News

FEELING HOT: The MTV Base team at Big Yard Studio

The MTV Base team took two of our new presenters, Ace and Vis, to Jamaica last month to experience Reggae Sumfest and lots of daytime adventures.

Laden down with enough equipment to shoot an epic trilogy, we jumped aboard our upgraded Virgin Atlantic flight to Kingston, where our voyage began.

I had been warned by many that I wouldn’t like Kingston due to its raw nature, but do you know what? I loved it! Experiencing new countries is

about seeing how real people live– not just the tourist beaches.

We visited the iconic landmark Devon House and Shaggy’s legendary Big Yard studio, where Beenie Man and Voicemail were rehearsing for their show that night.

Kingston was buzzing with folks going about their daily business and music pumping through car speakers. But as I was shooting street shots, my

excitement was short lived when a guy on the street showed me his gun popping off finger gesture and advised me not to film him. Oops! We visited the home of

singing siblings Tammy and Tessanne Chin, where Mummy and Daddy Chin were really welcoming and showed us around their studio. Tessanne even sang our MTV

Base show title song for us! Doing a mini spoof of the Eddie Murphy movie, Coming to America, we titled our show, Ace and Vis: Coming to Jamaica, and convinced the boys that Ace should play the Prince of Zamunda and be looking for a wife. Ace wasn’t sure how that would go down with his real life missus but we reassured him she would understand it was just for TV!

Beenie Man was keen to give the guys tips on looking for a wifey, adding that his wife needs to be able to cook, clean, press and sex! Then, we hit the renowned Asylum nightclub, which was a jammed up roadblock by the time we arrived. Before we knew what was happening, fearless Vis had bounded onstage and announced to the stush crowd that he was from MTV and was looking for a wifey for Ace to take back to London! Poor Ace was then dragged onto a chair on the stage, where large gal after large gal (or ‘fluffy gal’ as they like to proudly carry themselves) wined up on him! One woman even continuously body

slammed him! Two days later we travelled to Ocho Rios where the daytime fun began. At Mystic Mountain we travelled in ski lift style over the landscape;

we raced bob sleds; and then, my favourite: We zipped through the rainforest on ariel overhead wires! I was buzzing! Next, we went swimming

with dolphins and then, we did something I didn’t even think was possible: We took horses into the ocean for a swim, with us on their backs! The next trip was to Montego Bay where we were spoilt by Wayne Sterling and Michael Williams from the Jamaica Tourist Board as we stayed at the grandest hotel

ever: the Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton.

Here began the Sumfest three-day festival where the boys spoke to every big dancehall act from Elephant Man to Vybz Kartel and Mavado, as well as US acts

Akon, T Pain and Lil Wayne. Bounty Killer’s performance included the usual controversy as he cussed other acts and insulted Ninjaman by calling his son gay and calling Beenie Man a fish!

Still, we should take a leaf out of the Jamaicans’ book by making our own UK acts headline shows when Americans perform in the UK. It really proved that the crowd valued their own acts more than the US hip-hop stars. Each night the headline act came onstage at around 6am. Most interesting outfit had to go to Elephant Man who later taught us the Gully Creeper dance. It was all very educational! We were so sad when we had to leave Jamaica. We had the best time. To see if Ace found his Jamaican wife and all the biggest and best action from Sumfest, you’ll have to watch Ace and Vis: Coming to Jamaica from this Saturday on MTV Base.

PS: if you’re coming to Notting Hill Carnival this weekend, be sure to catch the MTV Base-Choice FM float where we have lots of big PAs including Shaggy, Lloyd, Busy Signal and Machel Montano!

Published: 18 August 2008
Issue: 1334

site comments powered by Disqus