Best of the Best 2009

Show observed and reviewed by Roxy Johnson - West Indian Times Writer

Photos by Roxy Johnson

Best of the Best 2009 took place over Memorial Weekend on Sunday, May 24th at Bicentennial Park in Miami, Florida.  West Indian Times was early, I wanted to see everything that was going on, plus the press tent normally gets full quickly.  Anyway lets get down to the real reason we were there.

The first artist to hit the stage was a new artist who is now based in the Orlando, Florida area by the name of Ateba.  Born in Jamaica but raised in Brooklyn, he loves making music and considers his style progressive Reggae due to the style and beat.  He wants to capture everyone not just one audience of people, Ateba has a long future ahead of him if he keeps that mind set.

Next was non other than Shifta who we met 2 years ago( Cham you were there) at an after party. He was working on so many projects one being his new album. He wanted me to make sure and let everyone know he was of African decent, his Dad is from Ethiopia and his Mom is Jamaican. He is also working on a song or two with an artist from Ethiopia. He has several mixed tapes he is hosting one of them is," Reggae Picks 22".Trust me he had been on the grind for a little while and we have great things to look forward to from him.

Camar, was next the tune he did that stands out is his remix of "Blame It". I love it but I must say he loves people and it showed in his performance!

Spice was my favorite she made a move on stage that every women was dying to learn! Her performance was truly worthy of her winning the Best Female DJ of Jamaica.  She was proud because the people voted on this one. Keep it up and the top is where you will stay! You said you wanted to be a household name, you proved yourself in New York following Alicia Keys, what a great response from the crowd, You are almost there.

Troublesum, hailed from NY and described himself as a man with 2 personality's. One on the stage and off. He also has a clothing line look for it in stores soon!

 Kiprich almost made me go on stage something about him! He has tunes that are relative to things going on.  'Nuh Ugly' is causing an uproar in the dance hall he said the girls are going crazy  dancing and creating moves like never before. 

Flippa Mafia did a few songs and received a moderate response from the crowd.

Ras Penco gave quite a show on stage. He and Jovi Rockwell have a tune together 'I Am For You". Most people know his tune Thousand Miles!

Capelton was his usual self full of energy and no matter what the crowd loved him.

What can you say about my second husband Cocoa T,( Beres is my  first) he has such a way of dealing with his music and making me and the crowd crazy. A keeper for sure..

Dilly Chris" Real Women" has a album coming in July  titled "Where I"m From" and he will be touring Europe also.

The Rolling Stones were a combination of Fresh Prince and Ricky Blaze.  Prince creates the dance moves and Ricky of course is the music genius. They worked together for 4 years and then became the Rolling Stones. 

Soca queen Destra was outstanding in her performance we all learned how to wine that night! She was dressed in  a beautiful  tight gold  dress and heels. The perfect lady. What a balance; what every man wants..

Now lets talk about Beenie Man he was angry because he had a short time onstage. He said he will never perform on Best of the Best show again, however, he failed to mention that last year he was asked to leave the stage and he would not leave. Artists do you not realize how disrespectful it is to the next artist when you infringe on his time?  His beef was that Bounty and Movado had much more time than he did, in fact Beenie said that he was supposed to go on at 7pm so he could do his whole set but the promoters had him waiting until 10pm and he got less than half the time he was promised.

Bounty Killer wore black and acted like his silly self ranting and raving about so much that you just said 'here we go again.'

On the other hand Movado was all in white and showed the utmost respect for Bounty, but Movado was the star of the stage.  The crowd loved Movado, sorry I hoped to get some pictures but we could not get to the stage at that time.  Next year Lady Cham has to be there with her magic camera! One question I ask myself is; Is Bounty done or can he make a come back?  Because he did not get much of a response from the crowd.  Truly, the people were there to see Movado.  So I had to wonder why they were on stage together.

.Flippa Mafia did do his tune and was uneventful.

I cannot forget Tony Matterhorn, we talked about his close relationship with his mother.  His song "Survivor" shows his soft side and that he is Maggies son.  He said, she is still the boss.  He also says he has to keep the sexy side for the ladies, good job! 

Serani, being new has been busy on the scene and he held his own giving a great show of all his talents. And he looked  good ladies! 

To some extent the Hip Hop was amazing, I love Ace Hood and Trey Songz song" Ride", like I told him I will ride anywhere he wants to go!  Young Jeezy was great also, they travel with some of the largest men I have every seen! Rick Ross was very friendly  gave a good performance.   T-Pain is always the man. Now  on the other hand DJ Khaled was rude and walked out the press tent, no nothing, no loss!  He and some of the others cursed the whole time one stage thinking that is what the crowd would love, not true at all ,(there were children in the crowd)  everybody is  not moved by profanity.  Maybe his lack of stage presence was why he let the tent...)

Overall the performances were great but in all honesty it was not the best show that the Best of the Best has put on. 

Until next time..

Dawn Johnson