Never underestimate the power of music

At last summer's Fully Loaded the audience was floored by the unassuming duo that managed to successfully "dun di beach". This unassuming duo was ½ of One Love Hi Pawa Sound System straight outta Rome. Yep that's right, Rome, Italy. Home of mozzarella, spaghetti, gondolas, and the pope! With Ras Lampa on the turntables and Clava on the microphone even if you closed your eyes nobody coulda tell yuh that these two weren't born Jamaicans.

One Love Hi Pawa have been representing our culture in Italy through reggae music for the almost 10 years. When they got the offer to shine at Fully Loaded they jumped at the opportunity but were understandably apprehensive: we, the bottle hurling Jamaicans are tough crowd ( so if yuh a come yuh betta come wicked). "We were a bit scared," reveals Lampa in his broken patois "We was wondering if we should play some hip hop but we decided to do what we know. After mi play the Beres tune the response was like somebody gimme a big hug… how yuh say…great? So we just give back di crowd some vibes caw a dat we get from Jamaican music from day one. "

Why we rate dem:

They're making moves
Not only do they have their own sound system that tours Europe spreading the vibes, but they are also Italy's leading reggae promoters. They have been the driving force behind numerous dancehall acts performing in Italy. Recently relocated, two of the sound system's operators reside in here Jamaica for 6 months out of the year where they run a mail order record distributing company that sells 45's to record shops and sounds all over Europe via the Web.

Dem nuh hurry come up
Reggae music quelled Lampa Dread's appetite for punk and hard rock ever since Bob Marley toured Italy (way back when). He became fascinated with reggae music- " It was just de vibe. I was really feeling it." Having his own radio program in Rome helped him to popularise reggae music in Italy. Save for London and maybe Germany, never before had a radio show devoted time to playing reggae music in that part of the world.

One Love can rock a party
This was proven at Miami's Fully Loaded, where even with the minimum capacity crowd they gave an awesome performance. Their God Father intro is something we won't soon forget.

Like many Jamaicans, these Italians continue to support dancehall music to fullest but they are more inclined to roots reggae and old 'foundation' tunes. Reggae with conscious lyrics and a positive message is their flavour. This may be attributed to the somewhat violent and misogynistic themes in the current crop of releases. Says Clava, the least vocal of the two, "Sometimes I feel is the language in dancehall that prevents it from breaking into a world market. All di time a whole heap of bad words and bad man talk. In Italy we have bad man too but we not used to telling people dat we a bad man. If a man a bad man him nuh haffi tell yuh."

Mek dem know.