From the pit
On October 28, 2025, Hurricane Melissa came ashore near New Hope in Westmoreland as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds, the strongest hurricane ever to hit Jamaica and the first Category 5 to make landfall there. St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland took the worst of it. In Black River, almost every roof was gone. Power went out across the island, schools and homes were torn open, and the damage ran past US$12 billion, the costliest storm in Jamaican history. The next summer even Reggae Sumfest had to leave its Montego Bay home.
Boston has a deep Jamaican community, and when yard gets hit, this city answers. DJ Pup Dawg put together Pup & Friends at Big Night Live on May 7, 2026, and brought in Shaggy to headline, with Tina, Tifa and DJ Suss One on the bill and JAM'N 94.5 behind it. The whole night was built to send money home for the rebuild.
Shaggy was the right man for it. The Grammy winner behind Boombastic, which took Best Reggae Album in 1996, and 44/876 with Sting, which took it again in 2019, has been raising money for Jamaica with Shaggy and Friends since 2009, so this was not a favor. He came to work, and the room on Causeway Street gave it right back to him. Between the hits you could feel what the night was really about: people with family in St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland, dancing for the ones still putting roofs back on.
These frames are that night. Mr. Boombastic on a Boston stage, a crowd that came to give, and a city showing up for Jamaica.
Words & photography — Bobby Shakes