rolling dancehall & reggae 2015

Can I just say mood riddim?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjNXrmFKJ6U

Also willing to stan for Vybz' Viking in EOY polls. Just putting that out there.

oh shit, RIP j capri. i had no idea she'd been in an accident :(

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Singjay-J-Capri-dies

Oh no, RIP :( So young and already with so many classic singles - "Lyrics To The Song", "Reverse It", "Pull Up...", "Wine & Kotch" ...

:( RIP. Likkle is one of my top jams this year.

that's terrible, RIP. what a promising, though already amazing career as etc said.
I knew about the accident but they'd just reported a couple days ago that she was likely to recover :(

aw man. RIP.

Popcaan has had such a quietly awesome year. I can't imagine him attempting something like this before now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Xq2THQXNk

If he put together a mixtape of his best 2015 tracks, in some ways it would be better than WWCF

^sorry, that's the "rough" version of "God Alone", here's the final mix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rBb4UV0FpA

and I guess I never even posted "Way Up"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWLT4OZjIyI

did anyone here ever get into Samantha J's "Tight Up Skirt" from a while back? it was cuet kinda teenpop-dancehall. she did a song with Dej Loaf earlier this year too that I wanted to like but it didn't quite get into. this is promising:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qCTkXGTzE4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRdSFi4KvDE

missed this Dexta Daps song over the summer (Who Bad):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRdSFi4KvDE

oof, Dexta link is actually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RosT0LHkZWs

somehow missed this Charly Black song that has 20+ million views (!!) and, judging by the comments, is huge in latin america:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K71gPNn52vE

reading back over the thread I feel obliged to acknowledge that I got over my aversion to Alkaline a little bit, especially this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nTe4rdSVWw

can't summon the will to sort out which Kartel tracks are worth listening to and which were scraped out of the bottom of the barrel, but "Pressure" is good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SPV2TbLBg0

I'm sure there are others, longneck?

also, I just posted this in the Soca thread and nommed it in the eoy poll, so while I'm generally spamming the board, you really need to hear this Olatunji track, Big Business:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8r9UtFvegg

Yeah, I'm behind on all the Kartels that have been flooding the market these past months. And once you do get behind it's easy to mistake something old for something new, etc. But I'll try to make an effort soon. Looks like this one is picking up steam right now:

https://soundcloud.com/21sthapilos/vybz-kartel-mile-high-club-pink-eye-riddim-kwashawna-records-2015-21st-hapilos

yeah, thats not bad! terrible riddim name though

R.I.P J Capri. One of the most exciting artist with the most potential to have emerged in years. Having listened to her music a lot in the last week, I think her best track is 'Lyrics To The Song'. Not quite as immediate as some of her other tunes, it's the kind of song that becomes more vital every time you hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5J2_PJoDtw

And from this year 'Likkle' is terrific

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwiFq23v_Yg

Speaking of Kartel I really like 3am:

http://youtu.be/tmSJkegVeTk

hey any of you aware of a good year end summary and/or list for dancehall? feel like I am pretty behind. there is an pirate urban radio station in Boston that plays a lot of dancehall and I am digging much of it a lot but I am pretty out of the loop otherwise

these guys have a terrible name but are good selectors imo - http://www.dummymag.com/lists/the-best-dancehall-riddims-of-2015-according-to-hipsters-dont-dance

HDD do good work, lots of great stuff on that list. I haven't seen any other lists yet. Largeup usually does one but they're pretty rare ime.

Yeah, that's a good list. Lots of favourites.

