African American) linguist John McWhorther argued – sensibly - when criticizing the term: “culture is not a limited resource”, and cannot be taken away by imitation. This can be found on Wikipedia. He also argues that it can stem from admiration. McWhorther, by the way, also studied the Afro-Surinamese "Maroon" Saramacca language, and that's how I first heard of him (work-related, at the said institute).. Later I found out he was also a known social and cultural commentator in the US.

Equally sensible – in my view – is the view of (originally Ghanaian) author Kwame Anthony Appiah, that cultural appropriation treats inappropriately as “property crime” (can you steal a culture?) what is actually a matter of respect or disrespect (imitation to defile/ridicule or to honour, simply said).

Those in favour of the “cultural appropriation” accusations – on the other hand – tend to argue that members of a “dominant” culture frivolously copy historically ethnic cultural practices from minorities or oppressed groups, taking them out of their “valid” contexts, while avoiding the oppression and discrimination the groups they imitate actually have to face, unlike them. It is thus seen as an expression of “white privilege”, harming the strength of original cultures, out of context.

Counterarguments – except those already mentioned by McWhorther and Appiah, by others - are that cultures tend to be constantly evolving, under the influence of other cultures and historical developments, betraying with the “cultural appropriation” accusation a deeply conservative and exclusivist view on cultural practices, as static, and as essentialist and “pure” as possible. Not dissimilar – some even argue – to how White supremacists and extreme right racists see a people or nation, when opposing e.g. migrants.

This lady sums up the discussion, in a quite sensible and balanced manner, although choosing to see “cultural appropriation” as a real problem, she at least also gives attention to counterarguments.

OWN STANCE AND SITUATION

I am on the “team” or in the “school” of McWhorther, in this debate. Yes, I might be biased, because I joined (like I said) the Rastafari movement (in my own way), wear dreadlocks (for all its superficial worth), but especially: I personally agree with main tenets of Rastafari and its attention to Africa.

I am of Italian-Spanish descent, and the Rastafari movement arose as Black Power movement with a spiritual nucleus (dixit Mutabaruka), aimed at repatriation to Africa of people of African descent in the Americas, once brought forcibly to the West.

I know all this, and that makes the Rastafari movement even more sensible and beautiful to me.

My parents were migrants to the Netherlands from Southern Europe: a bit closer to Africa, but still not Africa, so vaguely the “alienation” applies to me, but that is stretching it. “Going back to my roots” would be somewhere else than where I was born and grown (the Netherlands). So far for the “vague” and relative similarities with Black Rasta’s in e.g. Jamaica.

Though I sometimes wondered in the case of my mother (during Franco’s dictatorship in Spain, which she simply described as “terrible”) whether her migration to the Netherlands was really that “voluntary” – also because her initial irritations and misunderstandings (later partly resolved) with Dutch culture.

Since she sought work and secured a contract, it can be deemed a voluntary “guest labourer migration”, though. The same applies to the more adventurous migration (on a Vespa motorbike!) of my North Italian father, through Germany, ending up in the Netherlands. Also he responded to situations in his home country (lacking personal or economic opportunities), having heard from another Italian that “there was a lot of work” in the Netherlands. We’re talking the Early 1960s.

Italy democratized by then and was less poor than Spain, but still had some development issues, prompting emigration.

Still, it is a stretch – and wrong - comparing this migration with the harsh, violent, and dehumanizing enslavement and forced migration of millions of Africans to the Americas in the colonial era, with partly genocidal effects, and cultural damage, across the African Diaspora.

Spain and Italy have in addition - like the Netherlands - bloody colonial pasts in the Americas and Africa, as we know. Yet, neither can the migration of Moroccans and Turks from other areas of the Mediterranean, shortly following that Spanish and Italian migration, as “guest labourers”, be compared to it. That compares more to how my parents migrated, albeit with – arguably - more cultural, ethnic, and religious differences.

I added “arguably” in this last sentence because I know my parents (from Catholic countries) neither understood every aspect of Dutch culture in their entirety, causing misunderstandings, linguistically and otherwise. They did not know much about Protestantism or Calvinism, for example. Still, they were also part of wider European culture.

WHITE RASTA'S

Might my “outsider” status have attracted me more to the Rastafari movement? Maybe. Yet, it’s only a small part of it. I encountered “indigenous” White (Dutch) Rastafari-adherents, who seemed quite sincere and “in the faith”, and who thus were actually in the country where their forefathers lived, and which shaped the country. Some even with good jobs and from middle-class families.

These were individual choices, which I mostly respected. They seemed to “admire” the Rastafari movement, and predictably their love for Reggae music put them on the path, though I know of cases of personal relationships by white Dutch Rastas (a Black wife, friend, etc.) making them go that direction. Anyway, safe in some individual cases when I deemed ”gatekeeper” behavior by white Rastas all-too-condescending, most of these White Rasta’s seemed to me sincere and respectful to the culture.

POSTER

A female Black “activist group” (let’s call it that) recently hung a poster, critiquing White people with dreadlocks as ”culturally appropriating” in a former squatters café/bar in my hometown Amsterdam that I frequent sometimes, called Molli Chaoot. There (as often in the squatter movement) are indeed “white people with dreadlocks”, even working and volunteering there. This makes this poster a “provocative action” and seemingly targeted. This does not make their arguments any more reasonable. An open debate about even this I applaud, but the general “tone” of the poster’s text - including cliché's I heard elsewhere too - made me personally doubt the “open mind” of its (presumably Black female) writers, whom I maybe saw somewhere but never “met”.

You have after all people (on the Left and on the Right) – I experienced – who are so wrapped up in their ideology and/or an over-compensation of a minority complex, that they only can “accuse” or “insult”, not debate on content. Content-wise some of the arguments were on top of this flawed. White Rastas give up a part of their “white privileges” in many cases, especially when they get higher in this society and system. A “corporate lawyer” or politician, being White but also dreadlocked, is unheard of, safe rare exceptions, even if academically educated or intelligent. The other counterargument I already gave: cultures cannot be “stolen away" from its originators like material items, even if some would want to.

I personally add another counterargument. Having known many (Dutch) Whites “siding” or even “speaking for” Blacks in the Netherlands, also in the Reggae scene, focusing on an “outward”, superficial thing like “hair”, distracts from actual arrogance. Those Whites fancying themselves “cool with Blacks” – you know the type -, but without dreadlocked hair and just looking like regular White Dutchmen/-women, maybe slightly “hipper”, now feel even more “cooler” with Blacks, as they respectfully don’t even copy or “steal” their culture. What is forgotten here, is that these “square” White people still enjoy the “white privileges”, lacking the discrimination the groups they claim to respect so much have to face, and are even less hindered in this privilege than those “alternative” Whites choosing to go through life with dreadlocks.

ORIGINAL AND COPY

This culture or spiritual movement Rastafari, remains, besides all the European or Asian – let’s call them neutrally “adopters”, still of African-Jamaican origin (arising since the 1930s), influenced by Black Power ideas of Marcus Garvey and with Haile Selassie and Africa as crucial. That will never change, even with millions of White or Asian Rastafari adherents. As McWhorther said, and repeating: “culture is not a limited resource” that can be “stolen away” as such from its original creators. It stays with them.

Cultural appropriation can become more problematic, though, - and actual “appropriation”, rather than (good or bad) imitation -, when no respect is given to the originators of an imitated culture. That occurs sometimes, I recognize that, as origins are kept away from public knowledge, sidelined, even deliberately, or otherwise condescendingly degraded to a less-developed stage. Falsifying history is thus even attempted, though truth-seekers try to counter that..

The St Croix Reggae band Midnite (later Akae Beka) had interesting lyrics in their song Kaaba Stone, including the line: “Destroying the blueprint so no one can see, who is the original, and who is the copy”, relevant for this. Origins of cultures cannot be “stolen away” as such, but can be obscured or disrespected.

Some White and Asian Rasta’s can even prefer to focus mainly on their land of origin, which might not be Africa, but say Japan, Philippines, Basque Country, Netherlands, Poland, or New Zealand.

This makes historical sense, and is only immoral or “corrupting” – to use a strong word - (I think) when the tenets of Rastafari are disregarded, and Africa and its diaspora likewise ignored. At least some attention to Africa and Black history seems a sensible requirement, in my opinion, if a non-Black claims to join the Rastafari movement. Sincere concern about global inequalities - a concern noticeably lacking in today’s world! - also would help. Then “joining” Rastafari becomes a positive choice by people who chose to open their minds and hearts out of love and admiration.

This is not always the case, but unfortunately: “fake” – like good or bad – knows no race, colour, or gender. Another interesting question would be whether “fake” is always “bad” (as in “with bad intent”), and to what degree? That discussion however goes too far for now.

There are much more examples of what some deem - especially since the 1980s - as “cultural appropriation”, by “Westerners” mainly (though Islam as religion of Arabs in the beginning according to some also "culturally appropriated", e.g. from Jews).

It can go far, even within single countries. Spanish singer from Catalonia, Rosalía, e.g. having some popularity with Spanish and Latin American-tinged pop – and who studied Flamenco – got the accusation of “cultural appropriation” too, as she released Flamenco songs too, and uses its dance art in videos and such.

The critique is that she as a born Catalan (and father from NW Spain, Galicia), is not from the “right” part of Spain, being Flamenco’s heartland and place of origin, Andalusia, in the South, and directly around. In addition, Flamenco is associated with “gypsies” (Roma people), though strictly speaking Flamenco is not “gypsy” music in origins fully, but indeed influenced by Spanish Roma over time. Latin American or “Black” styles (e.g. Bachata in her big hit La Fama), and Reggaeton are also heard in some of her songs, making the “cultural stealing” accusation somewhat selective, although Rosalía’s singing style is Flamenco-influenced.

In my case (a Reggae fan, among other things), I think it’s most instructive and relevant to focus on the Netherlands, Reggae and other Black music fans, and the Rastafari movement there.

YO!, PE, AND X

During my high-school period in Hoofddorp (Netherlands, not far from Amsterdam) many other students (aged roughly between 11 and 18) were into Hip-Hop music. We’re talking the Late-1980s, Early-1990s, when Yo! MTV Raps became popular, inaugurating youth trends, also in the Netherlands. Public Enemy - and other “conscious rap” - also gained “white” fans at the high school I attended. I recall it was fashionable for a part of the boys (white middle-class, Dutch) at that school to wear the baseball cap with the “X” of Malcolm X on it. In parlance they tried to talk like the rappers too.

Just annoying, boisterous, and fashion-following adolescents?, Or even “cultural appropriation”?

I think the former. My memories are that some of these white “wannabe blacks” I did not even like so much, with their macho posture, and not being able to “talk” normally or friendly. Some even mostly behaved like insulting “bullies”, I recall. I found out because in fact I liked Public Enemy, and other hip-hop I got to know through Yo! MTV Raps as well (like they also proclaimed), but soon figured out that this shared interest was hard to share pleasantly with most X-cap wearing white youths, finding me too unfashionable and “nerdy”, to socialize with. They knew, however, about my love for Reggae then.

This was an early lesson and example of what would recur in later stages in my life, also in the Netherlands. How “fashionable” Black culture and music was among some White Dutch youth, but that it did not ensure a friendly bond with “out groups”. Music taste must be kept to myself, I learned then, else it is used against me by aggressive wannabe’s, with a negative “bully” vibe. This seems paranoid on my part, but I was confirmed in this throughout my life, when I found several White people (also in the Reggae scene) trying to – believe it or not – “out-black” me culturally.. Odd..

INTERNATIONAL

Such White “wannabe Blacks” often made an insecure impression on me, and some I mistrusted (did they really respect Black people, or were they just ego-tripping?). Still I respected – and understood, in part – their choice. So I was “insulted” by some of them, but not “offended” (that’s something else). Youths after all always search something different from their parents : preferably something “cool” and “wordly” and international.

Mitigating circumstances were also that the Netherlands largely lost the touch with its own “folk culture”, since around the 1950s. Every country, also the Netherlands, has or once had an own, local/national folk culture, including own traditional music. I sometimes think, though, that modernization through “industrialization” went too fast and far in the Netherlands as a whole, cutting ties to the rural traditions more than elsewhere.

Industrialization reached some parts of Italy and Spain too, yet there the ties with rural areas and rural-urban connections remained more intact even in cities, so also a rural “folk” culture. The same applies to Ireland, whereas England seemed to share more the (mostly) ”culture loss” fate with the Netherlands. People hardly know nowadays what is originally Dutch and English folk music, but know about Irish Celtic music, Spanish Flamenco, or South- Italian Tarantella. This is because industrialization reached these areas less (intensely), destroying less traditions.

I say all this, to show how this makes grabbing on to other people’s or international cultures understandable, since the base of an own “folk culture” has been lost. By necessity Dutch youths became more open to the outside world.

What became of these students during my high-school years – claiming to be PE and other Black hip-hop fans? - , I wondered at times since then.. Of some I found out, and no.. they usually (safe exceptions) did not start a social service to help poor Black people in the ghetto/projects in e.g. the US, or combat poverty and inequality in Africa, or racism in societies. Not very actively, anyway.

This is not to “diss” them totally as persons, but I am just saying that they got out of their fanatic “conscious rap” phase (perhaps still listening to it) as fashion - often not very “deep”, anyway -, and ended up in the usual West’s modern “wage slavery”, working for an employer for their monthly check, to pay the bills/rent/mortgage, for them and their family, and mostly bound to mainstream culture and mass media. Simple, bourgeois lives as so many in Western Europe lead, especially when aided by “white privilege”.

While I consider “cultural appropriation” mostly a nonsense term, the term “white privilege” makes more sociological and historical sense in my view, but perhaps others have a different opinion about this.

Then there is also the recent term “woke” (John McWhorther criticizes that too, by the way), but I don’t know exactly what “woke” is.. and noting the people who employ it eagerly: I do not want to know (read: I don’t trust it), so will not waste my energy on it. The term “cultural appropriation”, however, I found intriguing enough to focus on in this essay.

A baseball cap with X (of Malcolm X) can be taken off when a white/Dutch adolescent reaches adulthood, but when a white person puts dreads in his hair, and wears Rasta clothing, but especially the hair, he or she cannot hide his/her affiliation. If anything, it shows more courage and character, as it puts into question eventual white privileges. Already those “white privileges” were more limited among the lower- and laboring classes, but even there, being “dreadlocked” might work out discriminatory, vis-à-vis a straight, “normal”-looking, short haired, standard - read: preferred - white men.

If “appropriation” is “theft” than this “theft” makes one actually poorer and one’s life more difficult, side-stepping white or class privilege. True love requires sacrifices, someone said, so that shows further how nonsensical the term “cultural appropriation” is.

Instead I opt for the term “cultural imitation with or without respect”, as Appiah also describes it. If someone is respectful toward others requires time to find out, as with all human relationships, you “feel” or “sense” when someone respects you, and if not you end the relationship. That’s all it is..

I would also add self-respect. Imitating others (especially of dominant cultures) because of lack of self-respect or respecting one’s own culture – i.e. an inferiority complex -, is of course neither healthy. At most you should take the best of different worlds in your very own cultural and creative manner, without trying to be what you are not.

OWN CULTURE

That ‘s what I try to do, admittedly: I am my own culture, shaped by different cultures (parental ones, cultural and musical tastes, geographical interests, local Dutch influences, other international influences, etc.), dependent on my personality and life trajectory . At least, I opine, you should truly have an own personality and culture in this world.. Else you are absorbed and enslaved. It is this very equal “personhood” that Rastafari also once strived to achieve, after all, as an emancipatory movement. Also this “freed identity” seemed to be inspiring and attractive aspects of Rastafari, internationally, I reckon.

I personally also learned to put shared humanity first, also in my “art” (songs). We all have the same needs and desires in life – essentially – corporal, mental, and spiritual -, especially when left alone by powers that be above us, restricting and categorizing us: freedom to express and to enjoy life, music, art, all kinds of sensations (food, fun, dance, laughter, sex), pleasant, inspiring human connections, self-realization, etcetera. Circumstances, race/gender, and geography may all differ, but we are all essentially human and similar in these desires. Realizing this makes me enjoy “crossing” end “mixing” cultures, or even “delving” into specific ones (from all continents): to learn about wider humanity in a deeper sense.

This way of thinking I mostly cherish and strive to, is at odds with exclusionist “group thinkers” locking themselves in “easy” often superficial racial or group identities, and keeping polluting “enemies” preferably out. Not unlike the KKK’s thinking, when it comes down to it.

Such a defensive stance is more foregiveable, understandable – and to a degree necessary - among oppressed and marginalized - even attacked - groups, yes, I agree, but still simplistic and in the end limiting.

I as a musician, mostly play percussion (including mostly African and Afro-American instruments, but also Western/European and Asian ones), and compose songs in different genres (Black and other). Thus, in my case the mixing of cultures or multiculturalism is very evident and forward, but also people doing totally other things – even non-artistic/musical ones- can easily mix those international cultural influences to several degrees, even passively (music taste, food taste, interests). This opens up the mind to other peoples and cultures, and can never be wrong, I think. Not by itself. Neither does it by definition became “wrong” when the passive simply becomes active – an active identity – as “cultural appropriation”, accusers seem to suggest, overly simplistically. It is simply human.

If anything – as I argued before – it shows a true and determined commitment, and in a sense “courage”. As long as you don’t lose yourself, and respect other people’s cultural ownership.

CONCLUSION

My main conclusion from all this can be short. Yes, cultural “appropriation”, or perhaps better: “disrespectful cultural imitation” or to use another term “culture vultures” exists to a degree, even by those with bad or selfish intentions (ego, power, money, exploitation), but many more seem to just admire or appreciate. Yet, wickedly “meant” or not: above all, it should not affect the sense of pride in cultural ownership of groups, even when the origins are at times deliberately obscured. Better to rise and stand above those fools, as the truth always comes out on top, like olive oil in water..

Meanwhile: I think the world would be better if we all are and remain free in our creativity as human beings, and open culturally..

Reggae music lovers (in the Netherlands): Michel Conci

How people got to be reggae music lovers or fans has always fascinated me. Maybe partly because reggae still is off/outside the mainstream, also in the Netherlands. It is not found that easily, let’s just say. It requires (to a degree) an extraordinary life path: that is, different from copying the masses, or simply following what’s commonly on television or the radio.

Reggae has of course since decades gone international and widened its fan base, but I have known individually quite different reggae fans within the Netherlands. Black and white (and Asian, or mixed etc.). Males and females. Old and young. Some with little education, some highly educated. Of different class backgrounds. Some combine liking reggae quite equally with other genres (e.g.: some with African, funk, soul, some with hip-hop, some even with non-black music genres), while others on the other hand adhere almost “strictly” to reggae music, and do not get into much else. Some like roots reggae more than dancehall or vice versa. There are even reggae fans – believe it or not - who do not smoke the “ganja herb”.

Furthermore, some have an interest or sympathy for the related subject of Rastafari, some do not, or even despise it. The latter, despise, I find somewhat odd since Rastafari is not the same as reggae, but is nonetheless connected to it.

These differences (and similarities) between and among reggae fans/lovers intrigue me, also in relation to personal backgrounds. That’s the reason why I would like to interview specific individuals who love reggae.

Before this I have interviewed 12 persons – reggae lovers I know, “breddas” (meaning “brothers”, or "friends" in Jamaican parlance) of mine – here in the Netherlands.

I started the series on this blog with a post of June 2012, when I interviewed Abenet. In April of 2013 I interviewed Bill. After this I interviewed Manjah Fyah, in May 2014. For my blog post of August 2015, I interviewed, somewhat more extensively, (DJ) Rowstone (Rowald). In August 2016, then, I interviewed Vega Selecta. In October 2017, I interviewed DJ Ewa. Then, for my post of September 2018, I interviewed for the first time a woman, namely Empress Messenjah or Empress Donna Lee. In August 2019 I interviewed another woman, namely Sound Cista. For my blog post of September 2020 I interviewed another Reggae-loving woman, French but living in the Netherlands, Selectress Aur'El. For my blog post of September 2021 I interviewed again a "bloke" (fun way to say "man") selecta Hobbol Backawall., and in my blog post of September 2022, I interviewed again a woman, Mystic Tammy. For the blog post of October 2023, I interviewed another woman, Eve Lien Dubwise.

