Dancehall, Ragga, and Dub
 

Anyone into this? I'm looking for recommendations from people who are properly into it

There's alot of confusion with the terminology of what is 'ragga' and what is 'dancehall', so just to clear this up for anyone unfamiliar, dancehall refers to sped up reggae of the early 80's, made mainly for dances, this was when the DJ, and eventually MC's, would be 'chatting' or 'toasting' over a riddim to get people moving.
Eventually respective soundsystems and their crews took to competing with one another...here is the legendary Saxon Soundsystem from the UK


ofcourse all these guys were of second-generation West Indies immigrants to London, who were initally brought over for the cheap labour in the 50's, so this is pure yardie flow.

Ragga was basically where drum machines became involved in the mid-80's. Generally faster, more MC-oriented, with explicit lyrics concerning guns and sex. This kind of music was extremely influential on early hip hop.
Ofcourse the patented Jamaican style of MCing, the 'Yardie' flow, continued and flourished over jungle, then drum n' bass, etc.
The terminology of ragga and dancehall have sort of fused and contemporary Jamaican 'bashment' (a dancehall rave) music all falls under the umbrella term 'dancehall', and continues to thrive on the UK underground and just about everywhere else I think, with the occasional crossover hit.

It's pretty hype and I'm personally well into anything with bass that you can feel in your chest cavity...dubstep of course has picked up the mantle of dub (derived from it's origins in the early 70's, basically started as reggae b-sides - thus the 'dub mix' - with the bass right up in the mix and loads of reverb with all kinds of other weird sound effects) and i'm a skanker for that stuff...

Give Dubmatix a listen as well as Abassi All Stars. They should be right up your street. I love my dub and some dancehall, but most ragga leaves me cold.

i will check them out! gotta love the broadband

For Dub, Check out:
Lee "scratch" Perry (of course)
Scientist - especially the album "The Scientist Rids the World of the Curse of the Evil Vampires"
King Tubby (the originator of Dub)
10 Ft. Ganga Plant
Mad proffesor
Roots Radic

For contemporary dancehall
Capelton (my fave)
Buju Bonton
Sizzla

Roots Dancehall(which is essentially 1st wave Jamaican Ska):
The Abyssinians
The Skatalites
Hepcat
Don Drummond
Lee Perry & the Upsetters (early pre-dub works)

brilliant, thanks for the suggestions..as you can probably tell i have already hoarded the Trojan box sets - the best starting point you could possibly have in Jamaican music

Very dissapointed with this album. Scientist Wins The World Cup and his split stuff with Mad Professor is better IMO.

Try the German band SEEED, whose sound encompasses all the genres you mentioned. Also:

Alpha Blondy. Great politically charged reggae from the Ivory Coast.
Dreadzone. British band that are more dance orientated but have some cracking tunes.
Aswad. Forget their pop infuenced tracks in the 80's. Their 1976 debut is a roots classic.

I like "Vampires" more than "World Cup", but I think both are fantastic.