Toppa Top 10: The LargeUp Last-Minute Gift Guide, Holiday 2011

Words by Jesse Serwer

If you’re anything like us, you save your holiday gift shopping for the last minute. Like on-the-way-to-the-folks-Christmas-Eve last minute. Although if you’re anything like the masses we see on TV news, you already went ham at Wal-Mart at 6 a.m. on Black Friday. Either way, there’s probably still someone on your list you’ve neglected. If that person happens to be a reggae/rum/cigar enthusiast and/or homesick islander, we have some ideas for you…

10. Mad House Records Collectors Box Set

In a special holiday-themed offer, Dave Kelly’s Mad House Records is offering a box set with 27 of its CDs for $49.99. The deal, available through Jamaicansmusic’s web store, includes virtually every release—the Pepperseed riddim, Cham’s Wow…The Album, the Warm Jamaican Christmas compilation— from one of the most important dancehall labels of the ’90s and 2000s… but it’s only available until Christmas.

9. Pride of Jamaica Jamaican Crystals cigars

When you think cigars you’re generally going to think Cuba, followed distantly perhaps by the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua (As we did in our recent roundup). But Jamaica produces a number of quality smokes, such as Montalvo and Santa Cruz, most of which can be found for sale through the Barrington House International web store. Among the highest quality of these is Pride of Jamaica’s Jamaican Crystals, offered in boxes of 25 and Glass Crystal tubes of 10. The latter package is currently available at a discount (from Barrington’s usual price of $109.50) for $98.55.

8. African Apparel “John Marley” Shirt

African Apparel is a British company with a wicked sense of humor, whose primary M.O. is sending up cliched music T-shirts. Their “John Marley” deliberately and hilariously mixes up the giants of generic rock icon Ts: a picture of Jimi Hendrix is matched with the caption “Bob Marley”; presumably the “John” in the T’s name is Lennon. (Update: This shirt is a tribute to an actual tattoo some idiot got. Thanks, Matt Goias). Get it for £20 (about $31) through their web store, or wait til after the holidays and scoop it at the soon-to-open Miss Lily’s Variety store in NYC.

7. The Heatwave Presents Showtime DVD

This past June, our esteemed Cockney & Yardie columnist Gabriel Heatwave and his Heatwave crew assembled a a stageshow for the ages. Billed as the “History of U.K. Dancehall Live On Stage,” their Showtime concert at London’s Cargo club brought U.K. dancehall pioneers like General Levy and Asher Senator together with heirs to their legacy such as Stylo G. and Wiley. Music video director Rollo Jackson was there to capture the event for posterity: that footage, and interviews with the participants, is featured on this brand-new DVD. Watch the trailer here, and buy it here.

6. Fania Records Our Latin Thing 40th Anniversary Bundle

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Our Latin Thing, the Fania Records-produced concert film which captured the salsa movement at its peak, in the form of a 1971 Fania All-Stars (Ray Barretto, Héctor Lavoe, Johnny Pacheco, Pete ‘El Conde’ Rodríguez) concert at New York’s Cheetah Club. The newly revived Fania recently released an Our Latin Thing 40th Anniversary Box Set, containing the movie and the soundtrack, on two discs each. The Our Latin Thing bundle currently for sale on their website throws in a baby-blue Our Latin Thing T- shirt and a replica of the original movie poster, for a very reasonable $39.95. For the real salsa-loving baller in your life, Fania has also put together a $649 “Ultimate Holiday Bundle” with its Salsa, A Musical History, The Fania All Stars Story, vintage Tito Puente The Complete 78’s Vol. I & II, Hector Lavoe The Complete Studio Albums Vol. I & II and El Barrio box sets, plus 2x disc greatest hits of every Fania artist from La Lupe to Ruben Blades (and a T-shirt).

5. La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Obelisco 5-pack

A tip of the hat to Cigar Aficionado for pointing us to this holiday special, a five-pack of box-pressed, obelisk-shaped La Gloria Cubana Artesanos de Obelisco available for $45 (or $39.95 through the Mike’s Cigars web store). The highly-rated and unusually-shaped cigars, based on the design of the Monument to the Heroes of the Restoration in Santiago, Dominican Republic, were previously only available in fan-shaped boxes of 25 (and they still are available in that package).

4. Miss Lily’s Variety “Hattermorn” T-shirt

As part of its offer, Miss Lily’s Variety (the boutique/gallery offshoot of the popular NYC eatery, officially opening in January) has produced a line of T-shirts, including this ($35) tribute to Jamaica’s answer to Newport/favorite cigarette brand. Remember smoking is bad for you, so quit…and spend that money on this T-shirt (available here).

3. Ron Abuelo Centuria

If you want to really impress/take care of that rum drinker on your Christmas list, you can’t do much better than the limited Centuria edition of Panama’s Ron Abuelo. Produced in 2008 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sugar plantation where it’s produced, Varela Hermanos in Pesa, Ron Abuelo (No. 3 on Eddie STATS’ recent Toppa Top 10 rums list) retails for $130/750 ml bottle (this place appears to have it for $99). Relatively speaking here, that’s a deal for the quality you’re getting. This isn’t cocktail-mixing rum: it’s the stuff your grandpa broke out the day he announced his retirement.

2. Sangster’s Rum Cream/Castries Peanut Rum Crème/Rumchata

Rum cream makes a brilliant winter drink, and a much tastier alternative to more standard creamy liqeurs like Bailey’s. A product of Jamaica, Sangster’s Rum Cream (which comes in different flavors like Blue Mountain coffee and coconut) is the cream of the crop but for years I’ve been confounded by its lack of availability in the U.S. Turns out it currently lacks a distributor here, leaving the duty free stores at Norman Manley and, yes, Sangster airports as the only way to get this stuff into this country. There’s at least one U.K. site which will ship Sangster’s to the U.S.—but you’d have had to order it two weeks ago to get it in time for Christmas. More readily available (compare prices here) is Castries Peanut Rum Crème out of St. Lucia, a sort of cross between rum cream and another Caribbean staple, peanut punch. Yet another alternative is Rumchata. Produced in Wisconsin of all places, this fairly new “Caribbean style” blend of horchata (rice milk with cinnamon and vanilla) and rum retails for about $20. A bartender at a baby Christening party introduced me to the drink this past spring, after I ordered a glass of Bailey’s. “I got something a million times better,” he told me, and he was right—soon enough the whole party was drinking the stuff. While I haven’t encountered Rumchata at any liquor stores or bars since, it’s easily orderable online for prices that average at about $20.

1. Tickets to Reggae Sting 2011

For dancehall fans in Jamaica, “Christmas” really comes the day after Dec. 25th, on Boxing Day, when the giants of the genre assemble for the legendary Reggae Sting stage show/festival, in Portmore. This year’s edition, billed as “Rumours of War,” is set to feature Bounty Killer, Mavado, Gyptian, Popcaan and Aidonia and a 45 clash between Tony Matterhorn and Twin of Twins. Go here for information on how to get your ticket. A special Sting rate available to ticket holders at the Wyndham Kingston hotel is a holiday-season bargain, at $100-$110.

Sugar Minott and Gregory Isaacs Reggae Anthology 3xCDs

We already told you about these a few months back but these two sets from VP Records’ 17 North Parade imprint are probably our favorite archival releases to come out this year. Not your usual, boring Greatest Hits discs, the Gregory Isaacs’ The Ruler and Sugar Minott Hard Time Pressure releases also come with some great, rare performance footage on DVD and some of 2011’s best-looking packaging.