Sister Nancy + MIKE + Peter Doig
The Bourse de Commerce is hosting a concert by legendary Jamaican dancehall musician Sister Nancy. Before her concert, British painter Peter Doig plays a selection of reggae and dub vinyl from his personal collection. The evening opens with American rapper MIKE, a leading figure of the new wave of hip-hop underground.
Programme
- 8:00 p.m.: doors open
- 8:30 p.m.: MIKE
- 9:15 p.m.: Peter Doig
- 10:00 p.m.: Sister Nancy
A bar will be open during the performances.
Access until 10:30 p.m.
Sister Nancy was born in 1962 in Kingston, Jamaica, in the Papine neighbourhood. A world-famous figure of Jamaican dancehall music, she is considered as the first woman to make a name for herself in this scene. Already as a teenager, together with her older brother, she produced the famous DJ and singer Brigadier Jerry. This family connection gave her an opportunity that had rarely been accorded to women: playing on sound systems next to the DJs at the forefront of dancehall culture. She also played for some time with Jamaican DJ General Echo for the Stereophonic sound system. Quickly spotted by the influential producer Winston Riley, she recorded her first single Papa Dean in 1980. Two years later, she released the album One, Two, which proved a smashing success in Jamaica that led a collaboration with Yellowman, a master of dancehall at that time. This album also featured Bam Bam, a song that has become a classic of the genre and which has often been sampled, including by Lauryn Hill, Wiz Khalifa, Too Short, and Jay-Z. Although it went fairly unnoticed at the time of its release, Bam Bam found its audience in New York, initially among the Caribbean diaspora and then the hip-hop scene. It was when Sister Nancy moved to the United States in 1996 that she was able to measure the international success of her song, whose timeless refrain (“Bam bam bi lam, bam bam, what a bam bam”) was inspired by the 1966 hit by Toots & the Maytals. In 2014, when Bam Bam was used in an ad, Sister Nancy was able to assert her copyright to her work and finally receive what had been due to her for years.
MIKE is a young American rapper and beatmaker born in 1998. A major figure in the new generation of New York rap, he stands out for his subtle, introspective rhymes that explore grief, family, and identity over hushed soul-infused samples. In 2015 he founded the hip-hop underground collective [sLUms], and in 2017, he made his debut with his mixtape May God Bless Your Hustle. Numerous critically acclaimed albums followed, including the poignant Disco! (2021). He also toured with Blood Orange, Earl Sweatshirt, The Alchemist, and Freddie Gibbs. In 2019, he collaborated with dancehall pioneer Sister Nancy on the single Stop Worry!, dedicated to his late mother. In October 2023, he released the album Burning Desire, one of his most accomplished projects.
Born in 1959 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Peter Doig grew up in the Caribbean and in Canada before studying in London. The immeasurable character of nature and its metaphysical power mark his paintings. Inspired by German Romanticism, Edward Hopper, Edvard Munch, as well as by horror films and popular culture, Doig paints wild, untamed places crossed by traces left by man, such as dwellings, canoes, and silhouettes. He often inscribes the names of record shops he discovers on his travels on his paintings. His vocabulary painted from a reality altered by photography endows his canvasses with an enigmatic dimension under their almost naive exterior.