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For many Caribbean people, Fridays and Saturdays are known for fetting or having ah little lime somewhere. And if a crew woulda ask each other, "What we doing later?", the normal response would be, "Anyting, it doh matter, as long as we liming!" But not this Friday & Saturday! These two nights were in full motion for the first ever Atlanta Caribfest 2007 presented by Matthew Nelson and Otis Jenkins of Caribbeanvibes.com.

Everywhere yuh turn was flyer after flyer, poster after poster, radio ad after radio ad, an rel word ah mouth... you name it, the Atlanta Caribfest committee did it. So on Friday night when I asked a gas station attendant, "Soldier, where de lime is later?" he asked me if ah was joking. He gave me a flyer from de counter and said, "breds, everybody go be by Fridays on de Drive" - a small nightclub with a lot of potential. It so happened that Krushmore Entertainment hosted their pre-party at that club. "And breds, doh forget de big session tomorrow, at de Atrium, is rel ting." Little did he know, TJJ already lock and loaded for the ATL Caribfest'07!! So from the sounds of tings, it appears that the promoters planned everything down to de wire.

So Friday night come and gone and now everyone looking forward to seeing some of the Caribbean's biggest artists on Saturday (Sept 15th) at the Atrium. The heavy cast included Pressure from the US Virgin Islands, Marlon "de Ganja Farmer" Asher and Maximus "de Gladiator" Dan both from Trinidad and the headline act Bounty Killer from straight from yard (Jamaica)! Not to mention Black Chiney on de turn tables.

With a scantily looking venue at 12am, we were left wondering if the flyers all over Atlanta worked. But by 1am the Atrium, which is a large club split into two, was filled to de brim.... and yuh know what? It had a line still going round de corner outside... is rel people!!

With a small supporting cast, both Rudee from V.I. and Plucky Ranks from Jamaica held their own on stage with a couple of encores. Rudee, female reggae artist, got the crowd going with one line... 'I would never let ah pu--y gyul take my place!' She was a hit with the ATL crowd. And Plucky Ranks, de man was boss.... with at least three encores dat night. Much respect. This reggae artist got the Caribfest crowd just where they needed to be for the upcoming artists.

Following Pucky Ranks, Marlon Asher held the massive crowd in the palms of his hands with his bit hit "Ganja Planter". 'With microphone problems creeping in, Asher kept looking at the DJ's and promoters for help with the mic. Nevertheless, he kept faith and was able to keep the audience in check. Next on stage was de original Soca Warrior Maximus Dan. And if you left your spot to get a drink by de bar, forget it.... you couldn't even pass by people to come back inside..... Maximus had de entire club jumping on their feet. Could you imagine people from ATL (Caribbean and non-Caribbean) jumping up and down like it's Carnival time? Maximus Dan's powerful voice and stellar performance captivated the patrons at the Atrium. His 1 hour performance was absolutely uplifting. At this time, Maximus passed the baton onto Pressure. His voice immediately captured the attention of every woman at the venue. With a large VI posse on the inside, Pressure's performance held the momentum of the crowd, especially with his rendition of "The Pressure Is On." With the microphone problems still occurring, Pressure sang his way through it and left the stage as a big hit. If you have not heard of Pressure as yet... be sure to check him out.

With rumors going around that Bounty Killer was was a no show, we could have easily corrected that. We saw him face to face.... and if yuh thought Bounty was intimidating on stage, back stage de Big Bad Bounty is just as tough! But the poor people Governor was there to do one thing and one thing only.... mash up de dance..... and that he did!! Bounty Killer wasted no time. After hearing the problems with the microphone, he immediately told Black Chiney, "Youth, youth, yuh better fix de microphone... before yuh get my boot... in ah yuh blue toot.... nice n cute." And the rest was history!! Bounty Killer is a true stage performer, and did not let up whatsoever. He complimented the huge cast that gave mammoth amounts of credit to Krushmore and Caribbeanvibes.com. After an hour and a half performance, Bounty left the stage just about 5.30am to visibly exhausted patrons who got their money's worth. Much respect goes out to Jevon, Jerome, Dana and yuh crew.... oh, and de gas station attendant! Special thanks to Otis, Matthew and the rest of the Atlanta Caribfest committee for allowing TJJ to share our 1st experience!

Joy Juice for the TJJ fam