MP3 Monday is a weekly SmartShanghai column, serving up mp3s from bands living and making music in China (or coming to China, or thinking about coming to China, or whatever). Right click on the links and choose "Save Link As..." to download 'em. Click play to rock 'em.

My knowledge of things reggae begins and ends with the backing soundtrack to the delightful John Candy vehicle Cool Runnings ("Jamay-can babsled, mon!"), and a roommate who used to blast Peter Tosh in boarding school.

But -- even me -- I know about the delightful Uprooted Sunshine crew which has been doing reggae parties in various venues in Shanghai for just over three years now. If it was reggae music or its various sub-genres in Shanghai, odds were it was coming to you from the Uprooted Sunshine collective, which from the outsider's view, seems like the Wu-Tang Clan of positive reggae vibes and riddims.

And that's why we're quite pleased to hear that Uprooted and their various members are finally moving into recording, and preparing mix tapes and releases for 2009. These two MP3s that we have today are from the first mix tape, coming out in February this year on "Pause:Music." The first is a collaboration track with MC Didje and locally-based vocalist ChaCha. The second one is just ChaCha, who is aiming to have her first EP released this summer, and then an album out by the end of the year. This EP will be all ChaCha's own productions, and the album will be a mix of local and international productions with her vocals.

ChaCha & Didje - I Love You

ChaCha - Kingdom Riddim

So these are two of the recording projects, among many (including a Ben Huang remix scheduled) to be released on Pause:Music, which is a new Shanghai-based indie record label spearheaded by a few of your fav locally-based DJs/producers/promoters. It always seemed like the next logical step from these parties put on by various local DJ crews was a record label, and its good to see that people are finding ways to make it happen.

Make sure you keep an eye out for this mix tape on Pause:Music next month, and if you'd like to see the Uprooted crew, don't miss out on Shanghai By Bus: Via Japan this Friday at The Shelter. DJs LaoBang, DJ JJ and BoB from Japan join Drunk Monk, Deville, dji, Yas and Boombadil.

More background on Uprooted here in this older article.

Here are the MySpace links: ChaCha, MC Didje.

Get up. Stand up.

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