Parties that went all night long, like Eggnog seh, were Spiritz - the last and arguably the best party of the season, and Ratio 5:1 - a big hit despite the number of other events taking place that night like Crazy Horny & Sugarshack. Hint for promoters - find a venue that is as remote as possible but still a reasonable drive away. I told Howie and Mark (Elan Entertainment - Spiritz) that on top of their bill for advertising on Whaddat, they owe me gas money.. hahaha! But trus' mi - that 20 minute drive up into Red Hills was well worth it!

Other notable events in December '02 were Stone Love Anniversary on the 14th at Marketplace and Darren, Neil and Ard's (DNA) Euphoria on the 28th at Livity.

The world-reknowned, Immortal Stone Love celebrated their 30th Anniversary in fine style at Marketplace this year. Buju's show-stopping (literally) performance which included Bounty and Junior Gong, will not soon be forgotten. Over the past couple of months, in case some of you haven't noticed, Buju has been headlining many a stage show much to the delight of his fans. Gargamel is back in full force so expect some new material from him in 2003.

Euphoria, a Whaddat approved event, lived up to the hype and did justice for the venue, best known for hosting 1991 in 2001. After 3 highly successful invitation only and bottle parties, one of which was voted Party of The Summer, Darren Virtue and Neil Crooks brought in a third partner, Ard Jarret, to produce this all-inclusive Christmas event.

Jazzy T and Sala made the night what it was by spinning intelligent and for-vibes-only rounds. In fact, I passed on East Fest in lieu of this party, which successfully made it past the 3am mark. Whaddat?com is anticipating more great nights with DNA in the months to come.. trus' mi, mi deh deh pon mi teet. Ok... ask me about the pictures now. Let me just put it this way... sometimes even the best of us fluck up and erase hundreds of pics by mistake (sorry - no Euphoria, DeJaVu or Spice).

And that's all I have to say about that.

The Rundown wouldn't be complete without mentioning the real big show - the Greatest Show On Earth. Sting 2002 was all about the love. The show, actually dubbed "Bring Back The Love" featured Jamaica's finest recording artists on stage at Jamworld - Buju, Beenie, Bounty, Sizzla, Capleton, Wayne Marshall, Vybz Kartel... well, you know who and who is JA's finest.

Read the long and short of it at Whaddat.com/Sting, but 1 month into 2003, it is obvious to all that the artists are pressing the love & unity issue, as was plainly evident at Spectrum, January 31. Fans have been thrilled to see their favoutire artists on stage together with no passa passa going on. For me, it was a special treat to watch Sizzla soak in and thoroughly enjoy Capleton's performance on Sting.

A couple artists however, don't seem to agree. This is no good... *speech! speech!*

2002 was a - the - milestone year for Dancehall music with Sean Paul taking the charts by storm, his career coming to a head in December. Sean continues his reign as Dancehall Ambassador by maintaining a heavy recording regiment and constantly dropping more joints. Plus Wayne Wonder's "No Letting Go" is currently rotating on BET. Of course we can't leave out Shaggy, Beenie, Bounty and Saw. Whether or not these Dancehall related successes are due to luck, major label $upport or collabs with commercial darlings, the fact remains that we have made an impact on the rest of the world over the past 12 months. They have stopped, looked and really listened to us for the first time in 2 decades, and there is no turning back now.

Therefore, our artists and media alike must act accordingly. It's all about maintaining a professional attitude - looking good, sounding good and acting good. It's all about the love, baby! Artists - fans like what you like. Centres and forwards - you all know that you have the power to control the crowd. Bounty and Ninja went on stage at Sting and had the crowd railing when they dissed Supercat and Beenie. Let's pretend they went on and praised their rivals. Chances are, the crowd would had a similar reaction.

Anyway, it's just a thought, but should ALL our artists unite and leggo the phukrey, Jamaica will obtain a driving force of unimaginable proportions. Thank you.... goodnight.

Joke. All in all Christmas was a nice time. As they say, variety is the spice of life and there was plenty of it in December. The likkle dance dem I mentioned earlier polished off the nights nicely and guaranteed a heavy sleep. Special big up to the Liguanea/Standpipe/Mona crews for holding it down properly.