reported by Dawn L. Hall, FictionFanatic.com

Without funding and limited resources, two artists have managed to circumvent the limitations of the digital divide and the Atlantic Ocean. How often would you find a Jamaican writer and a British underground DJ working together in the studio when one lives in Canada and the other lives in a suburb of London in the UK?

Michael St. George is a Dub poet, singer, and songwriter from Jamaica who is currently based in Toronto, Canada. St. George met DJ wunderkind Asif in 2004 at the Griots Black Cultural Fest in Wales/UK. Since then, they have worked together in DJ Asif?s London studio and across the waves using electronic media and the Internet to complete a truly imaginative and uplifting world music recording. The two artists were able to combine their skills to produce ?Hey! Hey! (De-Compartmentalize-I)?, an inspired collaborative piece.

DJ Asif is often heard on the BBC's Digital Asia and is popular at venues across the UK and Europe. Urbanised from the Asian Underground scene, with his project Fusing Naked Beats, Asif blends Arabic rhythms and Eastern vibes with his background in hip-hop and deep beats transporting his sound all over Europe from deck to deck. He has produced several albums featuring original soundtracks for film and work with prominent vocalists such as Najma Akhtar and others.

St. George inspires audiences with perceptive lyrics and melodic sound fusing Reggae, Jazz, and Pop influences. He is a dynamic artist who has shared the stage and studio with such icons as Oku Onuora, The Last Poets, Culture, Burning Spear, Lillian Allen, Luciano, Thomas Mapfumo, Mutabaruka, Mzwakhe Mbuli, Dennis Bovell and the International Dub Band, Toots and the Maytals, and Boukman Eksperyans.

No stranger to forging cooperative creations, St. George?s most recent album "Dubbin? De Vibes" highlights exciting partnerships with prominent musicians such as Orville "Wyz" Malcolm, Iauwata Selassie, Paul Kastic, Dalton Brownie, among others.

You can check out samples of St. George's tracks at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/mstgeorge. You can also see his video Caged In and a promo video showing short clips of performancesas part of the griotsarts podcast through iTunes at http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=129580761&s=143444

For more information about Michael St. George, visit http://www.michaelstgeorge.com. For additional details about DJ Asif, visit http://www.fusingnakedbeats.co.uk