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Issue #2

February 10, 2015

“I want you to get together, put your hands together one time.”

St. Germain’s “Rose Rouge” is playing in my headphones. It’s 10:03am EST on Friday morning and we’re putting the final touches on this week’s issue of Rootfire, the second since we relaunched. The song sums up where I think this is all going…. it’s coming back to the music, because it’s always been about the music. And the music always comes back to people, because people make music. And at Rootfire, we’re making music with people. Dig?

This week we dropped a brand new track by New Kingston— our first Rootfire World Premiere song release. The response has been incredible. Since Monday, the song has had nearly 20k plays and inspired a trail of comments connecting fans from Brooklyn to Sweden. The new Rootfire World Premiere series will be followed up in the coming weeks with an updated Rootfire.net mobile experience that puts the music out front. The goal is to make it easy to tune in and check out during a garage ping-pong game, or while walking your dog, or you’re stuck at your desk working.

Just like last week, we’ve also got some really great storytelling in this week’s Rootfire, full of big themes, like how globalization makes reggae more crucial than ever.

Issue #2 out now, phase #2 in the works.

“Put your hands together, one more. I want you to get together….I want you to get together…..I want you together.”

Root down, live up!

Contributors:

  • Giles Morris - Author & editor
  • James Searl - Author
  • Seth Herman - Author
  • Andy Pritiken - Graphic design & cover photo
  • Curtis Bergesen - Community mgmt.
  • Evil Vince - Photos

A Nigerian political dissident working in Austria. A Jewish bike messenger from Long Island. A fashion designer in Manhattan who grew up in a Durban township. A writer from an apple farm in Western Massachusetts. An Oglala Lakota painter raised on the Rez in South Dakota.… Read More

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New Kingston’s fresh new single “Honorable” turns everything you know about the band upside down.

The song is like graduation day. Picture hundreds of students and their families sprawled out on the campus lawn. There’s a high that ripples through the crowd, a sense of accomplishment, yeah, but also of abstract anticipation.… Read More

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Photos: Evil Vince

The low E string of Jay’s guitar broke on the opening chords of “Until We Burn In The Sun.”
It was Nov. 4, 2007, and I was with Bedouin Soundclash at the Zodiac in Oxford for the first of an 11-show run in the UK.… Read More

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“Oooooh Reggae? That’s fun! My girlfriends and I went to Jamaica. We were naughty!”

“Ooheaa?” I muttered.

Her hands plunged deeper into my mouth, a streak of saliva slipping out the side.

“Oh yeah! They told us not to leave the resort but we did.… Read More

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