rolling dancehall & reggae 2022

for my money though, the it's the trap-hall scene generating the most energy (even though this stuff is *cold*)

Skeng - Curves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bUH9hz9mEA

sadly Skeng chucked in his uninterrupted run of razor-sharp singles for some crap ballads

Prince Swanny - Bad & Clean

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUvnc_0Ibcc

Soldier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOjqRcq2I-w

Ding Dong on that same "Dolly" riddim (Upstairs is the name) is not bad too

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

if you have the Criterion Channel, this looks fire: https://www.criterionchannel.com/roots-revolution-reggae-on-film

Okuda Hiroko: The Casio Employee Behind the “Sleng Teng” Riddim that Revolutionized Reggae

https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-topics/g02027/

from October last year, the remix of Projexx’(x?) “Sidepiece” with Nigerian singer Ruger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqyiNni9u84

(it’s also featured on P’s Queen Hill EP)

Ruger’s mission, according to his Twitter: “I will make Africa and the whole world fall deeply in love with dancehall music”.
His is an extremely afropoppy version of dancehall - not surprisingly he’s blown up in East Africa even more than in Nigeria itself.

Put your back in it
Put your back in it
Just a likkle more

Pitchfork likes Koffee

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/11/magazine/scam-rap.html

Intence’s “Yahoo Boyz” that Rob highlighted previously, is included in this discussion of scam rap, and afrobeats and dancehall examples of songs about internet scams

Jamaicans on twitter and elsewhere speaking out against Grammys best reggae album going to northern Virginia band Soja and not to Spice , Sean Paul, or other nominees

Others aren’t surprised. Grammys are notorious for not reflecting critical or popular consensus

It is entirely unsurprising but nonetheless worth speaking out against.

I go back and forth with awards shows in general: I resent that we have to talk about them every year as if everyone who knows anything doesn't know they're a joke but at the same time can't entirely deny that there's an audience they reach and that could therefore be theoretically exposed to worthwhile stuff.

Just discovered this. Syrupy dub reggae from Puerto Rico, just adding a coating of varnish on the classic sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu0SIQVoAnE
Pachyman - All Night Long

I think you all might like this Laa Lee & Cristale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm8GMl_S17c

I made a playlist of some recent trap dancehall stuff:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0IadjozPPc2pSE8jan5LBL?si=PY8_ID9OTCK_pLaq4d5GEQ

Please let me know if I’m forgetting something awesome.

thanks for this! i’m not sure i’m into it but it’s interesting

Pr promo email but still kinda interesting ---

Spice, Queen of Dancehall returns to the Billboards in Times Square in promotion of Spotify’s EQUAL Campaign. The streaming platform’s playlist entitled EQUAL features the voices of prominent women from around the world. Seen as one of the leaders in the streaming space, the playlist offers more visibility to women.

Gracing billboards in New York’s Time Square, Spice amplifies the messaging that female creatives should be treated as equally as their male counterparts. In Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square, Spice will be re-featured in time for her PRIDE performance live on Friday June 24th that officially opens the weekend celebration in Toronto.