Notting Hill Carnival with General Levy, Lady Banton, Mikey Dread and Alicai Harley
General Levy, Lady Banton, Mikey Dread and Alicai Harley share their love of the Notting Hill Carnival, Europe's largest street festival.
As the world famous Notting Hill Carnival isnβt taking place this year, we thought weβd have a party of our own, Caribbean style.
Ragga artist and MC General Levy leads the charge. His parents were Trinidadian, and from an early age he started to write lyrics and form sound systems. If you donβt recognise the name, then youβll definitely know the voice; Incredible, his β94 track with M-Beat, changed the changed the sound of jungle and drum & bass forever.
Joining him is carnival royalty, the selector Lady Banton. She set up the first all-female soundsystem in the UK, the Mellotone Sound System, in 1989, and became a Carnival favourite soon after.
Mikey Dread is a founding member and chief selector of one of the UKβs best known and most loved sound systems, the Channel One Soundsystem, who have played at the Carnival every year since 1983. Named after the famous studio in Kingston, Jamaica, they bring the reggae, the dubplates, and the βhot steppasβ.
And finally, breathing new life into the festival is Alicai Harley. Born in Jamaica, she caused a stir releasing a string of singles and EPs, before working with the likes of Stefflon Don, Kamille, Stonebwoy, Aluna, and Kojo Funds. She released her debut album The Red Room Intro earlier this year and is the self-proclaimed βyard gyal inna Britainβ.
Together the group discuss all things Carnival: the cost of those costumes, when and how they got started, why you need the rain to cool you down, you parents not letting you go, and the importance of talent over hype.
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- Sat 28 Aug 2021 21:06GMTΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Service
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