ME, MYSELF, AND I

Most of these were selecta’s (dee-jay's, at events): I encountered them more, and were maybe more willing to go public openly talking about Reggae music. Some told more, some less. They had different backgrounds, so that was interesting.

After interviewing all these people in the “Reggae scene” (Amsterdam and around), with some recurring questions, I wondered if by now maybe I should ask my own questions to myself, instead of acting just as “distant” analyzer.

Some changes I personally went through, even since starting this series, so that adds substance. It also would give an overview also for myself, of the role of Reggae during my life.. “Since the day I know myself, I’ve been a drifter”, Dennis Brown sang on a nice song (The Drifter), but can we really know ourselves fully?

I am not even – mainly – a selecta/dj, yet I still was willing to do the interview with myself, haha. I am more a musical artist, but that will show from my answers underneath. Answers to the same questions I asked the interviewees mentioned before.

Where were you born and did you grow up?

I was born in Nieuw Vennep (behind Schiphol airport, 20km from Amsterdam, Netherlands), I grew up there until in my late twenties, after which I went to live in Amsterdam (West). There still.

Since when (age) do you listen Reggae music?

Around my 11th my brother got via another guy some cassettes (we're talking mid-1980s) with reggae albums. Listening together we got attracted to it. Bob Marley (Kaya) was on these cassettes, but also Peter Tosh’s Mama Africa, and some mixed/various artists tapes.

True, it started with “big names”, oh cliché, but some songs on Tosh’s Mama Africa appealed to me a at first a bit more than Bob’s songs on Kaya. In time I got to like Kaya too (songs like Misty Morning), but by then my brother had some more Reggae albums I liked, we both listened to (others by Bob, Wailing Souls - first album we heard: On The Rocks -, Eek-a-Mouse, Burning Spear, Half Pint, Don Carlos, Itals, etc.). Still in my teens. The love affair continued.. and became less and less commercial, haha.

All in that village Nieuw Vennep – with then about 15.000 inhabitants - , when I could not go out much. Perhaps my brother and I were already 30% of the whole Reggae scene of that village, haha..

What attracted you to it, then?

Partly the rhythm, I think. Plus (parts of) the lyrics, as my English was already quite good by then. Reggae had some spiritual and mystical energy, I then sensed and appreciated, interestingly combined with social comments or descriptions. Some philosophy too (Glass House, Misty Morning). I did not smoke weed then, or even later in my teens (started much later in my mid-20s), so the “ganja herb” was not the reason I liked Reggae, per se.

I have always been curious about other cultures, and the wider world, even as a child.. that helps..

What other music genres did you listen to?

My parents are Italian (father), and Spanish (mother), so Italian and Spanish songs were listened to when I grew up, and also Latin American music, or Flamenco-influenced music from South Spain. My mother liked to dance much more than my father, so listened also to Latin American music, or rhythmic flamenco, haha. My father listened to some (more classical) Italian songs too in the house. In his young days in N-Italy, he played the accordion quite well, and he had harmonica’s (which I of course tried out), so my dad had some interest in folk music as well.

Some of what I heard my parents played I liked – especially when a bit groovy -, and I understood Spanish. My brothers and I, though, sought other – Anglophone - (pop) music, on radio and tv, like funky music, rock, and pop. I remembered I liked some Stevie Wonder and other songs, and that James Brown groove. Until around 1985, when we both "discovered" Reggae.

Has there been a change in your musical preferences since then?

Well, I got through life changing, which naturally expanded my musical interest.

Some old-school hip-hop I liked through Yo! MTV raps (Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J, BDP, Public Enemy, Slick Rick, PRT, De La Soul). I was around 15 years old, around 1989.

Some compilation albums of African music (sub-Saharan Africa), I borrowed from a travelling Spanish business man (whom my mother knew) – he was also “world wide vinyl music” collector -, with “pop” music from Congo and Burkina Faso, such as Soukous. Nice (Congolese) soukous songs on these albums. Nice polyrhythms. I recall further specifically the songs Dounougnan by Kambou Clement (Burkina Faso): nice mellow, “griot” vibe. For some (mystical?) reason this album made a lasting impression. It directed my musical eyes/ears more toward Africa. I was then about 17 years old.

Later trips to Cuba, since my later 20s (years 2001-2006) – I had friends there – further opened my musical horizon toward Afro-Cuban music, and Yoruba music, so again an African connection. It increased my interest in percussion instruments.

My older brothers got into some other music, introducing me to artists I did not know really, but kind of liked (jazz, jazzrock, Parliament, Bill Withers, Flamenco, Tom Waits, Jacques Brel, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, a.o). I liked some Blues, and songs by Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen too.

Yet.. I kept listening to (mainly) Reggae throughout all this, only interchanging and comparing more. Reggae remained my main path, you can say..

If anything, comparing with other Black music and African music itself was useful in understanding/overstanding the African retentions within Afro-Jamaican Reggae, even beyond the "shuffle" that is most known (call-and-response, polyrhythm, etc.). Interestingly, someone pointed at the fact that Reggae indeed shares some shuffle/swing aspects with Rhythm & Blues (which partly influenced it), but also some "straight rhythm" aspects from other parts of Africa (Central, Congo, etc.), adding to the feel of the groove. Good to know.

Do you have any preferences within the broad Reggae genre? Does, e.g., Digital Dancehall appeal to you as much as Roots Reggae?

I started with Roots Reggae, and some Early Dancehall. Roots Reggae attracts me most, still. I prefer conscious/social comment lyrics, and real instruments. Digital Dancehall appeals to me less, save some songs with good, energetic grooves (some songs by Beenie Man, Ward 21, Elephant Man, Chaka Demus, Bounty Killer, e.g.). I like it overall less, and follow it therefore less than Roots Reggae. Some Dub I like, but not all.

Within Roots Reggae, I like the harmony reggae classical groups (Abyssinians, Wailing Souls, Mighty Diamonds), and many great “old-school”, soulful singers (Hugh Mundell, Ijahman, Dennis Brown, Burning Spear, Jacob Miller, Junior Delgado), but I am thankful for the later Reggae Revival as well, as I certainly soon got to appreciate the work of “newer” artists like Richie Spice, Sizzla, Luciano, Bushman, Lutan Fyah, Queen Ifrica, Iba Mahr, Protoje, Ginjah, etcetera..

A high quality standard is luckily maintained within Jamaican (New Roots) Reggae up to now – good musicianship -, as well as the Rastafari message.

Since when are you a Reggae selecta/dee-jay?

Haha, I collected – quite informally – over time many vinyl records: just in case, but I also listened to CD. Via my brother and a friend I got more of a Reggae vinyl collection. When the vinyl scene came up, including with dee-jay/selecta events playing vinyl, I started to join them on some events. This started not long ago, around 2014, I think. I played the years after in some Reggae clubs (Café the Zen), other clubs, and squatter places in Amsterdam, but only occasionally (“open decks” events), up to now.

Do you have a preference for Vinyl or Digital/CD? As listener, and as selecta?

As selecta vinyl, but at home mostly digital, I must admit.. Sign of the times .. and no money for a good longplayer needle, haha..

That vinyl music sound is "fuller" than the digital sound, nonetheless, which is logical in some sense. My more technical (electrician) brother Carlos explained it to me once well: the digital counts and translated - also music - into 0-1-0-1 codes, as many may know (hence the word digit-al). On the other hand, what’s “analog” is more fluent, flowing..while what’s between the 0 and 1 digits gets lost..

Any special experiences or encounters over the years (e.g. with producers or artists)?

I before did not go often back stage at concerts. When I went to Jamaica, though, in 2006 and 2008, I soon got connected with Buju Banton’s Gargamel studio in Kingston, Partly by coincidence, believe it or not (long and strange story, never mind here..). There I met some musicians recording there (like Ghost): Buju was abroad then (Japan and Florida).

From there, they took me in 2008 on a visit to (then named) Judgement Yard, of Sizzla Kalonji, elsewhere in Kingston (August Town): a sudden visit, but Sizzla Kalonji himself was there. I remember that the guys that brought me were busy (buying fruit o.s.), so I was there alone a time and saw Sizzla walk: I got a bit shy, but dared to present myself to him. Someone beside him told him with whom I had come (“Buju people”), so that was cool. A cool memory from Jamaica.. As there were more..

Later, in more informal concert settings (between 2010 and 2020), such as organized by Café the Zen (a Reggae club in Amsterdam), I got to meet other Reggae artists a bit, often very friendly, but mostly short encounters: Vivian Jones, King Kong, Bunny Rugs, Warrior King, Fantan Mojah, Iba Mahr, Keida..

Meeting Warrior King walking with his cute baby on his arms, when I arrived on a rented bike with friend John (R.I.P.) to a beach venue on the Dutch island Texel (NW Netherlands),- where he performed in 2017 - is also a special memory, because of the whole context/location. That was a Zen Social Reggae-event (Island Vibes, 2017) on Texel: I never went to that island before. Vibes!

Are you active in other ways within the Reggae scene as well? E.g. radio, organizing events, design, or otherwise?

I do not organize events myself, though I have some ideas for it, haha. Some event organizers asked for my help for reggae and other events, and I assisted.

Further not much: I do not present a regular radio or online program with Reggae, though it would be nice.

On this blog I write about Reggae sometimes, and I also contributed some reviews to other web sites (e.g. reggae-vibes.com).

Do you play any musical instruments?

When younger I had some keyboard lessons and a keyboard. My older brothers chose to learn to play guitars (Spanish and bass) – including lessons -, but guitars attracted me less – something with finger tips on strings, dunno. Drumming and key riffs I liked more.

