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On
Saturday, March 16th the 4th annual Linkage Awards made its presentation at
Mount Vernon High School in Mount Vernon, New York.
Red carpet treatment began at 7 pm, where
various artists went through the pomp of media and attention talking to a
variety of well attended press including Wynford Williams
and crew as well as ER.
Several local TV networks were also in attendance to get a piece of the action
and a ton of Social Media journalists popped their recorders in everybody's
face.
The actual staging began about a
half hour late due to technical difficulties, but the real fact is even the
Grammy's are loosing
ratings as far as award shows are concerned. Linkage had some restrictions due
to budgetary considerations but managed to transform the space into a positive
and entertaining event.
Artist support was sterling including Lady
Saw, Luciano, Sanchez, John Holt, Lady G, Konshens,, Romaine Virgo, Christopher
Martin, Nature, Khago and many more.
An 80% capacity crowd made their way to
the auditorium despite snow on the last day of winter. And they enjoyed
themselves even though at times some of the action looked to resemble an
unintentional Saturday Night Live skit. It was like a presentation periodically
weak on sound quality and a band that would just stick it out until eventual
transition to clarity would come. It subsequently got to the point where
surrealistic antics via what seemed like a Caribbean Karaoke singer staggered
the audience. But none of this bothered Sanchez
dressed in his floor length mink stole rocking in his front row seat
periodically shaking the hands of various fans and well wishers. People were
just happy to have an appreciation for solid performances and for the hard work
that reggae and dancehall talent goes
though to make an honest living.
There were a ton of awards presented
including Isaiah Laing
getting the Producer of the year award for Sting 2012,
a solid turn around for this brand. Ninjaman won
the Life Time Achievement
Award, “Nature”
the Break Out Artist of the year,
Khago and I
Octane won a few as well as Konshens
and Christopher Martin
who won two each and Lady Saw
about three.
Performance wise Luciano
and Lady Saw stood out even though Nature
gave them some dance routines that caught attention when he sang World Peace.
Fans were seen later congratulating this
new youth to the US market encouraging him to continue along his path of clean
and conscious music.
But as always Lady
Saw squeezed out a little extra by
recognizing DownSound
Records boss, Josef Bogdanovich
sitting in the front row with a couple of white girls. Saw
gave the exec a shout asking him for a lift on his private jet and later teased
him with a few X rated compliments getting a stir from the audience. Bogdanovich
smiled then got up from his seat, walked back stage and congratulated Lady
Saw for being the best female in the
business.
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