DANCEHALL HERO Part 1

Dancehall music was something new for me  at age eight or nine. I was introduced  to dancehall by hearing my older cousins and siblings playing it non-stop.  My interest peaked when my parents brought me to a stage show called “Fresh”.  Fresh was  held on the beach,  I was young and the music was “fresh” to me and the turn out was impressive to a young girl. After my introduction to Admiral Bailey, Shabba Ranks, Papa San and Super Cat I fell in love with the fast beats, dynamic sound and  colorful dialect  that made me want to move.  Like every other young person around.   Clearly, I had no idea of what most of the artiste   were saying in songs such as Super Cat’s  “mud up” and Shabba’s  “X-Rated”. Leaving me to believe that  the beat and rhythm were the main attraction to the music and I was not the only person drawn to it .  Dancehall gave birth to the  Voice of Buju Banton which carried a distinct rhythm of its own had me more interested in dancehall than any other music I was exposed to. For that period Buju Banton was the man, everything was  Buju he had brought more “slang” and was youthful in appearance.  Around the same time  I developed a  like for the Wailers’ music  which seemed slow and steady but at the time still did not know what the message was.  As I got older, I was fascinated by the sound and dress of dancehall,  I tried my best to get every tape that was available.  Then before I knew it  dancehall music was second knowledge  I found my self singing the lyrics word for word and differentiating artiste by their style. Although Buju Banton’s songs were sometimes violent the beat was good and the violence seemed surreal.    In this  era while buju reigned Bounty Killa and Beenie man made an entrance that turned heads.   I was a teenager  now and it was either you were a fan of  Bounty Killa  or Beenie Man and I liked Bounty Killa`s style, so Bounty was my DJ. However,  Beenie Man demanded attention and was born to entertain and that he did  very well.  To my surprise  my twelve year old brother  gave me a tape with some “hardcore” songs by Bounty Killa including “lodge“on the sleng teng riddim.   Most “hardcore“ songs were played on  sound systems such as Stone Love, Kilamanjaro and Afrik sound  the music  was played in a different way,  the treble and bass were adjusted and that made the music sound even better.  Over the years dancehall music had different focuses: guns, girls, slackness and culture.  Capelton was a DJ who had a presence in the dancehall industry and could deliver in many ways. Capelton made the first song that opened my eyes to cultural Dancehall  in 1992 with his song tour, which denounced the “slackness”  and anything else that opposed culture.  The intro to the song had a concrete message “break up your folly ground and straighten your crooked ways“.  I thought to myself  if this was dancehall culture I wanted to be cultured,  now I got the message.  This cultural phenomenon gave a revival to Rastafarian’s and black awareness. Many young men flocked to the movement  and artiste such as Anthony B and Sizzla Kalonji were introduced.  Through cultural dancehall I was able to understand songs made by reggae icons like The Wailers,Toots Hibbert and Burning Spear.  Cultural Dancehall and reggae were quite similar, the only difference was the time period and that reggae used more instruments .  By fusing  Reggae and Cultural Dancehall  I was able to understand and claim my right as a socially responsible individual  for my time, or so I thought .  Having gone to stage shows and seen dancehall queens and kings as they were called making their way in mainstream media promoting their acts and helping Dancehall to flourish.  Dancehall would surprise me again with the My experience album by Bounty Killa.  This album had three songs that summed up the struggle and the fight of a people.  They were: Fed up, Mama and My experience.   This was different, this was serious this was social atrocities and political exploits being exposed during a time when I existed.  This was not a song speaking of the civil unrest of the 1970’s it was giving an eye to what was going on in my time.  Now Dancehall had a lot to say and many young people were listening.