I in time especially took up percussion and drumming. Since childhood an interest, but trips to Cuba (the home of conga’s and bongo’s) after 2002, increased my will to play percussion instruments. It seemed to me then also freer and less “robotic” than the standard drum set/kit, which I also considered (and tried)..

I started to play conga, bongos, as well as djembe drums, and other African drum types, as well as smaller percussion (bells, shakers, scrapers), taking serious lessons in 2014 and around (with Vernon Chatlein, a.o.), to get a higher professional level. After that I played on the jam circuit in Amsterdam (Bourbon Street, Waterhole club, Maloe Melo, a.o.), where I could join and contribute, but also kept learning. I liked and like that free, jazzy ”jam vibe”.

I played (mostly percussion) on all kinds of jam sessions (not just Reggae) in and around Amsterdam, but Reggae still remained my main love, through all this. I just started to listen to Reggae more from a percussion perspective: including the important details in songs, like of the kete/binghi drums, cabasa shakers, scrapers/guiros, flexatone, bells, rattles, etc...

Later, I also tried to learn more about playing standard drum kit (called "trap drumming"), as timekeeper more ordered, but crucial in music. A bit also (nonpercussive instruments like) as said keys, harmonica, and guitar..

I play and rehearse with some Dutch Reggae bands too, on occasion (e.g. Flavour Coalition). I also recorded percussion in studios for other artists' songs, at times. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of nepotism - i.e. favouring friends or kin - in (Dutch) music scenes too (as elsewhere), so it has to go via-via.

Are you a composing or performing musical artist?

Yes, I always liked to “invent” songs, since childhood actually. I'm the "creative type", I guess. I soon started recording them, so had some vague ambitions. Worked out some full songs, and recorded them later with computer software (DAW), meanwhile learning more and more.

Songs I made to my satisfaction, I released later in the internet age through my Soundcloud and Youtube channels (https://www.youtube.com/MichelConci).. I like that free sharing possibility of my music, but did not think commercially. Many songs I made public on my YT channel. Only later, I started to release my songs through official channels (and buyable and streamable digitally). Lately through Tunecore, as indie artist, and Bandcamp (https://michelconci.bandcamp.com/)..

Rastafari Live On, recorded with Robert Curiel, was my “official release” debut back in 2010, and that was Roots Reggae.

Later releases of mine show more the influence of Reggae's "harmony groups" on me.

I mostly made and make Reggae songs, but am not restricted to it: I try to keep a wide musical horizon, also making “Latin” songs, Flamenco songs, African-influenced instrumentals, funky and (international) folk songs, besides Reggae-(like) songs and influences. The world is my province. Good spirit for percussionists, btw: they need to be multicultural. Besides: I-man "originate", and don't "imitate"..

I like making songs with my own instruments, in any case.

I sang some songs of mine on sound during events, but “perform” more as musician/percussion player during jam sessions in a few clubs.

Does the Rastafari message in much of Reggae appeal to you? How does this relate to your own background, or beliefs?

Yes. I consider myself to be a Rasta.

My parents were only "loose" and socialist-influenced Catholics, but still got me baptized. At other times my mom criticized the Vatican, so I was not really "raised Catholic", more like a heritage and cultural/social connection.

In time, first I became only a vague, loose “sympathizer” of the positive message of Reggae lyrics I heard. Around 2009, after having read some main works (e.g. by Marcus Garvey), and after travels to Jamaica, - and some trials and tribulations (loss and grief) – I became more spiritual. I not only started to wear dreadlocks, but saw these dreadlocks as a statement of faith, not as a fashion. I tried to be in the Livity since then, and am indeed vegetarian for instance. Naturality I find important. I now consider myself a Rasta.

Rastafari ideas further fitted well with my world view, upliftment of the poor goals (I before grew up with Left-wing ideas), and my longer interest in African culture.

Also the view of the “divine” as within (not outside) humans: the "I and I" notion, is also which I share and feel - Jah inna (hu)man, but is perhaps too revolutionary for many in this world of unequal relations (economics, religion, politics). This system after all is based on placing "authority" outside of yourself. It is good when a man can think for himself, as Burning Spear sings on the song It's Good (album Man In The Hills)..

Sometimes thus difficult, this spiritual journey in today’s Western society (Babylon), but I have to “carry Jah heavy load”, as Ijahman Levi sang. In my own way, as every individual, and I appreciate that space for individuality within Rastafari.

Haile Selassie’s wisdom I respect as well, including life philosophies, like of Marcus Garvey, and the Pan-African and African Diaspora connection have my interest.

Rastafari originated as a Black Power and resistance movement, within the African Diaspora, and "white" people joining the movement should at least know and respect that, I think. Some arrogance occurs, or white - to use a psychological term: "overcompensation", e.g. regarding tenets or Bible "teaching"/correcting, but mostly there seem to be mutual respect and openness within the Rastafari movement.

The songs I make as musical artist and release are lyrically and musically often influenced by Rastafari, directly or indirectly.

What kind of music (reggae) do you prefer to listen to now – at this moment -, what specific artists? Any new “discoveries” you would like to mention?

I listen to all kinds of Roots Reggae, old and new roots. Culture, Mighty Diamonds, Burning Spear, Wailing Souls, Black Uhuru, the Congos, Israel Vibration, Gregory Isaacs, Alpha Blondy.. Sometimes Alton Ellis and Ethiopians, including older Rocksteady.. That did not really change.

There was a period that I listened to older Roots at home, and newer Roots (Sizzla, Tarrus Riley, Anthony B., Morgan Heritage, Romain Virgo, Beres Hammond, etc.) mainly “inna di club” (and good to dance to).. Over time, though, that changed: I now listen to artists like Sizzla, Luciano, Richie Spice, Bushman, Junior Kelly, also at home, interchanging older and newer Reggae.

The Jamaican Reggae music scene is broad and varied, and alive, so there are always artists I did not know so well, or did not get around to yet.. Recently I got to like artists like Black Am I, Ginjah, Aza Lineage, and Reemah. An artist like Norris Man is around longer, but I got to appreciate his style more recently: saw him recently live for the first time. Good songs.

Stranjah Miller, whom I recently met in the Jamaica Lounge bar in Amsterdam, is also an interesting new roots-oriented artist.

Outside of Jamaican Reggae I like Tiken Jah Fakoly, Dezarie, Batch, Jah Defender (from Trinidad, nice songs), Chilean group Gondwana, Misty In Roots, and some Netherlands-based Reggae.

Other things you would like to mention?

Amsterdam is not a very Reggae-friendly city, let’s be honest, despite its image. Even less than before. Café the Zen club was a period an exception, besides some occasional concerts in venues like Melkweg or Paradiso. After Café the Zen closed in 2020, there were a time no regular Reggae parties in any club, despite enough Reggae fans in Amsterdam.. Even after music events/nightlife picked up after the lockdown/plandemic period, though some Reggae concerts were given in venues in Amsterdam and Amstelveen again since 2021 (incl. by Zen Social, the organizing branch of erstwhile Café the Zen).

Some café’s and initiatives were started in recent times, playing or supporting Reggae more regularly, Jamaica Lounge in Amsterdam West, Molli Chaoot in Amsterdam-De Pijp, and Earthworks - also studio - in Amsterdam (far) North, can be mentioned in this regard, but some more places might come up, I heard. In nearby Haarlem (where - btw - my parents met and married), the Patronaat venue also organizes more and more Reggae concerts, which is nice. So it’s now all a bit improving, which is better for the Reggae Community.

Stay blessed.

The Amsterdam reggae scene (2023/24)

It is now over 5 years ago that I wrote for my blog (January, 2017) about the Amsterdam Reggae scene, speaking about 2016 and 2017. In fact, it was an update of my first description of the Amsterdam Reggae scene, written in Late 2012, so around 4 years earlier.

I think now (January of already 2024) the time has come for once again an update, along the same thematic lines, as it were subdividing the “scene”.

-REGGAE “CLUBS” (places)

-REGGAE DEEJAY’S/SELECTAH’S

-REGGAE PEOPLE (public, organizers)

-REGGAE ARTISTS AND PERFORMERS.

What has changed in the Amsterdam (and Netherlands) Reggae music scene since Early 2017, now about 6 years later?

TUMULTUOUS

The period 2017-2023 was overall quite tumultuous, but especially the latter years, since the Corona pandemic declared by authorities, since March 2020, It was then that the world – but especially leading politicians – went crazy.

Of course opinions differ about the restrictive corona policies, also affecting the Netherlands. If they were proper or necessary, if there really was a severe virus or a “pandemic”. The quest for ulterior motives by those critical of the policies - or as the CIA coined them: “conspiracy thinkers” - went on, and the (I think probable) ulterior motives will probably have to do with “the rich wanting to get richer”, or “elites fearing losing control”. Human history simply shows this..

The skeptical suspicions of other (non-medical) economical/political motives behind the proclaimed pandemic is "framed" here in the Western media as "Right-wing" or Right-Populist "conspracy theories", yet was widespread in the world, especially among poorer people (also from "the Left").. This framing is a matter of "wishful thinking" by authorities, hiding thus the (actually Right-wing!) vested interests behind such global policies, including multinationals, Big Pharma, Big Finance, etcetera.. All these profited in the period 2020-2022, which should have opened more eyes. Tellingly, I heard the word-play "pLandemic" (with the extra L) first from singer Buju Banton.

Why then - if this is the case - exactly at this time period (2020) such an “elite power grab” through such deceptive policies (hyping up a virus)? One of the more convincing and best-argumented - and non-ideological! - analysis I heard was that this whole Western capitalist system - based on exploitation - could simply not last, due to its very parasitical nature, and imploded/exploded at this point. This might relate to a peaking financial crisis, or the Internet, this digital age, promising world citizens freedom (of information) and connection, answered by “the powers that be” by threatening with more totalitarian control through it. The age-old class struggle, in essence, in my opinion.

While I considered it good and even heroic that people protested against the corona policies, and many sensible counter-ideas have been discussed about it, the theme is by now a well-trodden path, furthermore with decreased relevance and urgency, as the corona policies - some would say: failed deception strategy - seemed abandoned slowly in the course of 2022. Good to still stay vigilant of new "Babylon" schemes, of course. Some say "climate" (as opposed to actual "environment" protection) is one of these.