Largeup's list came out a while back:

1. Vybz Kartel, "Dancehall"
2. Busy Signal, "Text Message"
3. Jamie XX featuring Popcaan and Young Thug, "Good Times"
4. Vershon, "Inna Real Life"
5. R City, "Locked Away"
6. Popcaan, "Rup Rup (Bad Inna Real Life)"
7. Future Fambo, "Bloodclaute Song"
8. Aidonia, "Nuh Boring Gyal"
9. Busy Signal, "What If"
10. Mavado, "Up Like 7"/"Boy Like Me"
11. Dexta Daps, "7Eleven"/"Shabba Madda Pot"
12. Kranium, "History"
13. Spice, "Needle Eye"
14. Alkaline, "Fleek"
15. Gyptian, "All On Me"

They've got a soca and a riddim list too.

inna real life is so good

thanks all for sharing these lists too

vershon is performing in Boston tonight at the holiday party of one the pirate stations I mentioned so they've been playing that tune a million times a day

dancehall pirate radio station holiday party sounds like a pretty great time

kind of a weird, confused list from LU, but I suppose it accurately reflects their crossover dreams and attachment to a handful of established artists. also super male-dominated, though tbf this wasn't that stellar a year for women in dancehall

list seems fair enough, though perhaps more perfunctory than celebratory. "their crossover dreams and attachment to a handful of established artists" = r city, fambo, aidonia?

girls weren't up to snuff this year, don't force it. 'cheerful giver' is the only thing i'd have considered iirc and even that rather came and went

hdd list is money for old rope really but you're unlikely to find better around these days i suppose

"It’s rare in dancehall that a clean version is better than the dirty (raw) but"

this was a bizarre statement... stone tablet of truth in years gone by but notably v much reversed in the last couple; to me it now seems like all the original songwriting goes into the cleans and the raws are the ancillary afterthought products just for slackness in the dance purposes (actually dexta on seh feh mentioned upthread is the only one that comes to mind this year where the clean was a lazy sfx sop)

it has indeed been p magical how u can hear 'inna real life' one million billion times and it never does get old or anything less than thoroughly amenable

quite possibly the secret weapon is its beginning with [raises eyebrow] "KWETHTYON" which is always great and the best and cutest intro lisp since 'no more' by 3lw

this has been the only decent bit of dancehall writing published worldwide in 2015 and i claim my five pounds ty

dancehall pirate radio station holiday party sounds like a pretty great time

ya i would've loved to have gone but i got two little kids/worknight/etc., it was called "irie christmas", all day yesterday they were broadcasting from a jamaican restaurant until the party at some club

list seems fair enough, though perhaps more perfunctory than celebratory. "their crossover dreams and attachment to a handful of established artists" = r city, fambo, aidonia?

perfunctory is a fairer way of putting it, and since this is likely to be the only list I see, I'm not mad at it.
established artists = gyptian and mavado, though "dancehall" at number 1 feels awfully *shrugs*
crossover dreams = r city and jamie xx, and as much for what they wrote as for their inclusion. they didn't even mention OMI though so points for that.

absolutely would share in that eyeroll for 'dancehall' except lol i truly honestly do feel gaza tussan miraculously hits some essential leyline vein on his appearance on the remix. can hardly explain but in his total pointless never-to-be-repeated anonymity he fucking nails the titular it with an improv classic verse imo, whatever that it be

#1 should prob still be '7eleven' tho. do feel like a lot of onlookers recoiled when/if they eventually realised dexta was not so cutesy nice after all but instead a brilliant anarchic splice of jackie wilson and mavado

mavado himself was dominant on every single thing he touched this year, deserved placings and really should even have featured more. gyptian maybe more of a gripe but i can't easily let go of the sentiment for him either tbf

i liked the all-dancehall mix of 'good times' w/ assassin, konshens and kranium (gr8 album btw) even if it did take way too long to come out

rest of 'dancehall' past tussan is obv tourist tat tho yeah

Rumors is really great, wasn't expecting much of a splash but it deserves more attention for sure. and yeah the Dre Skull remix of 'good times' is nice but lol yes I didn't even know it had finally officially been released

been revisiting some Mavado tunes since your post, and "My League" is also v good. I will have to give that tussan verse another listen next

Chronixx on dancehall riddims always welcome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh9nsr1yX-A

I'm wrapping this playlist for the year. It has been updated with a few new adds (Vybz, Ishawna, Samantha J, Gyptian) and includes every track mentioned on thread that is available via Spotify's US catalogue as of EOY 2015. If I missed something or if a track comes available sometime in the future, bump here to let me know and I'll add.

Rolling Dancehall and Reggae 2015 Thread Spotify Playlist