Gearing up for a full-year celebration of their 40th Anniversary, King Addies and Pandora drop the festive “BLESSED” playlist, in the heart of the 2022 Holiday Season!
Officially America’s #1 sound, King Addies, has an ultra rich legacy of being at the heart of several of the most legendary Reggae Dancehall and sound system culture moments, and has quite a lot of blessings to celebrate.
When asked why Pandora tapped King Addies for the all new playlist, their head of Caribbean and Reggae program Diego Herrera said, “We’re excited to announce the launch of King Addies’ official Pandora playlist with the first installment – BLESSED.”
Diego continues, “King Addies is one of the most respected and longest lasting voices in SoundSystem culture, and this is a great follow up to the JAM60 Takeover that we launched earlier this year in honor of Jamaica’s 60th anniversary of independence. We’re looking forward to seeing them bring their creative vision to this playlist as we head into their historic 40th year as a Soundsystem.”
Standing prominent at the center of original “VERZUZ” culture (the international sound clash arena) as one of very few 80’s era sounds still touring and clashing in current times, King Addies continues to bring people of all walks of life together on both records and stages all over the world. Annual tours consistently venture across the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, the UK, Asia, South America and even Israel.
America’s greatest ambassador of Jamaican sound system culture made history in the iconic first ever presentation of ORIGINAL sound clash culture at the Triller/Verzuz Icons event held in Brooklyn’s biggest indoor arena, the Barclays Center. Real time streaming hit 5 million, in addition to the 10,000 patrons in the venue–the largest audience that sound clash culture has ever had in it’s nearly 70 year existence.
King Addies also made several exciting 2022 appearances like Busta Rhymes private 50th birthday party, BBC1Xtra and Robbo Ranks Radio while on their Fall UK tour, Miami’s iconic annual Dandy Shandy party, Estelle’s Caribbean Heritage Month episode on Apple Music Hits, and Pandora also tapped them to curate their official Jamaica 60th Independence celebration.
Established in Brooklyn NY in 1983, the international sound system juggernaut has a proven, 40-year niche of being a platform and/or springboard for emerging Jamaican recording artists, especially in the 80’s and 90’s era wherein mainstream radio didn’t spin Reggae Dancehall.
Founding artist members include legendary icon Super Cat, who encouraged the group to grow their hobby into a movement, was there loading equipment in a car for their first official gig. Their almost 4-decade journey also includes the grassroots popularization (outside of Jamaica) of then emerging acts like Sean Paul, Bounty Killer, and Beenie Man as well a slew of other who’s who who went on to become legends in Jamaican music.
A music dynasty built on the foundation of family and friends, the legacy of this prolific collective of owner, managers, producers, engineers and selectors is multi-generational and also includes the sound system production set up for Lauryn Hill’s “Killing Me Softy” music video; the sound system production set up for Doug E Fresh and Likkle Vicious’ “Freaks” music video; production and promotion of Sean Paul’s first ever show in New York City and so much more.
Also respected for their mammoth catalogue of custom commissioned song recordings, the tastemakers are internationally revered for mashing up mainstream genres like R&B and/or Hip Hop with Reggae Dancehall. Artistic milestones include: the production of Nas’ first ever dabble in reggae dancehall on their “Don’t Hate Addies” dubplate (a play on the iconic “Hate Me Now” Hip Hop banger); likewise for The Fugees, Snoop Dogg, Raekwon, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Black Rob, Anita Baker, McFadden & Whitehead, along with a vast library of iconic reggae, dancehall dubplate productions developed during the sound’s earlier years, which continues on today.
Join their 40th celebration now on Pandora (click image).
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