Let’s therefore try to forget this political/Babylonian foolishness, and focus on “positive vibrations”, namely music, culture, and Reggae, and specifically real lovers of Reggae music in Amsterdam, wanting to enjoy their favourite music, also outside one’s own house.. in other words: a “scene”.

Talking about “own house”.. during some of the several “peaks of lunacy” of the corona policies, also in the Netherlands there were periodic lockdowns – up to 2022 -, with all bars, clubs, restaurants, concert venues, etecetera, having to close for supposed medical (contagion) risk.

This also affected of course the nightlife in a city like Amsterdam, the Netherlands, including eventual Reggae clubs. Several Reggae events (festivals, internationally, other events) were annulled or postponed. Also “regular Reggae deejay-sessions”, to name something common in several European cities, including Amsterdam, ceased for some years, with few, and troubled exceptions. The hospitality sector in Amsterdam was even more tightly controlled (I knew e.g. that closing hours of bars were guarded oddly strict by police) than I thought, and most had to comply to not lose their business/license, although some sought the margins of the possible.

As part of the corona policies, the restrictions due to the QR code for entering public places (especially “fun” places, not for jobs and stores of course), as a conditional – read: discriminatory – opening up of bars and such), affected some “critical” Reggae fans.

I remember – when places could open a bit more,under discriminatory conditions – that certain Reggae parties, or a few concerts, had people not able to enter, for not having a QR code – or jab prove – to show. Even a former anarchic “squatter” place, like OT301 (Overtoom, Amsterdam), complied with this unhappy Babylonian policy.

As there were also travel restrictions for Jamaican artists, there were also limited Reggae concerts, especially in Europe (some US states like Florida still allowed concerts) in the period 2020-2022.

This was a blow, and hiatus, - perhaps even a trauma – but there was also a lively Reggae period before it- from 2017 to February 2020 – without such restrictions, and the period after 2021 to now, when public life – also of reggae events – “scrambled up” so to speak, i.e. increased again. Pick Myself (or Itself) Up from the ground, as the song by Peter Tosh goes..

Somehow the Amsterdam Reggae scene was kept alive also during corona closures and restrictions ., for – I think – interesting psychological/sociological reasons.

LIVE ONLINE CULTURE

All culture, must be kept in mind in this inevitable digital age, including modern subcultures, but also folk and pop cultures, can only thrive with actual and regular human contacts and gatherings. That is my (informed) opinion, at least. In fact, a free interaction of humans. Both the totalitarian tendencies the corona policies exhibited, as the increased digitalization in the West – with powerful parties behind it (big tech/technocracy) - impacted this. The latter - Internet – became by necessity a replacement of actual “music events” (dee-jays’ or live shows), with more people joining live “online events”, and real-time communication through comments.

Maybe it existed before, but it - known as: online streaming - certainly got a boost with those 2020-2022 “lockdowns” or, in some places, even evening curfews (for a type of influenza, I repeat). People were urged, but even forced to stay home. Also in the international Reggae scene, and from Amsterdam some dee-jays played Reggae live on e.g. Facebook pages. Also I, myself.

While contradictory and – of course – not “the real thing”, these online events could offer some comfort, nice distraction, and good music and variety of taste within Reggae, but also.. connection, and promise of “the real thing”: actual events with other people you can actually feel and smell (in theory.. I mean, haha), and direct sound waves from bigger or better loudspeakers “pumping” Reggae than you have at home.

I learned during my study that the Internet actually developed within US military circles, but luckily it spread outside of that elite context, and the freedom of information could not be tamed or controlled as much as "the powers that be" wanted..

Still.. actual culture requires physical gatherings, in my opinion. In that sense I agree with some critics of the corona policies, such as in the Netherlands Willem Engel, who called them – incl. lockdowns, gathering restrictions etc. - also an “attack on culture”.

REGGAE PLACES

From 1917 to Early 2020 there were still some Reggae clubs active in Amsterdam, notably and most regularly Café The Zen, then in Amsterdam East, also organizing events outside that club/café (under the name Zen Social: or rather ZenSocial productions). Small-scale shows were also regularly held in Café the Zen itself, or otherwise dee-jay events of Reggae dee-jays, especially with many people attending in the weekends. This was alive and still going strong!

Memorable for me was, e.g., the organized trip from Amsterdam to the island of Texel (NW Netherlands) in 2017, with the whole Café The Zen (read: Amsterdam Reggae)-community, with there shows of Warrior King from Jamaica, Marla Brown (daughter of Dennis, living in Britain), and Netherlands Reggae artists coming over. This is a lived culture, with actual physical presence. I even flirted with Marla Brown, or she with me? (just joking..)..

In 2017 and the years after, great artists like Fantan Mojah, Keida (from nice song Ganja Tea), I-Taweh, Lenn Hammond, Kushite, Khalilah Rose, and Vivian Jones, or national Reggae acts, like Jampara, Imishango, Zed I, Joggo, Miriam Simone, Lyrical Benjie, King I I Opo, or Rapha Pico .. really too much to mention - – perfomed or reappeared - in Café the Zen, while ZenSocial organized concerts by great Reggae artists like Everton Blender, Junior Kelly, Akae Beka, and Bushman, in concert venues/halls the direct surroundings of Amsterdam (Zaandam, Amstelveen).

These regular events – plus the very real sense that we were part of a Reggae community in Amsterdam – was later brutally disrupted by Babylon authorities attacking the vey lifeblood of it: freedom.

For the regular visitors of Café The Zen (like me) there was another shock or disappointment preceding this, as Café the Zen announced its closure (something with real-estate, rent costs, I understood) as of March 2020, when the whole corona hype was still a rumour. Very coincidental, but it – intended or not – softened the blow coming thereafter..

I was already starting to look for alternative Reggae places in Amsterdam, when the lockdowns coming in the months after confined me and my social life even more. I had a few private parties with dee-jay’s playing Reggae in that period, just to not always play Reggae I like just at my own home. I enjoy that, to be sure, but I think alterations of spaces and environments for humans are a psychological necessity: you dance among friends and strangers in another place – another “world” temporarily – and then return home for your usual, “homely” things, or relaxing with some fun YouTube film or documentary, either way as your own after party.

The lockdowns disrupted that natural, organic process and made “staying home” obligatory, rather than a respite or refuge. I guess it’s like having sex: it’s not relaxing and fun anymore when you are obliged/forced to.

Café Frontline, near Amsterdam’s Red Light district (with Surinamese owners) stayed open for a while (up to and “in-between” lockdowns) in the period 2020-2022. I was required – as I would in all other bars in Amsterdam – to fill in my name at the Café at one point: a place (Café Frontline) I have visited regularly for years. Not just an intrusion of privacy, but also making you feel guilty for going out: wicked policy, with the virus as excuse. All freedom and spontaneity troubled, though we always tried to hold a good Reggae vibe anyway. And forgot those bothersome policies when sweet Reggae played!

Other places were “visited” so to speak by Reggae selecta’s/dee-jay’s until the lockdowns got stricter, and after strict policies loosened. Selecta’s once playing in Café the Zen – like Jah Sisters - could play in some places in Amsterdam, like Kashmir Lounge, Hunter’s Grand Café, Molli Chaoot, or Bret.

JAMAICA LOUNGE

Another Reggae place I paid more attention to after Café the Zen closed was Jamaica Lounge, in Amsterdam-West. I went before a few times, noticing a bar-like atmosphere with not too loud music, albeit relatively good music (often Jamaican Reggae, because of its Jamaican owner Jimbo)..

In Late 2019 and after, the sound was improved (volume, acoustics), more to “club level”, and I could listen to some good Reggae there, interrupted by lockdown periods as Jamaica Lounge had to comply with it and was closed. Despite this, and when possible, Jamaica Lounge organized sometimes events, and I got more attention to them after Café the Zen closed.

Dependent on the occasional selecta’s/dee-jay’s or music played it was often okay (Roots Reggae or New Roots regularly), now with better sound, those nights at Jamaica Lounge – in Amsterdam West, although sometimes more Dancehall than Roots.

(Photo above: Jamaica Lounge on the De Clercqstraat 117, Amsterdam-West)

I got to know the owner Jimbo better, appreciating how he was music and Reggae-minded (also regarding older Reggae from his youth), and it thus offered some kind of a steady Reggae club for me. Furthermore, Jamaica Lounge not too far from the part of Amsterdam where I live. If I am not too lazy – or my bike broke down – I could even walk to Jamaica Lounge, haha.

Other places with sometimes Reggae music were the Molli Chaoot café in Amsterdam De Pijp/ Old South (a former squatter's café), and some “free-havens” in and around Amsterdam (NDSM, Ruigoord).. Some of these were UK/Euro Dub-minded, but always with some room for Jamaican Reggae.

Unfortunately, those in name “free havens” in Amsterdam and around, started by free-spirited people, often with links to “hippie” pasts, like Ruigoord or some other places within Amsterdam, could not escape the totalitarian corona policies, as they were forced to comply with the rules or measures that made no sense (forbidden outside parties: influenza-like contagion is improbable – almost impossible - with outside air, even if harmful enough to make such a fuss about it)..

The Amsterdam Reggae scene never stopped, though, and not just digitally/online, or virtually in one’s own home. The policies had an isolating/dividing effect which I from my historical and sociological studying justly predicted (not that I am so wise: just dry historical analysis). When public life is not fully “free” for citizens, people tend to withdraw to smaller social circles of trustworthy persons, often family or closer friends. Often also ethnically remarkably homogenous, despite the over 140 nationalities residing in a city like Amsterdam. This limits real cultural “scenes”, and I find this a pity. A small circle leads to a smaller mind, and just aids “divide and conquer” policies of authorities..

Studio work and bands practicing more or less continued, despite restrictions, so some Reggae musicians could still assemble in a limited sense. As long as they did not start to resemble “parties”, I suppose. I myself practiced with some other musicians, in rehearsal spaces in Amsterdam, often called “studio’s”, colloquially.

