VP comes home for ‘Strictly The Best – Live’ concert in MoBay

Having released their Strictly The Best compilation CDs since 1992, VP Records has now strategically moved to take the Strictly The Best brand and convert it into a total lifestyle package. Unfolding as part of the move is Strictly The Best – LIVE, a concert scheduled for Montego Bay, St James, on Wednesday.

This strictly by invitation event will also serve as the official launch for the label’s 40th anniversary celebrations, which run for the entire year and the local launch of Strictly the Best Volumes 58 and 59.

With lots of pomp and ceremony, the New York-based VP Records will make a return to its homeland, Jamaica, for the special live concert at Usain Bolt Tracks and Records, Montego Bay. The label says that the Second City, Montego Bay, was specially chosen to host this event instead of the capital, Kingston, and Richard Lue, director, business development explained.

“We are going to Montego Bay to reconnect, and this is deliberate. Montego Bay is strictly the best tourism capital. MoBay’s Hip Strip is strictly the best entertainment strip and Tracks and Records is strictly the best venue simply because Usain Bolt is strictly the best,” he said.

Lue further explained that Strictly the Best – LIVE will be a one-of-a-kind multimedia album launch promotion that includes RETV, TVJ, and FAME FM in Jamaica; Radio link-ups globally and simultaneous watch parties in Atlanta, New York, Fort Lauderdale, and Jamaica – Ocho Rios and Kingston. A two-hour segment will be broadcast live via RETV and worldwide over the VP Records’ YouTube channel.

The event will include performances by Beenie Man, Jah9, Tarrus Riley, Estelle, Alborosie, Christopher Martin, Shenseea, TeeJay, and Raging Fyah as well as other special guests.

Last Friday, Strictly the Best Volumes 58 and 59 were officially released, and VP Records hosted the first Strictly The Best – LIVE in London featuring London-based dancehall artiste Lisa Mercedez, whose single, Come Back Home (Netflix And Chill), is featured on the dancehall compilation.

REGGAE EXHIBIT

Among the events scheduled for the anniversary is a historical exhibit titled ‘A Reggae Music Journey’, which will be initially set up at the Donald Sangster Airport in Montego Bay. Lue outlined that the exhibition would move to Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport on July 1 to coincide with International Reggae Day and will remain there for the rest of the year.

VP Records started as Randy’s Record Mart, a record store in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1979. The label was founded by the late Vincent ‘Randy’ Chin and his wife, Patricia Chin. The name of the label is a product of the first letters in the founders’ names.