Strong Movement at 45 years

Dancehall heavyweight  Mavado delivered a commanding set early yesterday morning at the 2017 Stone Love Anniversary, held at Sabina Park, Kingston.  The sound system was celebrating its 45th anniversary. When the ‘Gully God's’ voice emerged from the speakers the screams and salutes were almost deafening. Aerosol can spray was ignited and overly excited females huddled close to the stage to capture videos and pictures.

 Although his time on stage was extremely limited, the entertainer made his presence felt as  he hurled out a string of hits including 'Beat and Teach', 'Laugh and Gwan', 'Deh Ya Forever', 'Progress', 'Fresh Cash' and 'Big League'.

“Bwoy clean and nice eh man! A my artiste dat from day one y'nuh. Me really sorry him couldn’t get a hour fi do him song dem, cause mi probably nah go see back mi baby fi now,” a female was overheard saying to her friend before both began tugging at Mavado's pants as he performed on one of the monitor boxes at the front of the stage.

The Grants Pen native shared the stage with singer Jahmiel, who also delivered a scorching miniature set. The entertainer, who rode good momentum in 2017, lit up Sabina Park with crowd favourites such as 'Strongest Soldier', 'Great Man', 'Do You Remember', 'Things Take Time' and 'Badness', a collaboration with Mavado.

As expected Sizzla was in a no-nonsense mood as he ‘bun a fire’ on anything he deemed unrighteous.  The Judgement Yard artiste started his set with a string of freestyles lashing out at men who practise oral sex. Being a Rastafarian, Sizzla did  a number of songs dedicated to his faith, but also had some for the ladies and his mother.

The entertainer was in fine form as he belted out the lyrics to 'Words of Divine', 'Karate', 'Holding Firm', 'Good Ways', 'Guide Over Us', 'Simplicity' and 'Thank you Mama'.

I-Octane led the earlier performances and his maturity as an artiste and performer is becoming evident with each outing. Shane O, Tony Curtis, Wayne Wonder, Nitty Kutchie, Ghost and Anthony Cruz performed. There was a surprise and welcome performance from Shaggy and Haitian born hip-hop artiste Wyclef Jean.

The hundreds of Stone Love supporters were also treated to jugglings from a number of prominent sound systems and selectors, who all had the massive dancing up a storm before the performances.

Veteran deejays Admiral Bailey and Tiger  were  awarded by Stone Love’s CEO Winston Wee Pow Powell for a dubplate made for the sound system in the 1980s.  Thanking Bailey for his contribution towards Stone Love Movement, Powell labelled the ‘Dandruff’ dubplate as one of the most popular in the sound system’s history.

Except for a visibly irritated Bushman, who hurled a string of expletives at the organisers when his set was cut short due to time constraints, the event ran smoothly and could be considered as one of the better stagings in recent times. However, for future stagings it was suggested by patrons that Powell and his team start the event earlier in the night to prevent rushed sets.