Negril Review Pt 1

I'm in Negril, that beautiful spot in that western section of Jamaica , lined with affordable hotels and outrageously priced jerk chicken. Its actually the Emancipation weekend, and myself and the other two or so million Jamaicans and a few scattered foreigners are all celebrating the change from British rule to Jamaican government. An interesting phenomenon came out of this weekend a few years ago. Most locals refer to it as "ATI" weekend, which really means Appleton Treasure Island. Sponsors have changed over the years, including Absolute Vodka from Smirnoff, and now the omnipotent Red Stripe. The weekened is wild; crazy all inclusive parties, girls that

make your eyes want to pop out of your head and at the end of it  a gaping hole in your wallet. Parties and the origin aside, what made my trip was the selection of music, particularly three artistes that dominated the soundwaves. At each party, they would play T-pain's top three hits, "Bartender", "Buy you a drank" and his combo effort with rapper Plies on "Shawty". then they would roll into successive remixes of all these songs with Mavado and Munga Honorourable. In a successive rant i'll talk about the Munga-T-pain affair, but these guys completely stole the show. With thousands of relatively buzzed patrons at each party screaming along with these artistes' tracks, I can truly understand T-pain. When I first listened to his songs in the states, I acknowledged (like everyone else on the planet) that his songs were very catchy. But add sand under your feet, a beach vista behind you and  a couple hundred hot girls, and "Buy you a drank" isn't a poppy hip-hop song anymore. It's an anthem. The reverberating bass throbbing through speakers fourteen feet high on Munga's "wine pon it and talk to me" makes you like the proverbial Clark Kent. Your glasses fall of and you hair becomes disshevled; you put on your superman so and go after the beautiful babes. Then Mavado comes in, with his usual crooning about Violence and the benefits of rough sex wiht random women, and you have a great formla for success. I can't wait till next year. :p