What's the plan for the week?

Well this week we are focusing on a couple things:

(1) Getting the first limited edition Realvibez t-shirt designed and then trying to get the money together to get them done in the near future.

Ideally, we will setup a form on the Free Stuff page and then every single person that signs up will get a shirt, just tell us the size (only one color). Of course the problem is money - which could be solved by charging each person - but we want to show love to our supporters, hence the problem (we don't have tons of money like people think....lol)

(2) Adding more iTunes singles on the front page - we want to have around 10 picks for each month

and the biggest project of all...

(3) Adding about 100 more music videos to the site. We have stuff from Hawkeye, Cecile, David Rudder, Chico, Lady Saw, Freddy McGregor, Mr. Peppa and many more. Let's not even get into all our past footage from Negril Emancipation/Independence weekends and some past Sumfest events. This week is all about editing footage and getting it on the site. I doubt I will want to see a computer on the weekend at all.

No major changes are in the works for the site as it pretty much works the way we want it to work for now. The menu might get some stuff re-added (Community for one) but that's about it. We are pleased with the new player and how it works.

Keep up the great support

New blog launched

We at Realvibez have always wanted to have an artist do a diary on the website about their travels. The opportunity came last week when we met an up-and-coming artist named Coppa Stone. He was heading off to the UK and Europe this week solely for the purpose of promoting his music.

We jumped on the idea of having him blog about his experiences during the trip so we could all follow what should certainly become an interesting story. He was burning 100 CDs to carry with him so we decided to throw in another 100 as a show of support so if you are on that side of the pond, you need to try and get one of those CDs.

Check it out at Realvibez.com/coppastone

David's recent feature in the local newspaper

This is a reprint of the article that recently featured David in the Sun Sentinel in South Florida on June 29, 2007.

Standing up, speaking out
Young Caribbean leaders work to effect change here and at home
by Alva James-Johnson

David Mullings moved to the United States at age 15. He earned a couple of degrees and launched an Internet business with his brother, but he hasn’t let success go to his head.

Mullings, of West Palm Beach, volunteers with a New York-based organization called Upliftment Jamaica and mentors youths in his community.

“With globalization, there’s an opportunity to give ourselves a voice,” said Mullings, co-founder of Realvibez.com, a Caribbean music Web site. “I want to be a role model for people all over the world, epsecially other young Caribbean people.”

Mullings, 26, represents a new generation of Caribbean leaders who are still connected to their countries of origin, but hope to make significant contributions in their new home. Mullings will be a keynote speaker today at the second annual National Leadership Conference at the South Regional/BCC Library in Pembroke Pines. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The conference, titled “Leadership 2020: A Caribbean American Perspective,” is sponsored by the Institute for Caribbean Studies in Washington, D.C. It is part of Caribbean American Heritage month and will be simulcast to students at Howard University in Washington, D.C. and Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, N.Y.

There are an estimated 30 million Caribbean immigrants and their descendants in the United States, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. The number includes people from Latin American countries considered part of the Caribbean Basin. About 442,314 live in Broward County and 182,692 in Palm Beach County, according to the census.

In South Florida, home to a growing list of Caribbean-American elected officials, grooming a new generation of leaders could secure the community’s future, said Glenn Joseph, South Florida representative for the Institute for Caribbean Studies.
Deidra Lawrence, a leadership conference organizer, said some in her generation are inspired by the area’s elected officials. They include Commissioners Winston Barnes and Fitzroy Salesman in Miramar, Hazelle Rogers in Lauderdale Lakes and Dale Holness in Lauderhill.

Young Caribbean-Americans want to help their community increase its participation in politics, civic organizations and social issues, Lawrence said. They also want to use their political and social activism in the United States to benefit their home countries. But that will mean mobilizing their peers.

“Caribbean people take politics seriously, but I think once we come here, a lot of people sit back,” said Lawrence, a 2005 Florida Atlantic University graduate currently pursuing a master’s of business administration at Nova Southeastern University. “but wherever you are, the political system affects how you live. So you should become as actively involved as possible.”

Some like Lawrence, chair of the alumni chapter of the Florida Caribbean Students Association, are already active on college campuses throughout the state. About 800 attend two annual conferences sponsored by the association, Lawrence said.
Some young Caribbean immigrants are also volunteers for local organizations, raising money for projects in South Florida. But they are even more passionate about improving conditions for people on the islands.

“The common thread is that no matter how well we do, wherever we go, we can never forget that somebody we know graduated form college in Jamaica and can’t get a job,” said Mullings.

