KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s newest reggae music package being offered to the world took off in Kingston on Saturday August 17 at Serengeti, Hope Gardens, called Jamaica Live.
Jamaica Live is a monthly musical concert series featuring mainly Reggae artistes, with some Hip Hop and R&B artistes, along with special fusion of the genres on some shows.
The first show featured a varied offering of vintage and dancehall music, led by one of Jamaica’s legendary recording artiste and a veteran in the music arena, Ken Booth. Don Dada and Seed a multi-platinum act from South Africa, demonstrated the international power of Reggae music.
Also on stage were Phillipidon and Skill, two Jamaican-born brothers, Phillip and David White, the architects of Jamaica Live, who reside in Houston, Texas.
Jamaica Live will feature one concert each month, with the second concert scheduled for Margaritaville in Ocho Rios on September 27.
The shows are primarily being produced for television broadcast initially through Comcast, Verizon, Roku, Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC), with additional Platforms pending.
Radio and social media coverage has been arranged through the Reggae Top 20 countdown show, broadcasting from Johannesburg and simulcast online on Toronto’s Ranks Radio, and London’s Kbit Radio London, reaching listeners from over 166 countries.
Additionally, there is terrestrial broadcast from Zambezi FM- Zambia, which covers millions of listeners from Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana, Kenya, Trinidad (Synergy TV and Radio) and Jamaica through Flow.
It will be video streamed online through Facebook. The shows also carry video highlights of Jamaica’s natural attractions, historical places and artistes interviews.
David White conceptualizer and producer of Jamaica Live has a passion for Jamaican music which started very early.
Hearing reggae music for the first time, after returning to Jamaica from living in Canada, he loved it. He and his older brother Philip (Phillipidon) were instant lovers of the music, listening to all styles of Reggae, Dancehall, Big Youth, and any dub version of a song they could find would excite them.
As students at Meadowbrook Prep School, they would be the two smallest beings on a dance floor doing the latest S90 Skank, winning dance contest for schools and festivals around the city.
The two would walk many miles, without money to go to concerts, dances and barbeques, just to hear and see the artists and enjoy the new sounds of the day. They were known as “di little youth dem “; the gate people knew they had no money but they would let them in anyway.
At Caliber High School, Philip “Phillipidon” White in Fourth Form, started to practice the art of DJ toasting or sing jay, following his idols, Big Youth and U Roy at the time.
David in First Form, would be the cool selector, master engineer on his tapes, playing music on one small tape radio box and recording the studio session on another, thus mastering the art of tape-to-tape recording and tape splicing for editing out mistakes or unwanted sounds.
This is where the brothers started their journey in the music and entertainment world.
The White family migrated to Texas in 1979 where they attended school, Philip at university and David in high school. Throughout their education journey they were a regular presence at dances and concerts that involved Reggae music, and through their college days were instrumental in bringing to Houston some of the top reggae acts, including: Steele Pulse, Third World, Sugar Minott, the Tidal Wave, Louie Ranking, Brimstone and Fire, Nicodemos and Bobby Culture, creating and participating in cultural festivals to promote Jamaican and Caribbean culture.
In 1987 while David was attending the University of Houston and Philip was doing his Master Degree at Prairie View University, the two formed a reggae band called the Liberation Band.
This band was instrumental in the staging of many popular reggae festivals in that city and throughout the US. These included: the Bob Marley Festival, Marcus Garvey Day Festival, as well as International Festival. They also played regularly at two of the most popular Reggae Clubs in the States: Jamaica Jamaica, and the Caribanna, both in Houston, Texas.
David White, developed as a lead singer and keyboard player and had multiple roles as band manager, sound engineer, driver, body guard, equipment manager, lawyer, accountant, music director, producer and one man band when called on. All of this brought him the nickname Skill.
In 1999, along with a production studio out of Jus Fresh Studios, David started an internet marketing company, which specializes in website development and marketing for artistes, in which he learned another great component to the music industry- the marketing and promotion of a product.
Lil Troy (“ Wanna Be A Baller”), the late Hawk, and the late Calvin Owens, Grammy award winning producer, were three of many who he helped, not only doing marketing but also using his own company to provide sound on many occasions. David confesses that one of the most challenging jobs was for Calvin Owens and his over 50 piece orchestra, where almost all instruments had a microphone.
In 2002 David joined forces with Hip Hop Artiste and producer Kage, AKA Charlie Glendale, to work solely with their label Rocwilda Bites with which they have produced and released many albums for Kage and managed the Liberation Band, guiding their product to Billboard charts and receiving many an honor for their product.
Owning two studios, having their own sound company and working with young, experienced and upcoming talent Rocwilda has found that being independent and owning all the components to make and develop a product makes a label truly independent.
In 2014 David and Philip White decided to venture to Jamaica to work on products of their own.
With Kage they formed the marketing company called the Supa Team, in which they combined all the components needed in the world of music to create a team that could work in unison to create, market and produce entertainment products and release them with the help of the whole team.
This team consists of producers, DJs, directors, videographers, editors, athletes from multiple countries across the western hemisphere to launch projects they endorsed or created.
It was while working on a few projects that David decided to start doing concerts in the Kingston area. These concerts were known as Kingston City Live and they took place at a local restaurant and sports bar called the Calabash.
Working with established artistes and upcoming groups like the ATF Band, Esco Da Shocker, Natty Baldhead and Rua Ru, Kingston City Live shows were a success; David saw that, with a little funding, this show could go national and international. He also noted that reggae bands and live reggae musical shows that caters to families were few and far between. It was from this that David developed the idea of Jamaica Live, a concert series that would happen all over the island.
In April of 2019 David linked with close friend and producer of the Reggae Powerhouse Band, Leroy Scarlett, to develop the radio feature Reggae Powerhouse Top 20 Reggae Countdown Show. Today, this show has a weekly reach of over 200,000, streaming, over 80,000 on Facebook, and millions from terrestrial stations, listened in over 166 countries worldwide and featuring a simulcast broadcast that comes out of Johannesburg, which links to Toronto’s Canada- Ranks Radio; United Kingdom, Kbit Entertainment Media; Trinidad and Tobago The 919FM; with terrestrial broadcast on Zambezi FM- Zambia, Radio Mozambique, with spin off TV show broadcasting the top 10 videos from the radio show, Y1954 TV in Kenya and Kbit TV in UK, the RPHC show is unifying the world.
David White joined the Digital distribution company, Southwest Digital Distributors as VP in May of this year, which gives him and his company all the connections needed to make a great record label, marketing and Promotion Company, as well as radio, concerts, distribution, marketing, media and recording all under one roof with many connections.
With the foundation being laid, David White, with his mass media concept of marketing promoting and backing them up with great artistes and concerts should become a well-known name in the entertainment industry. He has been able to stay behind the scenes until now, but his time for coming out is now, look out for David “Skill” White in the years to come.