EARTH WORKS

One of those actual “studio’s”, that is: with extensive (updated) recording equipment, in Amsterdam, slowly developed into a more social space – despite the anti-social policies – with people actually gathering, first on a small scale: the Earth Works studio, led by Ben King, having recorded several Dutch and international Reggae artists in previous years, and having become a nice gathering place in “freer” times before 2020. (Website: https://www.earthworksamsterdam.com). It specializes in Reggae. It remained by necessity “low-key” during lockdown/corona periods, but Earth Works studio changed location from Weesp (just East of Amsterdam), to the North of Amsterdam (Buikslotermeerdijk), on one of those cultural “free havens” terrains, called ADM/Groene Veld. When freedom returned, it had become as much a gathering place as a studio for recording or rehearsing, at least offering some “community” sense (with dee-jays/selecta’s playing and “open” parties), but by then it was already 2023.

Despite its somewhat marginal location in the Far North of Amsterdam (the city virtually ends there), it became a nice, positive gathering place for people of different parts of the Reggae scene: both those who frequented Café the Zen (Roots and New Roots lovers), and the “squatter” scene (including Roots, but also Dub/Steppers lovers), of different ethnic backgrounds, and including some creative artists as well.

I visited Earth Works studio’s several times (already a few times when it was still in Weesp), and liked the vibes. Good that there are such “open”, creative places, anyway, despite its marginal location. Good recording equipment too, by the way, for those musicians interested. For quite reasonable prices, when compared to other studios, and aimed at especially Reggae music.

Now, as I write this, Late 2023, Earth Works studios is still very active, as is Jamaica Lounge, and ZenSocial organizes events again, and since around 2022 Jamaican Reggae artists started performing in Amsterdam and around again. Nice (even great!) concerts by Lila Iké and Nkulee Dube (Lucky’s daughter) at P60 (Amstelveen, just South of Amsterdam) I could enjoy in mid-2022, organized by ZenSocial productions. ZenSocial continues to organize and plan events, by the way, for Early 2024 (see: https://www.facebook.com/CafeTheZen/.

(Photo above: I with Lila Ike (pointing) after her show at P60, Amstelveen, June 2022)

This made me realize that “we are free again”, to quote a song By Burning Spear song from his Studio One days..

Jamaican artists also have meanwhile performed in the bigger concert venues Paradiso and Melkweg, and Reggae festivals took place in the Summer of 2023. I visited several, also in Amsterdam: Reggae Sunsplash and Reggae Lake, including good concerts by big Jamaican or Reggae names (Kabaka Pyramid, Richie Spice, Burning Spear, Capleton, Steel Pulse), and local artists. Some I even saw for the first time (Barrington Levy, Twinkle Brothers, – old school -, and Mortimer – new school Roots).

We are indeed “free again”. Yet: for a city of now over 800.000 inhabitants: the biggest city in the Netherlands, Amsterdam has very few “steady” Reggae places, with regular Reggae to count on. Not much beyond Jamaica Lounge (not far West from more central Amsterdam, but still off-route for many) or Earth Works (also called: Dub Hub) at the brink of Amsterdam-North. Besides this, occasional Reggae parties in other rented places (clubs, community houses) for the occasion.

Better than nothing, of course, but too little in relation to the actual number of Reggae fans in Amsterdam.

REGGAE DEE-JAY’S/SELECTA’S

Those dee-jay’s/selecta’s from mainly the Café the Zen days (2008-2020) in Amsterdam East were luckily not demoralized enough to continue, and when the measures loosened, started to play records again at social, public events: Jah Sisters (Sound Cista, DJ Jessi), Empress Donnalee, DJ Rowstone, DJ Ewa, Mystic Tammy, Ras Sjamaan, the Polish-French Zen Rockers posse (Vega Selecta, a.o.), Loddy Culture, Selectress Aur’ El (many of these people I interviewed for this blog as well). Some from the “squatter” scene (I call it that, haha) meanwhile had become more active, such as Pinedub, Jah Code (Carly), and new names like Eve Lien Dubwise (recently interviewed for my blog), with good musical rootical selections. The latter, Eve Lien, had a more Rootical taste, but some – a matter of taste – played at times more UK Steppers or Dub than Roots Reggae. Not my favourite subgenre within the whole Reggae field, but that is just my personal taste. Some of these selecta’s, of different backgrounds (Polish, French, Surinamese) also played at Earth Works studio, on some parties.

I myself took throughout 2023 some of my vinyl albums too to play as selecta at places like Café Havelaar (central Amsterdam), bar Molli Chaoot (Amsterdam-Old South) or Earth Works studio (Amsterdam North) on a few occasions. My Reggae vinyl collection is quite varied (incl. some Studio One), but a bit concentrated on the Channel One/Rockers period between 1976 and 1983. Each selecta specializes, I guess.

I noticed this also with the different selecta’s now active again in Amsterdam: different specialities: from Classic Reggae, to New Roots (Sizzla, Fantan Mojah, Morgan Heritage, Lutan Fyah, etc.), to Dub and Steppers. King Shiloh travels around and is well-known, but also made a move toward Steppers lately, unfortunately at the cost of Roots, which is on the other hand not absent. Covenant soundsystem, or Shashamane Sound, and other dee-jay combinations with a longer history in Amsterdam and around, and newer “sounds” like Shamba Lion (also Haarlem-based), still focus on Jamaican Roots though, as do Empress Donnalee, Jah Sisters (more New Roots), DJ Ewa, Mystic Tammy, or DJ Rowstone (partly Dancehall too). Some of the mentioned selecta’s combine Steppers with Roots more evenly (e.g. Jah Code). Newer influences also reached a veteran sound in Amsterdam like Shashamane Sound, though, as they (besides Jamaican Reggae), also played modern Dancehall, such as at a recent party – Late 2023 - at the Jamaican Lounge.

Some of these selecta’s/dee-jay’s keep up with newer releases since pre-corona days, as studio work in Jamaica luckily continued after 2020, and artists like Lutan Fyah, Richie Spice, Bushman, Sizzla, Luciano, Hempress Sativa, Aza Lineage, and Jah Mason still could release good songs in the period 2020-2023. Some of these with lyrics critical of the corona policies. Such critique is seldom heard in Western pop, but for historical reasons Caribbean people tend to be more critical of government policies and authorities (as most people in poorer countries, in fact).

REGGAE PEOPLE

Over time I got to find out how there were relatively many Polish people in the Amsterdam Reggae scene. This remained so, and possibly is a result of underground Punk-Reggae connections already existing during Communism in Poland (before 1990). The connections with squatters and anarchist movements are evident as well of this part of the Reggae scene, resulting in Reggae parties with international people, from various European countries, sharing a free, “squatter” spirit: from Italy, Poland, France, Spain, Serbia, Greece, a.o. In fact, I think this is also a nice, open-minded scene, with a real love for Reggae, albeit partly more the Steppers and Dub parts of it among some. Some in this “squatter scene” – to name it simplified – still play and prefer real Jamaican Roots though, and specialized in it, notably vinyl players.

There are however no strict barriers, as this “sub-scene” often mixes, also as dee-jay’s on parties, with the other part of the Reggae scene, like the erstwhile Café the Zen community, with many people of Surinamese descent, but also Africans, Antilleans, and others. UK Steppers or Dub seems less popular among this group, New Roots (Tarrus Riley, Richie Spice, Bushman, Sizzla, etc.) all the more.

The nice thing about a free culture is that these groups share a love for Jamaican music in the broader sense, and are not opposed, but sometimes intermingle as well, resulting in interesting parties or mutual inspirations.

These two groups – already existing “before corona” - come for instance together at the Earth Works studio in recent years, but before 2020 also sometimes. Branches of the same tree, so to speak.

ZenSocial from former Café the Zen) and Black Star Foundation (led by Michelle and Den Den) remained as Reggae-aimed organizations, and kept on organizing events, when possible. Of course they had to comply with corona policy rules, else “Babylon” would bother or limit them, but after the lockdowns, nice events were organized again, such as nice concerts, especially since 2022.

REGGAE ARTISTS AND PERFORMERS

Well, like their Jamaican counterparts, Reggae artists in Amsterdam were limited regarding live performances at the peak of corona plandemic madness. In-between and after the lockdowns, they performed here and there, sometimes on sound. Some continued – like other artists – with studio work, or composing, practicing their music. True artists remain artists, and do not do it for the money. Some demeaning comments once made by British politicians supporting the corona policies that “musical artists can always find other work”, show both disdain and misunderstanding of true artistry. Some people just have to make songs. Like Pablo Picasso had to make paintings, even at the cost of a stable life.

I am one of those people who “have” to make songs too (songs I like to make, the personal appreciation I leave to others), striving for free artistry, and also confined during the lockdowns I paid more attention to varied ways of making songs and composing, with own instruments, equipment and DAW (“home studio” would be too big a word, haha). It offered me a nice creative respite and comfort. I even have a message with my lyrics, haha. While the way I work (home recording) seems solitary, I like to work alone; often for the mere freedom it offers, but also because I do not like nepotism and money: two evils tormenting the music industry (in the Netherlands and elsewhere), and therefore use the digital age (YT channels a.o.) to my advantage, for my self-expression. Check: https://www.youtube.com/michelconci, if interested.

That's me.. Yet I can also imagine that with good friends or trustworthy people, recognizing your soul, it would be nice to make music together, as some in Amsterdam do.

As of, say 2023, several Netherlands-based Reggae artists remained active (as they were already before corona), and released recently new material. Interestingly, also with the Earth Works studio in Amsterdam-North in some cases a role in it (recording, producing).

Rapha Pico, Lyrical Benjie, Miriam Simone, Imishango, Shiwa, Samora, Mo Ali, the bands Flavour Coalition, Dejavu (including also selecta Rowstone), and others can be mentioned, while residing outside of Amsterdam, Black Omolo, Zed I, Strawl, also released some good songs, or meanwhile gave good live shows in Amsterdam, showing increased professional standards over time, as is natural. Many have positive "message" songs too, lyrics-wise, even with some topical themes slipping in.