Krista Hopwood, 20, of North Lauderdale, said that’s why she and two of her friends recently launched a not-for-profit organization called Caribbean Women Making a Difference. She and Marimba Miliner, 25, of Coral Springs, are also new members of the Kiwanis Club.

They are planning a domino tournament and fish fry to raise money for scholarships and other educational projects.
“We just felt a need, and that not enough young people were taking a leadership role in the community,” Hopwood said. “This was an opportunity to do so.”

Realvibez Promotion in South Florida this Saturday

We are just letting you know that if you happen to be in South Florida this Saturday, check out Revolution in the night in Downtown Fort Lauderdale.

The event is called Bubblicious and we will be setting up a booth with lots of giveaways, ranging from free CDs to surprises.

We will also be accepting additional entries for the LCD HDTV giveaway but you have to fill out the form in person.

For those outside of South Florida, have no fear, starting in mid-August, Realvibez will be hitting the road and keeping you posted on where we are going next. We also want to get feedback on where you want us to come to and why.

Let us know by filling out the Contact Form.

RealVibez: Year One

We posted this a few years ago to allow visitors to the site to learn about the history of the brand and company. It is a little long, but it gives you an inside view into early life at RealVibez (back then known as RealVibes). Enjoy.

Year One

Our first task was to figure out which friends wanted to be a part of the project and were willing to help just because they believed in it.

That was easier than we thought, we had friends offering and pointing out that they weren’t in it for money; they just wanted to support us – the definition of real friends.

These people were Jonathan Truppmann, Makonnen Wallen, Gorken Wallen, Kwame Wallen, Corey Churnside, Richard Innerarity, Zara-Lee Sang, Ryan Vaughan and Damian Vaughan. These became the first RealVibes Reps.

We always knew our focus had to be on the North American market because internet penetration in Jamaica was too little to justify promoting a video-based website and then who was going to advertise with the prices we needed to sustain the project?

Our first assignment was a celebrity football (soccer) match at Lockhart Stadium, the home of the Miami Fusion at the time. It was slated to be between DJs/Selectors and Singers/Media. Our football coach from University of Miami, Howard “Flagga” Duperly (coach of the Jamaican club team at UM) was also the music editor at Caribbean Today newspaper and arranged for us to be able to cover the event.

We wanted to have a professional image so we created a flag for the mic, the little thing around the mic with your logo. Ours was created from printing the logo on photo paper, gluing that to cardboard shaped in a triangle around the mic with Styrofoam inside to hold the mic – it worked perfectly.

Armed with the full professional setup and our first RealVibes shirts, Robert and I headed to Lockhart stadium but there was one more thing: - I decided to carry my football gear in case I could somehow get to play. I didn’t think it would happen but I have always dreamt of playing professionally and I figured it couldn’t hurt.

We arrived in the evening, met all these famous people and conducted some interviews. At the start of the game, we were able to setup where the TV cameras usually go, giving us a great view of the game. The crowd was pretty decent and the game was certainly fun to watch.

It was now half-time and we headed to the field to get some interviews. Imagine our surprise when we went to interview Assassin, who is our age, and he not only did his interview but offered to do the rest! It turns out he had intended to become a reporter or television host if music had not panned out.

Our first assignment, and we have Assassin walking around interviewing artists on behalf of RealVibes!

He was hilarious, especially passing the mic back to David by putting his finger to his ear, pretending to get a message via an earpiece and then saying “So over to you Billy boy”.

Half-time was nearing an end and I had noticed during the first-half that the singers/media team only had 3 substitutes and had the older players. Well I of course went to talk to my coach about that and ask what was happening. He then introduced me to Howard Chin, the head of VP Records Miami.

Howard Duperly then remarked that he wished a young boy like me was on their team and I immediately smiled. I told him I had all my gear in the car and would love to play. The deal was sealed. I felt like the luckiest person ever. I was considered media because of covering it as RealVibes, and could play!

I called Robert on his phone in the stands to tell him what was about to happen and then ran to the car to change.

Sitting on the bench was a good feeling but I was itching to get on the field, much less score a goal. I was wondering what it would be like to score in a stadium filled with Jamaicans and other supporters. Would it live up to my expectations or not?

Well about 10 minutes into the second half I was called on. The score was 2-2 and I intended to score the next goal to put my team ahead.

The feeling of running onto that field was unlike anything I have ever felt before or since. An announcement was made about David from RealVibes being substituted and I ran onto the pitch.

