CHICAGO- on friday, april 12,2002,i began my day in search of an interview with sizzla, but even without my mission accomplished, the most important questions i planned to ask were answered during sizzla's performance that night.

issa and arrived at the house of blues around 1015pm and picked up our press credentials at the will call window, or so we thought.  after having to go outside in the cold and come back around the back door we were searched thoroughly, which is a new one for the hob.  anyway, come to find out, the no cameras allowed dealy applied to the chicagoreggae.com crew as well, which was just not acceptable as i could not go to a dance and leave all of you with nothing in return.   sooooooooooooo.... back out into the cold we go, back to the will call window.   anyway, after much controversy, we ended up getting one of 2 cams inside and we came out w/about 70+ pics for all of you, so thank us later.

when we finally entered the venue, prodigal sound was juggling some nice early warm up tunes (sanchez, i can't wait til morning, movie star, junior kelly/if love so nice).  at 1040pm field marshal announced turbulence and he entered with an upbeat vibe, djing tunes like 'irie' and one especially nice tune i remember was an upbeat song w/the hook, "i wouldn't eat that if i were you, nuttin nuh sweeter dan mi ital stew", espousing the benefits of vegetarianism.  his tunes were uplifting ('treat yuh woman good") and upbeat and he got a nice vibe going with call and response "go dung" and the obligatory patois lesson for the americans in the audience who were looking perplexed.

at 1105, sizzla began his set. his voice could be heard offstage before his entrance singing "praise ye jah".  he began with conscious lyrics like, "standing firm", "smoke the herb", "one a way", "hotta fire bun", "guide over us"... he was singing with no forwards, in a medley style which took us to 1125 when he began to sing "words of divine" and "dem a wonder", which were all in a slow, rocking vibe.

by 1135 the vibes picked up the pace and he did "taking over" and "blaze up the chalawa". i was beginning to wonder if i'd ever hear the newer tunes.  this is when sizzla finally took a break to start some explaning for his recent barrage of slack tunes with such lyrics as "pump up har pum pum...feel up her clitoris...slew dem with karate..." 

"Look in the bible where christ tells you to live clean", he began.  "but none of you could be here tonight if daddy wasn't with mommy", he finished, as explanation for the sexual slackness in his recent lyrics.  he then went into a firey tune;" mi nuh go tek back mi chat... mi kill sodomite and batty man" and then more explanation for his hatred of homosexuals, "dem bring aids and disease pon people" and then more djing lyrics "shot a kill dem, mi nuh go tek back mi chat". 

the hypeness ensued as he perfectly segued into "slew dem w/karate".  this is when i personally forgave sizzla for the 'medly style' of performance he was giving thus far and caught a nice vibes for the rest of the performance.  even though i missed the interview this time, i felt that his statements answered my most important questions perfectly, and hopefully yours too as you read.

he closed his show with some older tunes like "what is babylon" and "kings of the earth".  "near and far" got the first forward of the night, followed by "give dem a ride fi di money".

at midnight, sizzla began his closing tune of the evening, "black woman and child".  the firehouse band played a slow riddim and carried us out on a floating, easy kind of  vibes.  the schism between slackness and consciousness had been closed, at least in my mind, and nothing but pure vibes were left when sizzla exited and prodigal sound took over the juggling.

the vibes carried the crew into a picture taking frenzy, and hopefully you can feel how we felt as we were taking them as you view!  click the pics for larger views, and rest your mouse for some captions. enjoy.

reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees.