Riddim Poll Vol. 1: Diwali

Went with T.O.K. in the end though "No Letting Go" is pretty much perfect.

inclined to do several of these

Interested to see which ones you select. Will they be all from 2002-04?

i remember hardly anyone voted on a ragga ragga ragga poll :(

i think i've only heard 4 of these :/

Interested to see which ones you select. Will they be all from 2002-04?

Ha ha that's the only problem isn't it, my knowledge of riddims afterwards is much more spotty. I'll see how this one goes.

I think of the non-big-singles "Galang Gal" is my favourite too, but really choosing between the top four or so is like cutting out a piece of my heart.

"get busy," "galang gal" and "never leave you" are all on my personal songs-of-the-decade list, so it's hard to choose.

Even though I haven't heard all of these, the ones I do know convince me that the others are all amazing.

From what I know here, a close draw between "No Letting Go" and "Never Leave You," but I have to give it to Lumidee because the mix of her vocals is so perfect. Tim, is it also fair to categorize "Pon de Replay" as Diwali?

this is so hard. btw the Soul Rebels Brass Band recorded a diwali megamix of sorts on their live-in-the-studio album Urban Legend, with 'get busy', 'no letting go', 'welcome home', and maybe some other stuff i'm missing.

oh and 'never leave you'

Galang Gal is such an awesome version, it kind of has to be that. Not listened to the whole thing in a while but I don't recall many duds on this.

you can hear a clip of the soul rebels thing at amazon, track #2.

tempted to go for lumidee btw.

i'll cop to having only heard the big crossover american singles, but of those i think "no letting go" is about as perfect a song as humanly possible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-x6kSr8NHg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IuoTB5xBSM

Tim, is it also fair to categorize "Pon de Replay" as Diwali?

I'd say no if only because I think there are both heaps of other riddims and a fair number of other R&B singles that sound closer to Diwali than Rihanna does.

I find "Elephant Message" slightly weaker relatively speaking, maybe because of the intrusive way that the synth line and Elephant match eachother. OTOH Elephant's voicing for lenky's follow-up riddim Dreamwever ("Blessed") is astonishing.

yeah i'd say that rihanna song is diwali-inspired, like 'single ladies'

The problem with one riddim polls (this one sort of excepted) is that usually there are at most four or five big versions that everyone knows (unless you bought the riddim album).

Diwali is really one of the exceptions though. No one has even mentioned how great "Sufferer" and "Party Time" are.

hang on isn't missy's "pass that dutch" a fairly big omission here? not that i'd vote for it (lumidee all the way)

no

While I like "Galang Gal" a lot, it feels like just another great TOK track to me. "No Letting Go" OTOH seems really special.

i mean it has handclaps, but the rhythm of the claps & kick drum are very different from diwali. even if it samples some sounds from diwali (which i don't think it does?), it's a different beat.

i think i've only heard 4 of these :/

― lex pretend, Wednesday, October 14, 2009 5:42 AM Bookmark

this

Even though I haven't heard all of these, the ones I do know convince me that the others are all amazing.

― as strikingly artificial and perfect as a wizard's cap (HI DERE), Wednesday, October 14, 2009 6:16 AM Bookmark

and this

based on my cursory Youtube perusal, I have been totally OTM in this thread

what happened to TOK anyway

They just released a new album like a month ago.

more like TKO (of their career)

btw happy early diwali everyone

Our World, I admit that I haven't heard.

1. Intro Our World
2. World Is Mine
3. Guardian Angel
4. Couple Up
5. Gangsters Never Die
6. I Wann Love You
7. Gimmie Little (If You Want Me)
8. Me And My Dawgs
9. Die For You
10. Afternoon Pornstar
11. It's Over
12. Miss World (With Beenie Man)
13. Whining
14. Gyrate
15. Get Out (Don't Come Back)
16. Live It Up

Apparently a new Ward 21 album just came out too. I will wait for it be 99 cents on Ernie's Bs just like I did the last one, I think.

i was gonna say they dropped off the greensleeves comps but no, there was a tok track on rrr 2009

13. Whining

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CE-MJgcAnNQ

xpYeah but there is always a weird proprietary thing w/ VP artists and Greensleeves artists on those comps.

Are we doing this bcz Diwali is Saturday?

FFS "Pass That Dutch" can stay the hell away from my poll thread.

Diwali seems to be the one case where everyone says "hey, you know that pop song with some vaguely dancehall-inspired beat and handclaps? That's the diwali riddim, right? Right??

Sorry that sounds excessively snarky. It's just that "Pass That Dutch" strikes me as a particularly depressing diwali-soundalike (musically at least; no issues with Missy's performance).

Another good poll would be "best fauxmaican R&B/rap beat 2002-2009".

I hope this poll gets more votes than my ill-fated Best Version of Sleng Teng Riddim poll. :(

yes, that needs a nomination thread

xp

"no letting go" is a work of genius, the quality of the song itself being on equal sitting with the wow factor of the riddim, but i'm a sucker for that little synth riff in "elephant message" and just the whole concept of an "elephant message" in general

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

what a cruel poll! went with elephant message..

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Run off!

nice

Listening to the Greensleeves Diwali riddim album right now. Forgot how great some of these versions are. Assassin is particularly choice.

Fake horns on "Elephant Message" chorus make the whole thing.

Not sure if this is a challops, but I think I prefer "Pengeleng" to "Galang Gal".

Beenie Man really doesn't like gays and lesbians. Despressingly catchy bit of homophobia.

ele's chorus has "me no like no fassy"

First 10 tracks are just ridiculously strong "Sufferer" to "Overcome". Maybe the best collection of talent on a single contemporary riddim that I can think of. Still Spragga, Degree and Bling Dawg to go (plus the great instrumental which was the basis for the Sean Paul version IIRC.)

who the hell is madd anju

wait the little fake horn line in elephant message is from 99 red balloons?? looool

Madd Anju was a minor 00's talent. Probably most famous in my mind for "Cellular Minutes" on the Clappas riddim.

what other riddims could be polled? mud-up? punanny?

haha i have always thought of that song as elephant man's version of 99 red balloons, didn't even know its title until this thread

kinda annoyed at how well "never leave you" did, imo it's such a shitty sounding cheapo version of the diwali compared to most of these tracks

Red Alert

Street Sweeper

ya red alert

should definitely be a coolie dance poll, always seemed like that was the 2nd biggest US crossover riddim after diwali

kinda annoyed at how well "never leave you" did
― some dude, Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:49 PM

srsly. how many logins does lex have

Okay Spragga is just okay, but Degree is awesome as always on "Inna". Suspect the quality is going to dip a little from here on out.

overrating lumidee is an ilx tradition that predates the lex

Vital Lumidee Qns

ha, et tu blount?

Crissy D version is pretty sweet actually. She's on the Bubble Up riddim album IIRC.

degree's 'inna' seems to get really good about halfway in

Completely missed Hawkeye track (did it even play) but Bling Dawg is great as always.

kinda annoyed at how well "never leave you" did, imo it's such a shitty sounding cheapo version of the diwali compared to most of these tracks

really? i think the beat is a lot higher in the mix and less cluttered than a lot of these. and the melodies are great.

^ Agree. It's kind of cut up, you can tell they kinda chopped up the beat on the instrumental parts to make the song and it sounds kind of raw, but I like the end result.

vol. 2?

What riddim should we poll?

Coolie Dance would hopefully get a couple of votes.

happy Diwali ILM

crissy d is great

need vol. 2

the mustard crissy d puts on 'champion lover' has made the phrase bounce around inside my head like a ping pong ball

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjO0Busqog