By David Renard
Dear listeners,
Great to be back with you again. I’m Dave Renard, an editor on the Times Culture desk. When I read a couple of weeks ago that Wayne Smith’s 1985 smash “Under Me Sleng Teng” turned 40 this year, I had to go dig up some old and new dancehall favorites that feel perfect for late summer.
As Patricia Meschino’s Times article lays out, “Sleng Teng” transformed Jamaican music almost overnight after its all-electronic backing track, or riddim — courtesy of Noel Davey, Prince Jammy and a Casio keyboard — proved wildly popular. The first few songs on this playlist come from before that digital revolution, when reggae D.J.s (who, somewhat confusingly for outsiders, perform a role more equivalent to M.C.s in hip-hop) sang and rhymed over instrumentals or dub versions of previous hits. The lines between older tunes and new creations get thrillingly blurred, as the genre’s past is dragged back into its present, tweaked and transformed. Artists also use and reuse the most popular riddims, putting their own spin on them and minting new hits.
Here are 13 tracks that (very roughly) sketch out how dancehall has evolved over the last few decades. Some are well-known classics and others are more left-field personal picks.
I just love how the champion sound keeps playing,
Dave
Listen along while you read.
1. U-Roy: “Runaway Girl”
When he died in 2021, U-Roy was hailed as one of the originators of the Jamaican “toasting” style of rhyming over a prerecorded track — and, by extension, as a pioneer of hip-hop. “I’m the first man who put D.J. rap on wax, you know,” he told The Daily Yomiuri of Tokyo in 2006. On this 1975 song, he reinterprets Ken Boothe’s “Just Another Girl,” from 1969.
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