Magic! tops Billboard chart with Rude, exposing Canada's reggae roots

Magic! is the first Canadian band in a decade to hit the number one spot on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart.

The single Rude has ruled the top spot for three weeks since becomingthe first Canadian reggae track to hold the titlesince Snow's Informerin 1992.

• Watch the official video for Rude by Magic!

While Rude's sound is closer to The Police than it is to Snow, there's no mistaking the Caribbean influence, the Jamaican guitar twang, the lyrical bombast and the very danceable beat.

But Magic! and Snow are just the most recent offshoots of a longstanding reggae institution in this countryand the tradition'sroots run deep.

Jamaican music booms in Canada

Arriving with the influx of Jamaicans and other West Indian migrants in the 1950s, reggae quickly became embraced by white Canadian musicians.

Juno-nominated musician andacademic, Jason Wilson, grew up in a neighbourhood in north Toronto with many West Indian families, and being exposed to the music lead him to weave reggae into his career:

"By the time I came along in the '80s, and other musicians like me, reggae music was part of the Toronto music vernacular, embedded. You needed to know, if you were a gigging musician, you needed to know to play reggae."

Rock You High in rotation

Long before Magic! came on the scene, there was Messenjah.

The Kitchener, Ont.-based band formed in1980 and went on to become the first Canadian reggae band to be signed by a major label.

Hit track Rock You High was thefirst reggae song to go into rotation on mainstream Canadian radio.

The group's founding members, Carl andRupert Harvey, were born in Jamaica and moved to Canada as children. Rupert says their style helped lay the groundworkfor other groups like Magic! and Bedouin Soundclash.

"Ithink we were the first reggae bandto tour nationally. We were the first band to be signed to Warner Bros. back in the early '80s." he explains. "Even though there were other reggae bands before us such as IshanPeople, Sattalites, Truth and Rights, we were the first guys that were recognized at that level."

• Messenjah's Carl and Rupert Harvey on Canada's reggae roots

Canada's West Indian community continues to have ahuge impact. More than a million people are expected to descend into Toronto this weekend for the city'sCaribbean Carnival, the biggest festival of its kind in North America.

As for Magic!, its tour brings them back to Canada in mid-August.

CBC Arts reporter Deana Sumanac has the full story Friday night on The National.