For several decades myself and many others who suffer with the same affliction as I, have been getting our reggae medicine from Ernie B's Reggae in the US of A which was a wondrous mail order outlet, stocking about 99% of reggae music releases.
What made shopping at Ernie B's was their excellent customer service & the fact that if a piece of reggae music was issued anywhere in the world , nine times out of ten you'd find it at Ernie's.
Sadly over the last couple of years Ernie B's has slowly but surely drifted further & further from their reggae roots.
Where once you could find all the latest vinyl releases by the leading reissue labels such as Pressure Sounds, Iroko Records, Onlyroots & Digikiller/Deeper Knowledge, now you'll find their latest release web-page filled with pop & rock artists.....meaning that now we collectors have to source our music from the UK or Europe at a huge increase in costs.
Surely not having a US mail order base for reggae will severely hamper these small niche reggae labels from reaching a wider audience?
Having nowhere in the US to buy from may well be the final nail in the coffin for collectors such as myself......
j j
hello, i like reggae funky songs and rap from the early 80's from jamaica, caribbean islands and africa, i would like to listen 2 tracks by audio funk mc, the price is right and international punk rocker, 1980, from jamaica, could you send me the songs by email? thank you
ReplyDeletes.belasri@laposte.net
I too have been feeling the effects of Ernie B's "crossover." While it saddens me that the reggae is taking a back seat to pop and rock, it saddens me more that it's obvious Ernie needs to resort to these tactics to keep his business afloat. I applaud him on taking these drastic measures to insure his livelihood but it hurts to see that reggae alone will no longer pay the bills.
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