Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Patrons partied hard at Heineken's Yesterday party, held at Mas Camp, New Kingston on Friday. - PHOTOS BY WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
WHEN CODE Red came for another stint at Heineken's 'Yesterday', held at the Mas Camp Village, Oxford Road, St. Andrew on Friday night, they acknowledged the stage of the session. "Dem time a fi people whe know real party," the selector said, the 'UWI and UTech crew' responding to a special hail with screams.
It was around 3:30 a.m. and DJ Marvin, along with Lincoln, had just wrapped up a sizzling set in which the hip hop of Wild Thing led up to a well-appreciated soca segment with Follow The Leader and Jump and Wine.
WAISTLINE PROWESS
It then went into an extended run of dancehall, many remembering 'Bogle' and the ladies showing their waistline prowess as Shabba intoned "Who sey dat woman can done?" Power Man rejoiced in his Stone and Terror Fabulous explained just what is Position.
Before that Rendezvous, who declared that they played only twice a year, had got the slow grinding going as they started with Flex and then had hands in the air in agreement with Boom Bye Bye.
Code Red went back to 1997 and the title track of one of the two Sizzla albums to hit big that year and the hands went up for Praise Ye Jah. The title track of the second of those albums followed in short order and the large audience at 'Yesterday' grooved to Black Woman and Child.
SLOW, HARD TEMPO
The Murderer remake from Barrington Levy and Beenie Man kept the tempo slow and hard. It was back to a Sizzla quadruple with Babylon a Listen, Dem a Wonder, One Away and Holding Firm, as a few of the partied out people started 'letting go' from the Mas Camp. The uptown folk sang lustily to Everton Blender's Ghetto People Song and there was a huge response to Buju Banton's 1995 Untold Stories.
In fact, the people did the singing the first time around, a 'wheel up' coming on 'I could go on and on...'.
The youngsters put hands in the air and howled for Beres Hammond's Putting Up Resistance, also appreciating Double Trouble.
BIG PEOPLE MUSIC
The 'big people music' continued with Freddie McGregor's version of Little Roy's Prophecy, Johnny 'Bumpy' Osbourne contributing Reasons also to the Taxi rhythm.
There was a forward for Wayne Wonder singing 'the saddest day in my life', and Code Red's selectors went back to the 90s in a different way as they reminded all of some sessions of the last decade, such as Gin 'N' Juice, Great Adventures and Ras.
They moved into hip hop as The Gleaner made a hop, skip and jump out of Mas Camp, a horde of party faithfuls remaining to jam to the music of 'Yesterday'.
