Dancehall
 

so I recently was in Guyana for 3 months doing community service. for those of you who don't know Guyana is in South America but is considered part of the Caribbean culture seeing as it is the only english-speaking country in south america. It also shares musical influences and while I was there I fell in love with Reggae and most of all dancehall.

Most of the world isn't very educated on Jamaican music besides Bob Marley and Sean Paul, and it seems the same with these forums, but there must be a few people into the Caribbean music scene, no?

Before I went to Guyana I listened to Sean Paul and Elephant Man.

I now know the likes of Vybz Kartel, Mr. Vegas, Collie Budz, DeMarco, Beenie Man, Mavado, Serani, etc.

Most of all I fell in love with Busy Signal. He is a dancehall artist, but incorporates a lot of other genres in his music.

Anyone else into the Dancehall scene? What arsits do you like? And most of all has anyone else heard of Busy Signal ?!?!?!?

I like Dancehall a lot, but I find that there's more that I don't like in the genre than I do. It's become very "club-ish" lately and the hip hop vocoder obsession has bled into the genre full force.

I wish there were a lot more political, purposeful dancehall artists out there. I pretty much stick with my select faves Capleton, Sizzla, Buju Banton, and Beenie Man, among others, and even they tend to be more reggae/dancehall crossover.







For me it's really hard to find decent dancehall that I like that doesn't simply amount to glorified club music, but it's definitely out there and worth searching for.

You mean like from now, today?

For me it's the same as all Jamaican music: only the older stuff sounds good. Broadly, I think of Dancehall as electronic Reggae that's not quite Dub.

Here are some good ones from the olden days

Ganja Smuggling by Eek-a-mouse


Dancehall by Yellowman


But as always, times change

To me, this next one really really sucks. Dancehall of today..
Unknown Number by Busy Signal

Yeah, I would definitely include Yellowman as one of the greats of dancehall. I love Eek-A-Mouse, but I've always just kinda' considered him reggae, even though he does have a variation of the raggamuffin style.

I'm pretty fussy when it comes to the sub-genre. I really like a aggressive political dancehall and there's not a lot of that out there. I've pretty much given up on contemporary dancehall. Most of it's terrible. Some of Major Lazer's stuff is okay, but for the most part I'm pretty unenthused.

I guess I can see that dancehall takes a lot of getting used to to appreciate. I only liked most of it after being immersed in the culture, so I guess I can forgive you guys for not liking much recent stuff.

but as soon as I can post damn links I will link a couple songs that I enjoy to show what I am talking about...


EDIT: and way-to post one of Busy's worst songs... seriously you could find something better

I thought I should just mention- I would put modern dancehall to people who like hip-hop and electronic music as well as reggae... if all you like is reggae from the 70s and 80s and you can't stand today's good electro bands.. then dancehall is not for you- stick to reggae

also- if you can't understand the accent, this music is a lot less enjoyable, but I think it can still be liked, it just enhances it when you feel awesome about understanding it lol.

as promised, here are some of my favorite dancehall hits:







a pretty popular one



And finally I get to prove Busy Signal's versatility and awesomeness.

A lot of people don't even like Reggae let alone any sub genres due to not understanding the lyrics unfortunately.

I have to say that Dancehall is probably my least liked sub genre of Reggae. I do like Richie Spice though but a lot of his music is in the lovers rock realm.

yeah the dancehall of the early 80s is where it's at, the golden age of jamaican music IMO. Eek-a-Mouse, Yellowman, Don Carlos, Johnny Osbourne, King Kong, Tenor Saw, Ini Kamoze ... Check outt he excellent dancehall compliations on Soul Jazz records for a flavour

This classic is my fave from Yellowman. I used to hear it so much when I was younger and living in St. Thomas.



I was surprised not to see Shabba Ranks listed by anyone but this is one of his songs I remember hearing quite often as well.

idk if the song is technically a dancehall tune but it was super popular when it came out.


Spragga Benz deserves a mention as well

Alot of people are becalming reggae funs even though there is a lot that is needed to be done by the artists,eg the mode of dressing,the words,dance styles etc,Although dance hall is the most enjoyable genre type of music by the youths