Akae Beka ADD

Reggaeville Yearbook 2019 - Vaughn Benjamin Tribute

01/22/2020 by Gardy Stein

„THIS MIRACLE OF LIFE I KNOW HAS BEEN PLACED IN OUR HANDS..."

A new year, a new decade, a new beginning: the coupling of the 20s promises to bring success, peace and contentment according to Chinese astrology, as it is the year of the clever rat. Before we rush ahead, though, let us bid farewell to 2019, considering the blessings these last 12 months have bestowed on us and present you our annual Reggaeville Yearbook.

On the following pages we‘ll take you to the highlights of the past year, including the spectacular return of Buju Banton to international stages that started in Kingston on March 16th, as well as many other concerts and festivals around the world. Also, we look at the exceptional releases both veterans like the Inna De Yard crew, Steel Pulse (Mass Manipulation), Marcia Griffiths (Timeless) or Yellowman (No More War) and younger newcomers such as Mortimer (Fight The Fight), Eva Lazarus (More Fyah) or Koffee (Rapture) contributed.

From this x-amount of musical niceness, we asked you once more to choose your favourite, and we congratulate the winner of our reader‘s Album Poll: Stick Figure secured the most votes with their album World On Fire, an album that has also topped the Reggae Album Billboard Year-End Charts 2019. For the full results of the poll, see pages 124-125. READ & DOWNLOAD THE YEARBOOK 2019 HERE!

When it comes to our own success story, Reggaeville is proud to say that we celebrated our 10th anniversary. Our site went online on July 1st 2009 and has since managed to become one of the world‘s leading resource for artist‘s infos, releases, festival/tour dates and, of course, reviews, photos and videos from all corners of the colourful world of Reggae and Dancehall. As if to congratulate us on this jubilee, you made us reach 1 Million subscribers on YouTube in 2019, adding up to a total of 400 million views. Thank you for this continued support - make sure you bookmark REGGAEVILLE.com to stay up to date in the new year as well!

Apart from all these blessings received during 2019, the global Reggae community experienced sad losses, too, and was bereft of many a human treasure. Among them is Vaughn Benjamin aka Midnite aka Akae Beka who has transitioned on November 4th, leaving behind a void that will be hard, if not impossible to fill. We livicate this Yearbook edition to his memory, bringing to your attention pictures, album artworks and fellow artist‘s condolences to honour this great soul who has managed to develop a deep, global consciousness in and through his songs and lyrics. The fantastic drawing of Vaughn that we used on the cover was contributed by pencil artist Solitadia. 

2019 was a busy, eventful year that will continue to influence the one that just started to unfold. The golden 2020 stands for perfect vision and accomplishment, adding up to the number 4 - it brings a pleasant calm, makes you focus on what matters and supports you in realising your dreams.

Go for it - Happy 2020!

READ & DOWNLOAD THE YEARBOOK 2019 HERE!