taking sides: ragga ragga ragga vs bigest ragga dancehall anthems

new answers

One is a single disc compilation that comes out in about May and the other is a two-disc compilation that comes out in about November. As far as I can tell "Ragga Ragga Ragga" is theoretically a "this is hot right now" round-up whereas the anthems collections are more of an annual summation affair.

If you have access to both but want only one I'd suggest the new anthems double-disc because it has a decent amount of the RaggaX3 tracks plus lots more. Esp. for Kip Rich and Preditor's "Head Nah Good", which is brill!

What if we wanna know what's been hot since May? Is there a comp for us?

well, i have been picking up the "biggest..." comps since 1999 and only recently became aware of "ragga ragga ragga" as an alternative.

the reason i ask is because i picked up "biggest...2003" last night and was sort of struck by how way out of left-field alot of it was (even for dancehall). i mean, most of it basically bears NO resemblance to the stuff i hear on the weekly dancehall show on our local urban radio station.

so i was wondering if "biggest..." is more of a catch-all for international hits (as opposed to US/UK market), or if soca is catching on faster than i realized, or what?

I'm gona hafta go with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer on this one. And maybe UB40, when I'm especially white-from-Ohio.

"What if we wanna know what's been hot since May? Is there a comp for us?"

There's a reason why the annual round-up has *two* discs - although it's not in chronological order or anything obv.

"the reason i ask is because i picked up "biggest...2003" last night and was sort of struck by how way out of left-field alot of it was (even for dancehall). i mean, most of it basically bears NO resemblance to the stuff i hear on the weekly dancehall show on our local urban radio station."

Vahid which tracks do you mean? What I recognised of the tracklisting looked fairly sensible and straightforward in the light of what I hear over internet radio.

I fond that a year isn't long enough to get my head round two CDs' worth of Big Ragga Anthems.

well, the local radio market here isn't the most progressive by a long shot.

i'm think stuff like "bring it on" and "hand up deh" (sorry don't know the names of the riddims). it just seems accelerated, somehow. less bass-driven, too. after "diwali" i wouldn't have predicted this direction.