US Sound system Love Bug Movements relocate to Jamaica.

by DRW
(Jamaica)

America-born sound-system selector Pattimani has migrated to Jamaica with the intention to make her sound system, Love Bug Movements, a force to reckon with in the local market.

Over the last few years, Pattimani has clawed out a reputation as an avid reggae-music lover with a vast catalogue of classic reggae hits. A bombastic, larger-than-life personality, she is best known for her ultra-successful urban-music radio show on a station called Caribbean Fyah 96.5 FM in Boston, Massachusetts.

Her show, dubbed 'Nice Up U Medi', airs in the noon-to-2 p.m. time slot on Wednesdays and Thursdays. "My listenership sometimes tops 50,000 people," the dreadlocked selector who was born Patti Zagranis said.

Now that Pattimani has retired from her boring nine-to-five job at a US phone company, a job she held for 27 years, she will be turning her hobby into a full-time profession. "I'm now in Jamaica for music full-time!" the perky reggae disc jockey said.

She has been moonlighting as a 'selectress' and reggae disc jock for almost 21 years and wowed patrons at Money Mondays recently with her heavy distinctive Boston accent and her impressive knowledge of reggae music.

"I was the mix-tape girl in high school, making mix cassettes for all my friends, and always loved reggae. Bob, of course, Jimmy Cliff, Dennis Brown, Super Cat, Shabba ... I even have Beenie Man's first album on vinyl," she boasted.

record collection

Pattimani got involved in playing music in 1991 after a Jamaican friend saw her record collection, was suitably impressed and actually got her to play at a club in Lawrence, Massachusetts, a small town about 30 miles north of Boston.

"My friend brought me down to the club and let me deejay and that was it. I absolutely loved it, so I deejayed around Lawrence and went to Jamaica for the first time that year, then locked my hair by 1992, realising that I was always Rastafari, and started looking for places to play," she recalled.

At first, she found the experience challenging because the club owners in Boston refused to give her a chance to play, effectively shutting her out for several years. However, she persisted in the pursuit of her dream.

Eventually, she performed a neat bit of gymnastics and landed on FM radio. She began to play gigs at stations such as Dive FM in Boston, Reggae Vybz Radio in Mount Vernon, New York, and also landed a prime-time slot on Big City 101.3 FM in Boston with Ghetto Hype of King Midas Sound on the Old Time Sittin' Show.

"I'll still be broadcasting from Jamaica, but it will also be heard up in Boston still over the Internet at www.caribbeanfyah.com," she said.

She also dabbles in artiste management where she has reaped some amount of success with P Zed, the brother of Little Hero. She has been managing him since 2008. "I really love artiste management, but it's hard but so rewarding when you are able to help a talented artiste," she said.