Aidonia, “Jehova” MP3

Initially, much of Aidonia’s lyricism was girl and gun-centric, but this last year he directed his focus towards a more international audience, catching our ear and keeping it obsessively focused on any YouTube leaks or riddim drops we could sweep up. Starting the new year with more then a few gripping tracks, he’s pushed the process into double speed with the release of “Jehova,” produced by Stephen “Di Genius” McGregor and causing a stir on both Jamaican airwaves and blogs before the day turned over. Straying from his usual harder style, “Jehova” elevates the mood with a hopeful message while also breaking the mold by utilizing a church choir. With another nine months left in the year, we’re hoping that his stockpile of “line-jumping” jams will materialize into that double disk he promised.



Download: Aidonia, “Jehova” (via Di Genius)

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Diplo Invades Kingston

When word spread that Diplo was paying a visit to Jamaica for a DJ gig at Kingston’s Fiction Nightclub, we had to wonder what form he take in front of the discerning locals: the dagger-friendly sounds of Major Lazer, the old school blends and breakdowns of the Hollertronix/Florida era, or some new hybrid that would placate the swaying hips of any musical enthusiast. It turns out the latter, as he drew out a mixed crowd of goth Jamaicans (a first for us), jerkers and dancehallers, a lounging Lykke Li (random) and a mishmash of deejays popping bottles left and right.

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Ding Dong & Ricky Blaze, “You’re So Fly” MP3

While Ricky Blaze may keep to Brooklyn, his sound is no stranger to Kingston dances, and even when it seems like “I Feel Free” can’t take one more rotation on the turntables, it holds on with enthusiasm. Blaze has the tenacity to make happy dance jams and no better Jamaican dancer to build your jam empire with then Ravers Clavers’ Ding Dong. While the two previously collaborated for the track “For Life,” an auto-tune love melody about an ex—and kind of a downer—this time they made an upbeat song for the girl who ‘wine’ her waist just so. Just as the synths ball out and Blaze chimes in with “drop-it-down-low-bring-it-up-slow,” Ding Dong kicks in with his wordy foreplay proving all “ex-factor” issues from collaborations past are just factors and new tracks about having mad respect for the female shape are filled with infinite possibilities.



Download: Ding Dong & Ricky Blaze, “You’re So Fly” (via Johnny Wonder)

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Busy Signal, “Sound of Siren (f. MIA),” “Bare Gal” & “Jafrican Ting”

Last Thursday the EME awards—Jamaican music’s answer to the Grammys—took place in Kingston, and while Vybz Kartel strolled away to the ching-ching-ching sound of gold-plated metal statues in his pocket (including one for Recording Artist of the Year), Busy Signal was somewhere else in the world being “busy wid business as usual”—or at least that’s what his Twitter told us. We’re not mad at Vybz getting so much award play because dude had a seriously prolific year, but no doubt Busy Signal’s scarcity at home base is setting him on a path of global conquest. With a recent leak of his collaboration with M.I.A. circulating the dancehall lines (below), and now two new tracks, “Bare Gal” and “Jafrican Ting,” giving us a more guttural Busy over the ting ting of cowbell and a heavy tribal thump, it appears Busy has indeed been busy sponging up sounds from “world music” and beyond. Busy Signal’s visited this road before with his tracks “Up In Her Belly” and “Dah Style Deh”—two of our favorite tracks for daggering—but here he’s returned to being more controlled and focused, flexing his vocals to the bounce bounce of something undeniably danceable with even more swagger then before.



Download: Busy Signal f. MIA, “Sound of Siren”



Download: Busy Signal, “Bare Gal”



Download: Busy Signal, “Jafrican Ting”

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Vybz Kartel f. Gaza Indu, “Know Bout Me”

When Vybz Kartel dropped his raunchy “Virginity” track with Gaza Indu last spring, we thought it was the end of Kartel’s “Romping Shop”-style mini-series… that is until they got on the “Completely (Come Breed Mi)” tip, a total jammer, but not advice we’re trying to take in the near future. Now that the new year has turned over, it appears Kartel and Indu aren’t done bedding each other in the studio. Even though Kartel and his gaggle of Gaza girls have gone through some rough spots recently—Lisa Hype was kicked out of the Portmore Empire in December—his new “Know Bout Me” track with Gaza Indu proves Kartel isn’t done making catchy collaborative tracks about doing it.



Download: Vybz Kartel f. Gaza Indu, “Know Bout Me” (via Caribbean Media Galaxy)

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Video: Flexxx, “Fresh”

There are lots of things in Flexxx’s new “Fresh” video that seem vaguely familiar. At parts it resembles the opening titles to a James Bond movie or Atari’s Missle Command, and at one point a video girl cleans Flexxx’s upturned telescope the same way Beyonce cleans her toy gun in “Video Phone.” Still, we’re gonna say none of that is nearly as familiar as the distinctly non-patois sounding line “the ladies say they likey, they likey when I ridey,” which is almost exactly like a line one of our own editor’ may have used in the club already—we’re not naming names. We’re not mad at the line at all though, especially from Flexxx, who makes it sound like it’s coming from the mouth of a ’70s porn star (or Barry White) and then sandwiches it with a crisper “Fresh, Fresh.” At times the song itself sounds more soul then dancehall, which in the club makes for a nicer “wine” then a “dagger,” and more importantly requires nothing if not a better lover.

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Mavado, “War is in the Air (Israel Riddim)” MP3

If you don’t know dancehall, naming a riddim “Israel” to spite your arch nemesis and his “Gaza” empire might be so politically mind-boggling that you disregard it as a minor slap on the wrist. For those in the crossfire of the Gaza vs. Gully feud, the Alliance’s Israel Riddim is symptomatic of something much bigger bubbling underneath the dancehall scene’s surface and it’s emphasized best in Mavado’s track, which he earnestly calls “War is in the Air.” Despite this riddim’s dark forecast, it features a more than a few artists who’ve been making waves in the dancehall world, most outstandingly Fagan Fraternity’s Flexx, who popped up on the periphery with his heavy tone and a knack for clever tongue lashings that we can only hope keeps him heavy in the dancehall boxing ring. (via Dancehallzone)



Download: Mavado, “War is in the Air”

Staff Affections

Every Wednesday, FADER style assistant Erin Hansen asks employees and employers at our favorite shops around the world what their most cherished in-store item is at that exact moment. This week, we caught up with San Francisco’s Acrimony.
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Itemized: 8020 Platforms

Every week a different FADER staff member will pick a clothing item or accessory that he or she has lately been spending a lot of time with—or would like to—and write a little love letter to it. We would’ve done a column on who we’re dating but that seemed a little bit much. This week Erin writes about her sweet 8020 Sadie wedges and how her mom got jealous of them.
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Warriors of Radness

When we first came across Warriors of Radness we knew we’d entered into some sort of symbiotic relationship with our late-eighties surf brethren and their bleached stringy locks. The brand’s style revisits the beachbummie days of neon flare and faded pastels while modernizing the shape and updating the look with more beach-to-street garbs. We spoke with them back in our Spring Style issue, but since the hazy days of summer are in full effect and a continuous stream of beach trips is on the horizon, we reconnected with the brand to see what summer looks they’re plugging now. They didn’t disappoint and we’re definitely pining for those loose tanks in every faded color of the rainbow. Peep more looks and Eric Ducker’s story from FADER 60 after the jump. Read More

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