Now was my time to shine and get RealVibes some extra promotion by scoring. I wasted no time. Within 8 minutes of getting on the field I was sent a brilliant pass on the right flank. I collected the ball, trying to remain composed and focus on the goal. The defender was beaten by my speed and the step-over then it was on to the 18-yard box.

I felt all the eyes on me, a feeling that I had never experienced either. This was all so new to me. I felt as if I was moving in slow motion. Popular South Florida selector, Bambino, a past student of my high school in Jamaica, was the goalkeeper, wearing a blue shirt and quite competent based on his performance in the first-half, but I wasn’t afraid, I knew I could score.

The blue shirt moved off the line towards me to cut the angle and I saw my opportunity. I took it – a low shot to his left hit with the side of my right foot. The placement was impeccable and I turned to my left to start my celebration run while watching Bambino dive for the ball as it went by.

I had scored!

I thought the feeling of running onto the field was great but I was never prepared for a crowd of hundreds cheering for what I just accomplished. Did it live up to my expectations of what it would feel like to score? It totally destroyed my original idea. It was like I was in the World Cup!

To hear the commentator say over the PA system that RealVibes had scored a beautiful goal to put the Singers into the lead was incredible. I was proud to be wearing my RealVibes shirt that day. The game ended up at 3-3 though, Spragga Benz and Red Rat managed to get a controversial goal. Every player gave me props for the goal though.

That is my most memorable moment from our first year.

Second Assignment

Our second assignment was interviewing Elephant Man at Strictly The Best Records in Miramar. We coordinated with VP Records, that introduction to Howard Chin had come in handy.

Mr. Shizzle himself was very obliging for the interview and of course Kiprich was there as well. Once that interview went on the site, all my friends were calling to say how good it was and that I asked some good questions. It didn’t surprise me though because Robert and I had spent time watching interview shows to understand how best to frame our work for the site and how a presenter should act. We didn’t think it could be hard to do interviews, after all, we did teach ourselves how to mix CDs, build a website, edit video digitally, and use Photoshop.

We were glad that people loved the interview and from then on Robert decided that I should be the “face” everybody sees on the site while he would stay behind the camera.

The Bahamas

Our friend Sean Roy whom we met at Broward Community College years before came to us with a proposal – come to the Bahamas with him for a show he was putting on with Tony Matterhorn and Supa Twitch in Mid-February. We would cover airfare and he would provide the hotel and transportation. Robert and I decided to go but we needed a new camera. Our parents Digital8 camera was not good enough; we needed the new MiniDV format because it was TV quality and this trip was bound to be something that could go on TV.

Circuit City was the next stop and $1600 later; we had a brand new Sony MiniDV camera that was among the first consumer MiniDV cameras available.

Robert’s girlfriend at the time decided to come along as well and so we arranged to stay an extra day and enjoy the Bahamas. Tony Matterhorn proved to be a big joker like Assassin. From arriving at the airport in Nassau it was a comedy. The customs officers wanted to take away his records, then the transportation was 1 hour late.

The event was to be at the ZOO nightclub and we passed through to see the setup. Then on to the hotel where Matterhorn teased the locals that everything they ate was “Conch something…conch soup, conch fish, mussi have conch chicken too!” The funniest part however was when we stopped taping and he berated Sean Roy for not treating him like a VIP. Robert told him we didn’t get it on camera so he needed to do it over so we could tape it – and he did!

The relationship with Matterhorn after that has been a great friendship.

Imagine, by the end of February, we had met a ton of artists at the football game, Assassin had co-hosted for RealVibes, we got publicity for scoring a goal, met the head of VP Records Miami, interviewed Elephant Man and Kiprich and went to the Bahamas with Tony Matterhorn!

RealVibes life was bound to be exciting.

The next few months were spent refining the site and promoting it overseas while reps in Jamaica promoted out here as well, especially Epidemik, the sound we had linked up with because of Marc Gayle.

Stages

The base for the promoters of the Stages events was around the corner from our house, we could literally walk there. Absolute Entertainment loved the website and offered to put it on their flyers in exchange for us promoting it on the site and taking pictures. The next Bubbles, one of their events was fast approaching and we decided to be different and draw some real attention.

It was decided that we should brand Robert’s modified Honda Civic hatchback. It already had a cool paintjob, we just needed the graphics. Robert found the place, Metrosigns, who gave us a deal to be able to come on as a sponsor and then he designed the graphics.

2 days later the car was ready and we didn’t unveil it until the party at Seminole Indian Village. Parked outside the entrance with a fog machine under it, every single person going to the party saw the Civic and our friends were impressed. More impressed however were a number of promoters, including the promoters of the future Blink series.

