C90: Dirty Dancehall Riddums

Do you want just, like, any good dancehall - or specific examples of the most popular riddims?

I bought General Levy's "Taliban Slam" last week, Levy riding the Taliban riddim which is (or was) (apparently) big right now. Not unfortunately a righteously topical track but more of a bragging tune - but the riddim is very ear-friendly and waist-friendly.

On the flip there was Fire Fly using the same riddim - I'd not encountered him before, seems to be mining the same high-pitched kid-MC vein as Red Rat but his side was livelier than Levy's (though much shorter, boo).

chaki you will download beenie man's "moses cry" right now.

There's something I'd like to see a really thorough comp cover -- a dancehall overview of the past fifteen years or so, some 4 CD or more set. Does such a thing exist, or could it? I know Chaki wants C90, but I'm thinking big here. ;-)

well, here are the "epochal" tunes from the mid-late 80s at least:

barrington levy - "here i come (broader than broadway)"
tenor saw - "ring the alarm"
wayne smith - "under mi sleng teng"
admiral bailey - "punnany"

you'd also need some ninjaman, buju banton, shabba, shaggy, beenie man, red rat, elephant man, super cat, yellowman, cutty ranks (i'd pick "limb by limb", which marvellous cain nicked for "the hitman"), bounty killer, patra...possibly tangential stuff outta drum and bass and hiphop which has adopted dancehall technique and mc'ing.

obviously, i'm no expert (i don't think anyone on ilx really is or could be...you have to be maniacally focused to keep up with this shit), and dancehall can be numbingly repetitive in the wrong mood. i don't know where chaki lives, but if it's anywhere on the (upper) east coast near a major urban center he should be able to hear a dancehall show on the local hiphop station, usually weekends after midnight. (that's when hot 97 and power 99 ran them anwyay.) i find the best way to listen to dancehall is really (unsurprisingly) in the flow...how these guys make the same riddim seem exciting for an hour or more is beyond me, but when it works, it works.

on reflection here are the songs i would choose:

(off the top of my head/my collection...very incomplete!)

barrington levy - "here i come (broader than broadway)"
tenor saw - "ring the alarm"
wayne smith - "under mi sleng teng"
admiral bailey - "punnany"
ninja man - "murder dem"
shabba ranks - "wicked inna bed"
elephant man - "2000 began"
beenie man - "moses cry"
cutty ranks - "limb by limb"
red rat - "oh no"
beenie man - "turn around"
luciano - "real rastaman"
mad cobra - "a gal a chat"
bounty killer - "dem nuh have no heart"
patra - "scent of attraction"
yellowman - "zungu zeng"
reggie stepper - "kimbo king"
halfpint - "greetings"
apache indian - "boom shak-a-lak"
junior reid - "one blood"
ini kamoze - "hot stepper"
capleton - "tour"
ninjaman/beenie man/bounty killer - "bad boy lick a new shot"

beenie man "infiltrate" is key, too.

Rough Trade had whole bunch of post-Get Ur Freak on tabla beat Ragga 7"s, but as with most of my haphazard ragga purchases, the quality varies greatly. The two had still make me foam at the mouth are:

"clump up" - Mad Cobra; with a great line: "reservation fa two / mek credit card swipe"

"one in a million" - Cutty Ranks

thank you all im off to burn my new cd.

elephant man - the bombing

history man - bin laden ( bin laden riddim )
911 c90 anyone?



or "the dancehall good to we (1982-1993)" compliation covers all the basses..

Hurrah for all answers given. :-)

Where the hell did the attempted word 'riddum' come from? Its been postered on all reggae or caribanna tie ins this year but never before in my life have I heard or read this word. It can go rot in word hell next to 'EMO' for all I care. The music of course can stay.

Riddim means ass, so it usually means the ass of the song. Zim-zimmah!

a dialecticized version of "rhythm" surely -- denoting the compartmentalization of dancehall into vocals and backing as seperate entities & the reuse of riddims under song after song -- a practice i understand deriving from the poor years of the labels esp. coming into the 80s, where for economy's sake they kept the same backing trax (= expensive, relatively) under different songs (shouting being cheap).

Sterling's closer but how the hell did this become the 'dude'/'cool' so bloody quickly for all the lil' hoodies in the 'burbs? Its freaking everywhere, the word, in advertising, signs etc in the space of a couple of weeks.

Blackface buried under an "appreciation" of "culture".

noodles you're dumb. thats like saying "why is everyone saying the word 'pee'?? its so trendy blah blah blah" when we all go pee!

Well yeah, of course it's "rhythm" and it means what Sterling says, but I heard it's also another word for da butt. I'll ask a Jamaican acquaintance and clear this up.

Just d/l-ed - Breeze's "What Di Hell" - fantastic cod-operatic choirs, v. cool.

jk - any chance of that history man track going up on AMP or filepile? (pretty please)