This is how you do it in 2008 Freshout style.. If you put on a Groundation album, you will hear smokey, moody reggae infused with technical jazz elements and the nasally, rebellious vocals of a Jamaican activist or African refugee. You will never for a second doubt the authenticity

But if you were to watch a video or go to a performance, you may be surprised at what you find. Groundation are far from Jamaican. And they are certainly not African.

Groundation are former jazz students from Sonoma State University. Two of its members are now college professors, including lead singer Harrison Stafford, who started the first reggae music history course. These are white intellectuals playing reggae and jazz at a very high level. And they may change the way you think about what a reggae musician is supposed to look like.

This is not a new phenomenon, of course. The blues has been replicated by white players with great impact for the last 50 years. Even the concept of white reggae is not new. Matisyahu, Slightly Stoopid and Sublime come immediately to mind. But it is the authenticity, the aggression and the more derivative vocal elements that set Groundation apart from other white reggae artists. They have got that reggae groove down to a tee.

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