After about 20 minutes climbing
straight up, we're arriving at the village.
I've got a feeling that we're walking into
something entirely different this is.
You can hear the drums.
I have no idea what to expect.
This is going to be awesome.
What's up everybody?
Welcome back to Vagabrothers
it's a rainy day in Los Angeles,
California. Winter is actually happening,
but we've got a good plan:
we're going to escape to Jamaica.
We've been invited to Jamaica by the
Jamaican Tourism Board, and we're going to have
a really fun time this week going to Kingston,
the mountains, and the coast.
Flight's boarding. We're going to hop on
and we'll see you guys in paradise.
What's going on, Vagabuddies?
Welcome back. Right now we are in Kingston,
Jamaica right outside of the airport in
Port Royal. Three centuries before
there was an airport, there was a seaport
here, the richest and most wicked in the
world, a real-life Pirates of the
Caribbean pirate hang.
Nowadays, three-quarters of Port Royal
is underwater.
Let's go find out why.
This is Fort Charles, which is the
oldest remaining fort in Jamaica, and it
was built by the British in the 1600s
when they took the island from the Spanish
who'd owned Jamaica since the time of
Columbus. This was a strategic spot and
the British allowed pirates to operate
with official sanction from the
government in order to rob Spanish ships
that were sailing from Panama to Havana
and on to Sevilla in Spain. The government
allowed pirates to operate because they
could get a lot of money. They took ten
percent of all the booty that was
confiscated, which was
a lot of booty, a lot of Spanish booty
in that time. To get into the mood, do a
bit of time travel, we're going to head over
to the grog shop and grab one of Jamaica's
most famous exports: rum.
This place might not look like much
nowadays ,but in its heyday, it was quite
the city; it was full of pirates, cutthroats,
prostitutes. And the idea that we have
of the Pirates of the Caribbean, this
is where it was from. It was based off
Port Royal; it was a pirate city; it was a
dangerous city; it was a rich city ,
and it was one that
was home for many of the most famous
pirates that we know nowadays, including
Captain Henry Morgan who later became
the first Governor of Jamaica, in a weird
twist of fate, Blackbeard and countless
others. There was supposedly one bar for
every 10 inhabitants of the city.
Everything changed at 11am in 1692 when
this place was swallowed by an earthquake.
Three-quarters of the city went
underwater almost instantaneously, and
the rest of it was flattened by a
tsunami. Port Royal's never really recovered
from that. It's kinda cool to sit here
and drink a rum and think about what it
must've been like.
We've learned a bit about the history,
and we've just seen the fishermen cleaning
the fish, so I think it's lunchtime.
We're at this place called Gloria's.
It's here at Port Royal. Right next to us
are the fishermen, they were up all night
catching pirate fish, red pirate fish
red snapper, lobster, shrimp. We're going
to have a little bit of all of it in a
beautiful veranda. What's a red pirate
fish? It's a pirate fish, but it's red.
Black and red. I don't know but look...
pirate, fish, Gloria's. Let's go.
One of the best things about being in a port
is fresh seafood. Gloria's is a fish
restaurant right here in Port Royal
Ordered up a massive fry-up of all types of
fish, lobster, shrimp and they're starting us off
with fish soup in styrofoam cup. I think
there's a fishtail inside here, but
whatever it is, it's brothy; it's delicious and
it's just the beginning. Check it out.
Well the food has arrived, and
everything looks so good. I got a whole
red snapper in a brown sauce. We have
some bammies; we've got fried plantains.
We're looking at the pirate's feast.
We've got curried red snapper with jerk shrimp
and lobster and garlic along with okra.
I'm washing it down with a cold Red Stripe.
I'm loving Jamaica so far.
Next stop is in Trench Town. Most of
you guys have probably heard of Trench Town
through the music of Bob Marley and some
of the reggae legends. We're is a place called
the Culture Yard, and this is kind of
where all of the musical greats from the
roots reggae movement kind of came here
to learn their trade. It was a safe space;
it was a musical creative space, and now it's
like a museum, so we're going to meet up
with a guide and get a little bit more of
a rundown of what Trench Town means
for reggae music and Jamaica's reggae identity
There's a lot of music in the Caribbean,
but reggae came from Jamaica,
and a lot of it came from this neighborhood
from Trench Town. Why Trench Town?
What was it about here that created such
rich music? These were the first town
houses to be built in Kingston. There was
a squatter settlement before. These
people are coming from the country air,
countryside for people. They came to
Kingston looking for jobs. Most of these
guys , you know, saw music as the way
out of the poverty, including Bob.
When Bob Marley came, the music was already
here. That is how he got his inspiration
until he began the reggae icon that he is.
This is where the roots for
everything started.
One of the coolest thing here in the
Trench Town Culture Yard is this guitar.
This is Bob Marley's first-ever guitar,
and it's one of their most prized
possessions here.
This is where Bob Marley actually lived.
Single bed, little stove. Maybe this was
the inspiration for the lyrics in
Is This Love
when he says, "We'll share the one
room with the roof right over our head."
Like many of you, I think I first heard
about Jamaica through reggae music,
and it's crazy to think that a genre of
music that was developed largely in this
exact neighborhood, in this exact
compound, went on to influence and impact
so much the world. What is it about
reggae music? In many ways it's a very
personal and political story about
overcoming oppression, but it's also
super positive and it's something that
has a message that can resonate with a
lot of people.
What was your experience with reggae music?
I think when I was going through
middle school and kind of trying to grow
up, I listened to a lot of reggae, but I still
remember my first song from Bob Marley
was Is This Love, and I was dating
my first girlfriend, and it felt like it
had so much meaning and it had so
much emotion, and I instantly fell in love
with Bob Marley and his music and that
led me deeper into reggae to a ton of
different artists, like Dennis Brown who's
also a national hero.
It's just crazy to see his legacy
You come to a place like this,
and people are still listening to
Bob Marley, talking about Bob Marley.
He's a legend in all respect of the word,
and it's pretty cool to come here and
pay homage to where it all began.
For me, personally, I was always into the
Clash growing up, and the Clash were very
much influenced by Ska, which is the early
form , like a proto form of reggae, but
we're going to put together a little
playlist on Spotify of our favorite
reggae Ska Rocksteady songs. You guys
can check it out and hopefully give you
guys some reggae vibes to take
home and watch these videos.
Vagabrothers jam- rock playlist.
The sun has set, and we are now
heading to dinner at a restaurant owned
by an extremely famous Jamaican, not
Bob Marley's restaurant, no.....
Usain Bolt's restaurant, and it's called
Tracks and Records. You might be able
to figure out why.
We have a couple of Red Stripes;
we've got some jerk chicken wings with coconut
buttermilk sauce, and we're just chillin'
Dinner is over; we've left the
restaurant, and we've driven a couple
thousand feet up into the mountains
above Kingston. Kingston backs up right
onto the Blue Mountains, which is a huge
massive mountain range, but we are going
to the Dub Club, which is a dance hall,
Jamaican style dance hall.
There's a DJ spinning some music
and there's a crowd building inside.
Let's go inside and check it out.
Yeah man.
That was an incredible experience, and
one that we were asked not to film so
just have to enjoy it for what it was,
but if you ever get a chance to come to
the Kingston Dub Club, great times.
That was just a little treasure that we'll
leave for you to explore on your own and
to imagine. Leave something to the
imagination.
Guys, if you liked that video, you know
what to do: give it a thumbs- up, share it with your friends;
subscribe and turn notifications. Peace.
In the meantime, stay curious, keep exploring,
and we'll see you guys on the road.
This is real.
No tobacco, no nothing in it.
It's pure 100-percent herb.