LargeUp, the global platform for Caribbean music, arts and culture, has brought its catalog of DJ mixes to Apple Music. To celebrate the partnership, Apple Music is programming an eight-hour block featuring favorite mixes from the LargeUp archives, as well as a pair of brand-new mixes from Yaadcore x Rory StoneLove and Royalty Statements, airing tonight on its flagship radio station, Apple Music 1.
LargeUp’s Apple Music 1 takeover kicks off at 7pm EST/4pm PST/12am GMT with DJ Gravy and Corey Chase’s Double Barrel, which blends reggae classics from Super Cat, Sister Nancy, Barrington Levy, Yellowman and other icons of the genre with equally classic hip-hop tracks (by Nas, Jay-Z, Black Star) that have sampled them through the years.
Jamaican music legend RoryStoneLove, one of the most influential reggae selectors of all-time, teams with DJ-turned-artist Yaadcore to revisit the latter’s 2021 Reggaeland album in a dubwise, sound system style on Reggaeland: The Mixtape, airing at 7:50pm EST/5pm PST/1am GMT. Deejay Theory’s Dancehall By Day, featuring his unique fusion of dancehall and disco/electro sounds, airs next at 8:48pm EST/6pm PST/2am GMT.
LargeUp Records artists Royalty Statements tap into the sounds currently running Haiti and the Dominican Republic in the block’s final mix, Rabòday vs Dembow, airing at 10:05pm EST/7pm PST/3am GMT. Each featured mix will encore, in the same running order, starting at 10:55pm. (See exact times for each mix below).
Listeners can find more mixes spanning reggae, dub, dancehall, soca, dembow and other Caribbean music genres — from DJs and sound systems including Equiknoxx Music, Noise Cans, Jamie Rodigan, DJ Buddha, Natural High Music and Safari Sound — on LargeUp’s Apple Music curator page, as well as on Apple’s Reggae and DJ Mixes homepages.
Building upon incredible Shazam technology, Apple Music has developed a new process to identify and fairly compensate all of the individual creators featured in thousands of DJ mixes. In cooperation with major and independent labels, Apple Music is directly paying rights holders within these DJ mixes and creating long-term monetary value for all creators involved, a feat once deemed impossible.
Additionally, fans have another powerful way to discover new music, with mixes being supplied from such dance and electronic curators like Tomorrowland, Boiler Room, Cercle, and Mixmag. With the addition of LargeUp to the platform, fans of soca, dancehall and other Caribbean sounds now have a place to stream DJ mixes on Apple Music.
“With the LargeUp Mix Series that we created in 2015, we wanted to showcase the breadth of Caribbean sounds that we covered on our website and create a one-stop shop for people to explore everything from dancehall trends and classics to the ‘Dennery Segment’ sound of Saint Lucia, as curated by the DJs that know this music the best,” says Jesse Serwer, editorial director of LargeUp.com and co-founder and co-director of The LargeUp Agency. “Bringing these mixes to Apple Music now enables these DJs to now get compensated for the streams they generate, along with the artists whose music they are playing.”
“DJ culture as we know it was birthed by sound systems in Jamaica, and the Caribbean continues to produce some of the most inventive DJs and sounds in the world,” Serwer adds. “Yet, Caribbean DJs , and music genres like dancehall and soca, are typically left out of the mix by today’s DJ culture gatekeepers, from festivals to print and online media. Apple Music creating a space for them by partnering with LargeUp is a great opportunity for Caribbean DJ talent to reach new audiences and expand their existing ones.”