Both Samora and Mo Ali (orig. from Sudan) impressed me with good songs and tight, groovy musicianship of their bands during their performances at the Reggae Lake festival in 2023 (Amsterdam South East), as did Imishango, or Zed I, recently. Rapha Pico and Miriam Simone also came with good new songs in recent years.

Professional and skilled Reggae instrumentalists – session musicians, as they are called - are certainly also there in the Amsterdam Reggae scene, offering tight-sounding music for artists they accompany, approaching quite closely the Jamaican reggae standard. Totally reaching this standard is impossible, so it is no diss from my part. The best and realest Samba will always be from Brazil, the best and realest Flamenco from Spain, and the best and realest Reggae from Jamaica. It is their organically developed culture, and more deeply enshrined in it. This one notices in inimitable drumming styles – or bass-drums-vocals interactions, that can’t really be copied outside of Jamaica, only approached.

Yet, as an art form Reggae became international, as other music genres, and can still reach quality, also outside of Jamaica, as some nice, international examples show.

Leaving the thorny and overly perfectionist issue of “Jamaican level” aside: there are at this time nuff groovy and good Reggae drummers, guitarists, keyboard players, horn players, and other instrument players (old and young) in the Amsterdam/Zaandam region, such as people like veteran drummer “steady” Freddie Poncin, having played with several Jamaican artists to their satisfaction, skilled bass player Kay Hasselbaink also plays Reggae well, and with Ras Maiky (based in Zaandam, near Amsterdam) there is also a good, Reggae-specialized percussionist.

I am also a percussionist, but play several genres, having switched between Afro-Cuban, African, to Blues, Funk, and Rock, besides also Reggae (jamming/playing live also, not just for own recordings). Ras Maiky, however, played with mainly a lot of different Reggae artists, also Jamaican ones, over the years.

These Reggae session musicians in and around Amsterdam combine under different names (Tuff Sound Band, Unstoppable Force, Royal Roots band, Noble Chanters, Roots Lions, for instance), accompanying the mentioned artists usually aptly.

So as Lucky Dubé sang, “you can’t stop Reggae”: Reggae artists who are for real will continue, despite “anti-concert” or “anti-nightlife” – some say: “anti-culture” policies - by Babylon/authorities in especially the period 2020-2022.

Most artists I know from before 2020 in the Amsterdam seem thus to have “scrambled up” after the lockdowns, surviving, especially artists (who kept recording). In some cases (especially for event organizers) this inevitably meant complying with restrictive policies perhaps more than necessary. A matter of dignity and honour, and while it is easy for me to lambast these choices as cowardice or “uncle tom”-like..on the other hand: rebellion by a few, while most comply, of course has no effect, and brings only persons and their livelihood in troubles, while the system keeps winning. So understandable to survive.

ON BALANCE

“You can’t comply yourself out of totalitarianism”, wise people said, but luckily the authorities stopped the harshest totalitarian policies themselves, after an odd period of jab/”vaccine” propaganda up to and in to 2022..

The damage has already been done, but the Reggae scene as a whole fortunately survived, albeit with scars and traumas. It affected some on the personal level. Private “house” parties became more common after March 2020, but are after all by definition exclusionary and discriminatory, and some insecure people needing confirmation limited such private house parties based on ethnic preferences, family ties, or longtime close friends. Insecurity and ego, as it caressed one’s own ego with on the one side ethnic/national “pride”, and on the other side a celebrated capacity to make “cool” friends.. Mi no like that..

In human psycho-social development – besides – confirmation precedes inspiration, so we actually went back to “private confirmation parties”.. and the Rastaman a seh: Forward Ever and Backwards Never.. Only because of political fiction..

This favourist behaviour also stimulates nepotism – favouring friends over others for honourable positions - : already a problem in any music industry. Mi no like that, neither.

Yet even those “home parties” could be in other cases well-intended and non-discriminatory, I also noticed, but there was still limited space or the matter of sound volume (neighbours!).

Either way, they are usually a resort in totalitarian/dictatorial contexts (Iran has many semi-hidden “house parties”, for example), and serves to isolate and divide the population. The age-old strategy of the “powers that be” to divide-and-conquer or divide-and-rule, and quell popular resistance against injustice.

Critique of or by fanatical proponents - also found in the scene - of the rights-trampling corona measures caused some contacts to be broken, or “unfriending”, to use FaceBook lingo, but these were usually not close friends, but rather acquaintances, who only seemed to share a love for Reggae, but turned out to have different worldviews or political stances. In my experience, mostly people from wealthy families (rich fathers) supported the corona policies, and much less poor people (Black or White), making me mistrust them even more, haha.

So a free, open cultural life – like an urban Reggae “scene” - with friends, but also acquaintances or strangers you do not really know that well, can have “confusing’ disadvantages: with some you share not much more than liking some Reggae songs.. and even that they might listen to differently (to lyrics or not), haha. Surely there are (as in wider Amsterdam) “backstabbers”, big ego's, wicked/badmind people, "crypto-racists" or even psychopaths among them (as everywhere, but relatively most in top business and politics). On the other hand, this variety also has the advantage that you can equally find positive, loving people, kindred spirits and new good friends - or even just interesting, funny people - (through Reggae!). You gotta live and learn.

However, I consider that peanuts, and a small price to pay for freedom and a truly democratic cultural life, including interesting cultural differences. I thus personally overall still favour an open, free, public, pluriform, and rich cultural life in societies, to be able to mingle freely with anyone, stand in front of different type of speakers, in different clubs, attending any event one wishes, going to any place at any time, etcetera. Too many boundaries, inna Babylon.

CONCLUSION

So, the main and positive conclusion is that now, at the end of the year 2023, and the start of 2024, the “Reggae scene” as such is still well alive in Amsterdam and the Netherlands. Many people make Reggae, and events are regularly organized, often in cooperation with concert venues.

On the down side, there came unfortunately no steady replacement – a fixed location - for Café the Zen, once in Amsterdam East, with e.g. a stage for performing and regular, weekly activities. This was also welcomed then for "upcoming" artists, starting on smaller stages, giving them opportunities to perform for people. Earth Works studio in Amsterdam North, though in a less accessible, outer part of Amsterdam, still became something like a replacement. It has a nice studio, but not really a “stage”, though.

To quote another Reggae song, the Reggae organizers are “forced to live just like a Gypsy” (Bunny Wailer’s Blackheart Man).

Amsterdam’s city authorities showed an ugly, undemocratic face during the Corona policies in 2020 and 2021, with police violence against demonstrators (such as on the Museumplein/square.. some Reggae played there too from ghetto blasters, I recall).. This (police violence against peaceful demonstrators) I did not even expect to witness in the Netherlands, and reminded me of stories during dictatorial Fascist/Francoist Spain (up to 1975), heard from my mother and Spanish family. Amsterdam seemed to have become increasingly authoritarian. The prohibitting in 2023 of "smoking weed" in parts of old-central Amsterdam (Red Light District) is also a sign of that (while you can - from a bag - still drink rum or whiskey in the same streets.. nonsense law)..

Despite its still “cool”, liberal image in much of the world (due to the marijuana-allowing coffeeshops, mainly), Amsterdam at present does not seem very Reggae-minded as a city. You really have to search for Reggae music and places.. you don’t find it always automatically.. Some bars or clubs play at times Reggae, maybe. Only a few regularly, at present (Jamaica Lounge in Amsterdam West, due to its Jamaican owner), and some (like Molli Chaoot) are quite Reggae-minded, besides marginally located Earth Works.

Yet, as this update shows: there is still an active and willing Reggae scene, consisting of varied people, wanting to organize events/parties, go to them (many preferably every weekend), or to perform their music or play their records.

In that sense there is still kind of a Reggae community in Amsterdam, with many people knowing each other. Okay: there are a few personal tensions or conflicts between persons as in all groups/communities (even within families this occurs, after all), but mostly “good vibes”..

Amsterdam has relatively many “Black” inhabitants of Surinamese descent (besides directly from Africa itself), and in a broad sense Suriname has some similarities with Jamaica historically (North European/Protestant colonizer, slavery, African roots and retentions, partly from Ghana, in both cases), but is neither totally similar.

To draw a parallel: in the percussion world, percussion players like myself trying to add more Afro-Brazilian (drumming) patterns to the Afro-Cuban patterns I already knew, got surprised that the “percussive transition to Afro-Brazil” was not as easy and smooth as I assumed from supposed historical similarities between Cuba and Brazil (Iberian colonizer, slavery, African descent, incl. a shared Yoruba and Congo heritage). Now I can play also some Samba drum/rhythmic patterns, but it still required some intense studying.

Nonetheless, the Caribbean/African Diaspora connection/similarity of Surinamese people is certainly there and helpful to a degree, also in approaching the Jamaican Reggae standard playing the music, or simply “feeling” the music. Reggae is originally “sufferers” (poor people) music, with many socially critical messages, and is also strongly spiritually influenced by Rastafari. That attracts many people too.

On the other hand, the art form of Jamaican Reggae always attracted varied people of different ethnic backgrounds (Black, White, Asian), also in Amsterdam, with most having at least a sincere affinity with the sufferers and Rastafari message of Black people, though some might listen more to the lyrics than others.

That’s also the beauty and positivity of a free, living culture, with people actually meeting in public places. People of different backgrounds coming together because of the love for a music and culture, getting to know and learning from each other (our shared humanity), while becoming aware – okay: some faster than others - of the “real enemy” or oppressors of common people’s freedoms and rights.

Reggae music lovers (in the Netherlands): Eve Lien Dubwise

How people got to be reggae music lovers or fans has always fascinated me. Maybe partly because reggae still is off/outside the mainstream, also in the Netherlands. It is not found that easily, let’s just say. It requires (to a degree) an extraordinary life path: that is, different from copying the masses, or simply following what’s commonly on television or the radio.

