Anything Goes Live 2015: Konshens, Kranium & Caribbean Stars Take Over Queens

New York Carnival Weekend was already running hot when DJ Norie and Power 105.1 presented Anything Goes Live on Saturday, September 5, 2015, bringing a stacked Caribbean lineup to Amazura in Jamaica, Queens. The annual concert had become a Labor Day Weekend destination where Reggae, Dancehall and Soca could all collide on the same stage.

The advertised cast alone was serious: Agent Sasco, Bugle, Munga Honorable, Gyptian, Junior Reid, Konshens, Kranium, Tifa and Christopher Martin, with additional appearances from Tilibop, Noah Powa and Angela Hunte. Other promotion from the period also listed artists including Kerwin Du Bois and Kevin Lyttle, showing just how wide the Caribbean mix surrounding the event had become.

Julianspromos was inside for the action with Marsha Monelle and Calvin Tucker representing the platform’s media coverage out of Boston, Massachusetts. The surviving highlights feature Konshens, Kranium, Machel Montano, Bunji Garlin and more, with the final footage edited by Julian C. Hackett.

Labor Day Saturday at Amazura

Anything Goes Live was exactly the kind of show New York Carnival Weekend could handle.

There was no need to choose between a Reggae concert, a Dancehall show or a Soca fete. The lineup kept moving between all three.

One minute the crowd could be locked into an established Reggae voice like Junior Reid or Gyptian. Then came artists including Konshens, Agent Sasco, Tifa, Bugle and Munga Honorable, representing the Dancehall generation dominating Caribbean nightlife at the time.

And because this was Labor Day Weekend in New York, Soca was never very far away.

Kranium Comes Home During His Breakout Year

One of the most interesting artists to revisit in the 2015 footage is Kranium.

Although born in Jamaica, Kranium had built much of his early career in New York, making an Amazura appearance during Labor Day Weekend feel almost like a hometown performance.

By September 2015, “Nobody Has to Know” had pushed him well beyond the local Dancehall circuit. His career was moving internationally, and he was appearing across several major New York Caribbean events that weekend, including Anything Goes Live on September 5.

The Julianspromos footage therefore catches Kranium during the year when his move from New York Caribbean favorite to internationally recognized Dancehall artist was becoming impossible to miss.

Konshens Joins a Heavy Dancehall Lineup

Konshens was already firmly established by 2015.

His catalogue had given him an international audience, and his appearance at Anything Goes Live placed him among one of the deepest Jamaican lineups assembled in New York that weekend.

The confirmed cast included Agent Sasco, Bugle, Munga Honorable, Gyptian, Junior Reid, Tifa and Christopher Martin, giving the crowd a constant rotation of recognizable voices rather than relying on one or two headliners.

That was part of what made Anything Goes Live work.

There was always somebody else coming.

Machel and Bunji Bring the Soca Energy

Then the surviving Julianspromos footage takes the night beyond the advertised Dancehall and Reggae lineup.

Machel Montano and Bunji Garlin both appear in the highlights.

Their presence feels completely natural in the middle of New York Carnival Weekend.

Machel was coming out of another enormous year after “Like Ah Boss” carried his 2015 Trinidad Carnival campaign, while Bunji Garlin had already become one of Soca’s most recognizable international voices.

Seeing them alongside Konshens and Kranium is one of those combinations that could happen almost effortlessly during Labor Day Weekend.

Nobody needed to stop the party and explain the genre change.

The crowd already understood.

DJ Norie’s Anything Goes Formula

The concert grew naturally out of DJ Norie’s Caribbean presence on Power 105.1.

Norie joined Power 105.1 in 2009 and became closely associated with Caribbean programming through Anything Goes Caribbean Edition, mixing Soca, Dancehall, Reggae and other Caribbean sounds for a New York radio audience.

The live event took that same mentality and put it on stage.

Instead of keeping Caribbean music separated into different nights, Anything Goes could move between artists and genres while still feeling like one show.

By 2015, that approach had made the event a recognizable part of New York’s Caribbean entertainment calendar.

Boston Covers New York for Julianspromos

The 2015 coverage also shows how far the Julianspromos media network had grown.

Rather than Julian personally handling the camera that night, Marsha Monelle and Calvin Tucker traveled from Boston and covered Anything Goes Live for Julianspromos.

Their footage brought the audience inside Amazura and captured performances and appearances from some of the biggest Caribbean artists moving through New York that weekend.

Back behind the scenes, Julian C. Hackett edited the footage for Julianspromos.

That Boston-to-New York connection is another useful piece of the company’s history. By this point, Julianspromos coverage was no longer dependent on one person being physically present at every event. Contributors in other markets were helping expand what the platform could document.

Looking Back

Anything Goes Live 2015 had the kind of lineup that makes an old highlight video dangerous.

You start watching one artist and suddenly another familiar face walks onto the stage.

Konshens. Kranium. Machel Montano. Bunji Garlin.

And around them was a wider cast including Agent Sasco, Gyptian, Junior Reid, Tifa, Christopher Martin, Bugle and Munga Honorable.

For one Labor Day Saturday, Amazura became another meeting point for Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, the wider Caribbean and New York’s massive diaspora audience.

Marsha Monelle and Calvin Tucker were there covering it for Julianspromos.

Julian C. Hackett brought the footage together in the edit.

And more than a decade later, the video still proves that the name fit the night perfectly:

Anything Goes.