D.J. inna di Dancehall....

I'm Zafari, strong as can be, and I update my blog with regularity.

Ann and David will get that one.

Anyway, the new car tags for which I registered have not yet arrived, so I guess I'm Legally not supposed to be driving my car right now. It did kind of irk me that I had to pay $25 bucks to buy a one-year tag for a car that I will be using for about one week, give or take.... but I can't sell it with an expired tag, so I had no choice.

SO, I'm stuck at Laura's house, waiting for the mail to bring me two small "keep me out of jail" stickers, and decided not to make you wait a full week to roll your eyes at my un-funny jokes.

Brace yourselves.... more reggae stuff coming up.



The role that Soundsystem Yard Parties (discussed a couple of posts ago) played in the evolution of different Reggae Styles cannot be overstated. Rainy tropical weather put out many "backayard fyah" and so Soundsystem operators began taking their operations indoors.

The formation of these Dancehalls spawned a completely new reggae sub-genre that was named for the place where it was played - Dancehall.

The term "D.J." (or "deejay") in Jamaica refers to a vocalist that sings or rhymes over a track. What Americans call D.J.s are referred to as "Selectors," (pron. 'Selectas') because they select the tunes over which the D.J. will rhyme, or as they say, "chat."
At first, D.J. chat was limited to announcing song titles and calling out dance moves. This evolved into singing alog with tracks and eventually performing over instrumental tracks, creating original songs on-the-spot.

The "chat" still had a very melodious flow, but was not true singing. Here's a short clip of early Dancehall artist "Nicodemus" chatting at a Soundsystem Yard Party.



Dancehall Deejays were "chatting" over bass-and-drum heavy tracks in the mid-70's, long before the "invention" of hip-hop in New York City.

Upon analyzing the geneology of hip-hop, a very clear line can be traced from Kingston to the Jamaican Immigrant neighborhoods in NYC to Harlem street parties in which young men started chatting, or as they called it, "rapping" over bass-and-drum heavy instrumental tracks. Late-70's Dancehall sounds almost identical to early hip-hop, the only real difference being vocabulary and accent.

Here are some clips of artists that were crucial to the emergence of Dancehall reggae:

The famous, albino Dancehall D.J. "Yellowman" performing at Reggae Sunsplash in 1982:



- a quick aside - After spending 3-4 nights per week for the last 4 years playing in bars, witnessing countless fights and a couple all-out brawls, I never so much as bumped another man in a bar. We've dealt with all kinds of drunken shitheads, but I'm just not wired for physical violence.

The closest my streak ever came to being broken was at the King Yellowman show at the Grand Emporium a couple of years ago. I held up an extremely rare "Yellowman and Fathead" LP for Yellow to sign, which he did after showing it to all of the members of his band. He later told me that even he didn't have his own copy of that album.

After signing it, he held it out to me, and before I could reach it, this Bumbaclot Jamaican snatched it from his hand. I reacted poorly, but effectively, grabbing him by the front of his jacket and holding my fist to his face - 50's comic book style. (See? Not a fighter, no no.)

After demading the return of my album in no uncertain terms, he reluctantly capitulated, though I think it was due more to my rabid frothing than my intimidating physique. Either way, the album was safe and Kristi had, if possible, even less respect for me than ever before....

Anyway, here's Super Cat, an artist at who's concert I have not embarassed myself. Yet.



...and finally, Dancehall Singer "Barrington Levy," known as the "Mellow Canary" for his laid back style and the soaring putiry of his upper vocal range.



Marvelous, huh?

Modern Dancehall has followed an evolutionary arc similar to that of Modern Hip-Hop, retaining it's melodious, sing-song sound. I'll have a full post for you this week on Modern Dancehall.

Until then, picture me looking really tough in a room full of dancing Jamaicans....