Reggae has of course since decades gone international and widened its fan base, but I have known individually quite different reggae fans within the Netherlands. Black and white (and Asian, or mixed etc.). Males and females. Old and young. Some with little education, some highly educated. Of different class backgrounds. Some combine liking reggae quite equally with other genres (e.g.: some with African, funk, soul, some with hip-hop, some even with non-black music genres), while others on the other hand adhere almost “strictly” to reggae music, and do not get into much else. Some like roots reggae more than dancehall or vice versa. There are even reggae fans – believe it or not - who do not smoke the “ganja herb”.

Furthermore, some have an interest or sympathy for the related subject of Rastafari, some do not, or even despise it. The latter, despise, I find somewhat odd since Rastafari is not the same as reggae, but is nonetheless connected to it.

These differences (and similarities) between and among reggae fans/lovers intrigue me, also in relation to personal backgrounds. That’s the reason why I would like to interview specific individuals who love reggae.

Before this I have interviewed 12 persons – reggae lovers I know, “breddas” (meaning “brothers”, or "friends" in Jamaican parlance) or "sistas" of mine – here in the Netherlands.

I started the series on this blog with a post of June 2012, when I interviewed Abenet. In April of 2013 I interviewed Bill. After this I interviewed Manjah Fyah, in May 2014. For my blog post of August 2015, I interviewed, somewhat more extensively, (DJ) Rowstone (Rowald). In August 2016, then, I interviewed Vega Selecta. In October 2017, I interviewed DJ Ewa. Then, for my post of September 2018, I interviewed for the first time a woman, namely Empress Messenjah or Empress Donna Lee. In August 2019 I interviewed another woman, namely Sound Cista. For my blog post of September 2020 I interviewed another Reggae-loving woman, French but living in the Netherlands, Selectress Aur'El. For my blog post of September 2021 I interviewed again a "bloke" (fun way to say" "man") selecta Hobbol Backawall, and in my blog post of September 2022, I interviewed again a woman, Mystic Tammy

EVE LIEN DUBWISE

This time, October 2023, I interviewed another woman, one that I recently met in the Amsterdam Reggae scene. I might have seen her around before, but I got to talk to her for the first time earlier in this year 2023. She is called Eve Lien, and was when we first spoke “selecting” – playing as Reggae dee-jay – at Café Havelaar in central Amsterdam (close to Spui). There earlier in 2023, there were still weekly, Wednesday Reggae sessions under the title Rocking Time, with varying selecta’s/dee-jay’s from the Reggae scene. I played there sometimes too.

Nice place, Café Havelaar, though with a “low ceiling”: I was aided a bit by my South European genes (Dutch men tend to be taller), but I had to be careful with some of my (Masai-inspired) dances involving “jumping”, haha.

Some memorable moments at Café Havelaar: Lila Ike – the Jamaican singer – trying out some selecting after her show, semi-incognito (two latin words, ha!), the interesting Mexican Reggae band Leones Negros (Black Lions) with a nice, groovy performance with sound and even instruments. Plus: the many (mainly local) selecta’s/dee-jay’s playing good Reggae and Dub music, from records: mostly vinyl.. anything between old and new Roots Reggae, Early Reggae, and UK Steppers and more experimental Dub, was played during those Rocking Time sessions.

Due to some conflict, these Havelaar Reggae sessions came to a premature end before the Summer of 2023, but in one of these last ‘Rocking Time’ sessions at Café Havelaar (June, 2023), Eve Lien, my interviewee now, could still try a selecta/dj session with her (vinyl) records. Good selection, I remembered, including also old Roots Reggae, besides what I call “nowadays King Shiloh-music” (incl. steppers).

Later, hearing/seeing more from her (also online, via social media), I noticed she was really a King Shiloh sound system fan, but also of other “crucial” Reggae and Dub sound systems, also those she travelled to places like Germany, Italy, France (Dubcamp!) and London UK (Notting Hill carnival!!) - or elsewhere - for, Dutch-based and international, including “sounds” like: Indica Dubs, Rootical HiFi, Covenant sound (NL), Rootical HiFi, but also Channel One in London, and Ariwa/Mad Professor’s sound system. She also went to Reggae festivals, like Reggae Geel in Belgium.

This she shared on her Facebook page, so I got an idea of her interests: she surely loved those “big speakers” Reggae/Dub sound systems, but Reggae in general, I deduced.

After the Rocking Time sessions at Café Havelaar in central Amsterdam had to end - around the Summer of 2023 - Oliwia (selectress name: Pinedub) - and other organizers - searched other places for Reggae selecta/dj sessions in Amsterdam. They eventually encountered open arms at the - Reggae-minded - Earth Works music studio, with Ben King as custodian. It is at the grounds of the ADM-terrain (free artistic area), in the North of Amsterdam.

Somewhat peripheral at the brink of Amsterdam-North, Earth Works studio, but a nice place, combining a recording studio (where local musicians, but also Jamaicans like Micah Shemaiah came to record), with a record store, a record "burner" even, a “chill out zone”, and.. a sound/equipment for Reggae selecta’s/dee-jays to play their records. Selecta’s known from the Amsterdam Reggae scene played there (like they did in Café Havelaar) – some of whom I interviewed before on this blog -, I was selecta there also once, but also Eve Lien could continue at Earth Works her selecting and dj-efforts, playing good (also older) Reggae also from vinyl. She did this several times until recently before I write this (October, 2023), mostly in the weekends.

Besides this what she shared, I still did not know so much about her. I noticed some “exotic looks”, but she spoke Dutch well, unlike Italian, Polish, French, Spanish, or Balkanic bredren and sistren, I also know from the Amsterdam Reggae/Dub scene. I found it therefore interesting to know more about Eve Lien Dubwise – as is her FB name -, and her evident passion for Reggae music, and asked her the following questions, which she gladly answered (translated from Dutch).

Where were you born and did you grow up?

I was born in Gdansk, Poland, but I grew up in Hoek van Holland, the Netherlands. I am Polish myself too.

Since when (age) do you listen Reggae music?

As a teenager I on rare occasions listened to Reggae songs, from Natural Mystic and Masada for instance. I think that from about my 25th years of age, I really started to listen to Reggae much more.

What attracted you to it, then?

The tranquility it gave me, and the lyrics.

What other music genres did you listen to?

Reggaetón, moombahton (a Reggaetón-influenced House genre), dancehall, Nigerian pop music, R&B, hardcore.

Has there been a change in your musical preferences since then?

Yes, because now I mainly listen to Roots Reggae and Dub.

Do you have any preferences within the broad Reggae genre? Does, e.g., Digital Dancehall appeal to you as much as Roots Reggae?

I prefer to listen to Roots Reggae from the 1970s, and to Dub, and not so much the “newer” Dub styles, with a few exceptions.

Since when are you a Reggae selectress/dee-jay?

Haha, I am not “really” a selectress yet, I think, but I am seriously working on it. I think I can describe myself best as an “upcoming” selectress.

The very first time I really could play as selectress was at Café Havelaar (Amsterdam), which was – I believe – in June, 2023.

Do you have a preference for Vinyl or Digital/CD? As listener, and as selecta/selectress?

As selectress strictly Vinyl, at home both vinyl and Digital.

Any special experiences or encounters over the years (e.g. with producers or artists)?

At Rastaplas (Reggae festival in the Netherlands, near The Hague) I met Brother Neil from King Shiloh. This was very special for me, because King Shiloh is one of my favourite sound systems

Are you active in other ways within the Reggae scene as well? E.g. radio, organizing events, design, or otherwise?

I go regularly to sessions and festivals, and recently I started to spin/play regularly as selectress from vinyl at Earth Works (Amsterdam).

Do you play any musical instruments?

I used to play organ, and still can play a little, although I forgot how to read notes.

Does the Rastafari message in much of Reggae appeal to you? How does this relate to your own background, or beliefs?

I am not a Rasta myself, but I certainly agree with aspects, such as the equal treatment of people, “do good, and good will follow”.

What kind of music (reggae) do you prefer to listen to now – at this moment -, what specific artists? Any new “discoveries” you would like to mention?

Twinkle Brothers, The Gladiators, Danny Red, Horace Andy, Dub Dynasty.

New discovery; Henry Skeng.

Other things you would like to mention?

“It’s better to be hated for what you are, than be loved for something you are not”

REFLECTION AND COMPARISON

Well, within the constraints of time of us both, I am still glad that she, Eve Lien Dubwise, could answer some questions. Indeed, I learned some things about her I did not quite know.

These include her Polish background, being born in Gdansk (the German occupiers called it Danzig), a toponym I always found funny/intriguing, with a remarkable combining of consonants, making Polish words – or surnames – sometimes difficult to pronounce for non-Poles. Anyway, it maybe explains her connection to Polish people like Pinedub or Vega Selecta, and others, in the Amsterdam Reggae scene, but that’s cool and understandable too.

She additionally told me that she initially did not know there were so many Polish people in the (Amsterdam) Reggae scene.

I noticed these Poles in the Amsterdam Reggae scene early on (even more than 15 years ago), and in an earlier (2016) interview I did for this series with Vega Selecta (also Polish), I learned it might be linked to the active rebellious and underground Punk, anarchist scene (with also Reggae influences) during the communist regime in Poland, up to 1990. There is thus also a connection with the (anarchic) Squatter scene in e.g. Amsterdam.

Eve Lien’s Reggae preference is toward (older) Roots Reggae, so that she shares with me. I listen to Dub less, but can appreciate some of it, if not too digital or Euro “Techno” like, but that is a matter of taste.

Eve Lien is a King Shiloh sound fan, and I've been to their sessions too. I liked these often, but to my taste, sometimes a bit too much digital “steppers” was played (personally I prefer with actual musical instruments), but mostly still nice or audible, and just danceable enough. Other sound systems Eve Lien mentions and visits play more (older) Roots Reggae.

Nice also how she could practice her skills as “upcoming selectress” – as she calls herself – also at Earth Works studio in North Amsterdam, alongside other Reggae selecta’s/dee-jay’s like DJ Ewa, Selectress Aur’El, Pinedub, the Zen Rockers, Sound Cista, Jah Code, Loddy Culture, and several others, who play from Rocksteady and Early Reggae, via Roots Reggae, and New Roots, to Dub, and Steppers.