We had told Absolute that we were going to do the car but they never believed us. We had proven that we put our money where our mouth is and the introductions were plentiful that night.

Hybrid Entertainment was going to start a party series in May as well and wanted to promote via our site and car at Stages. We agreed to have flyers on the car at the event and support it via the website.

May came and Absolute gave us our own booth inside the party. Full service bar and right by the food, it was like our own VIP area. The car was parked right there inside the party and drew a number of looks. The biggest promo was when we were leaving of course.

Hybrid was now our good friends and Blink was a tremendous success, totally flopping a party down the road put on by a more popular promoter. Jonathan and his dad came to the first Blink with us and we had fun. We originally visited the other party and then told the promoter we were going to check out Blink and then come back.

We never went back.

Summer 2002

Summers were always spent in Jamaica and we saw an opportunity to enhance our profile at the various events. T-shirts were screen printed by a good friend Tamille Braithwaite, a fellow UM student. To see her spend hours cutting out stencils was to see true friendship in action. She just wanted to help and this was what she could do.

Mom was very impressed and like all mothers she pointed out that we should make sure we marry a girl like that, one who supports you 100%.

We bounced from party to party that summer until Independence weekend in Negril. Blackchiney, by now our good friends because of Stages in Miami, did not stop bigging up RealVibes. We were on the stage taping, taking pictures and dancing up a storm.

RealVibes had taken Jamaica by storm and Stages was the launching pad.

The most important thing to happen however was the launch of RVmobile. We had the idea of a party hotline where people would be able to call and get information about events on the weekend. Corey however came up with the idea of using text messages instead. He explained that all cellular phones had an email address and if we could figure that out, then we could create a script online to send messages to our subscribers.

Brilliant!

We got to work that same night and tested the next day. Corey got the message while at work – from RVmobile.

We were the first people in Jamaica to debut this, something that is so common now. Back then it was different and people loved it.

Thanks Corey.

Excerpt from book in progress: The House that RealVibez Built being written by David and Robert Mullings

Bob Marley remixed

I was sent an email letting me know to check out this really cool competition being run by Tuff Gong, Rockr, Quango and Imeem to promote the upcoming release of Roots, Rock, Remixed, a collection of remixed Bob Marley tracks that have the blessing of the Marley Family and Chris Blackwell.

Check out Rootsrockvideo.imeem.com. We plan on entering the video competition and would love to see some more entries from Caribbean people. We'll certainly let you know how the CD sounds when we get our copy.

Beenie Man page launched

We know many of you want to see pages for your favourite artists that make it even easier to find their videos. We have been implementing these pages over the last few days and have finally launched the Beenie Man page.

Check out the page here: http://www.realvibez.com/beenieman

Hot Import Nights Orlando content

The H.I.N. Orlando videos just went live today @ Realvibez.com/hotimportnights and we are sure the guys will especially enjoy the first video the most.

Check out the live performances of Brick and Lace and Sean Kingston.

The photos are even cooler so check those out in the new photos section.

Of course, feel free to leave some feedback.

Photos are here!

And as promised, the photos are back - Realvibez Photos

We put a lot of work into finding the perfect gallery. The most important factors were:

(1) Easy to create new galleries

(2) Easy to navigate

(3) Customizable and able to fit within our template easily

(4) Choice of whether to allow people to download the photos or not

(5) Flash-based

The team hopes that you enjoy th new galleries and check back over the next few weeks as we upload the best from our 5 year old collection and add some that never saw the light of day.

Major changes in store

Well I have read many times that you should get your product out to market and then tweak based on feedback.

We are tweaking away and making the experience that much better, as well as launching brand new content (or more like bringing back old features).

(1) The current layout complicates some matters for us in terms of keeping the links on the various top-level video pages current (we have two lists) and we have a found a way to make it much much easier to maintain the site AND increase the ease with which videos can be found.

The new pages go live tonight so check out the new Dancehall and Reggae pages. Our goal is always easy of use and better organization.

You will be able to quickly find the artist you are looking for and check out their videos without the need to scroll through all the videos listed on a page as is currently the case. Sometimes too much information is a bad thing.

(2) Our photo gallery will be back tomorrow as well. A lot of people have wanted to see this back on the site and we waited until we found a great gallery that fit our goals and then we tested extensively. We are quite satisfied with the tests and now it will be your turn to provide us with the feedback.

Feel free to drop a comment or fill out the contact form, we want to hear from you.