ENTERTAINMENT
April 5, 1993 | DON SNOWDEN
If Maxi Priest is the new reggae generation's romantic seducer, Shabba Ranks is the reigning king stud. But in his sold-out first show at the Strand in Redondo Beach on Friday, the Jamaican dancehall deejay spent too much time pushing the persona at the expense of the music. True, boasting has been integral to both dancehall and rap, and Shabba's aggressively sexual stance may be the reason behind his American success and catalytic role in the dancehall/hip-hop link.
ENTERTAINMENT
October 4, 1992 | DON SNOWDEN, Don Snowden is a frequent contributor to Calendar.
Matt Robinson went to New York in 1982 to attend college, but he may have had his most educational experience on a Brooklyn street corner. "When I would visit friends in Brooklyn, I'd see one guy on the corner of Flatbush and Hawthorne with his (boom) box playing whoever was the cool hip-hop thing," said Robinson, 30, now an independent record producer who founded the underground dance club Funky Reggae when he returned to L.A. in 1986.
ENTERTAINMENT
February 18, 1993 | ALEENE MacMINN, Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and
international news services and the nation's press
Cast Change: Dancehall reggae star Shabba Ranks won't be part of the Bobby Brown concerts Friday and Saturday at the Forum as advertised because Ranks collapsed at a video shoot about two weeks ago and was ordered by doctors not to continue the tour, a spokesman for the performer said Wednesday. Brown will be joined at the shows by TLC and Mary J. Blige as scheduled.
ENTERTAINMENT
March 3, 1993 | SHAUNA SNOW, Arts and entertainment reports from The Times, national and international news services and the nation's press
Ranks Dropped: Grammy-winning reggae singer Shabba Ranks has been dropped from this evening's "Tonight Show" after complaints to producers by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Ranks had made anti-gay remarks, including support of violence against gays, on a recent British television appearance. An NBC spokeswoman called the cancellation a "human rights" issue.
ENTERTAINMENT
November 22, 1993 | DENNIS HUNT
Dancehall reggae music was a sidelight in Shabba Ranks' headlining set Friday night at the Hollywood Palladium. The real star was sex. The steamy Jamaican rapper-singer tantalized the audience with crude lyrics and suggestive moves, topping things off with a strip tease and some of the tawdriest taunts this side of Hustler magazine. Judging from the ecstatic squeals of the female fans, his strip routines scored big.