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Wayne Smith

Well supported

The singer of "Under Mi Sleng Teng" (1985), the King Jammy production whose Casio-driven rhythm is the conventional starting gun for digital dancehall. Smith (1965-2014) recorded plenty besides, but the record that changed the music's economics — no session band required — is the one history keeps him for.

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Wayne Smith — Under Mi Sleng Teng (Jammy's, 1985)

YOUTUBE · rights discovery only · performs

Official YouTube upload; embedded as reference.

View transcript · 41 lines

Automatic captions — a machine draft pending editorial review.

  1. 0:02[Music]
  2. 0:28my don't Wan to go
  3. 0:31my don't Wan to go Insan my brain no coce I don't Wan I do
  4. 0:35Insan my brain no coce I don't Wan I do
  5. 0:35Insan my brain no coce I don't Wan I do n't Wan Go
  6. 0:37n't Wan Go
  7. 0:37n't Wan Go [Music]
  8. 0:44[Music]
  9. 0:51[Music] inse and m like
  10. 0:55inse and m like
  11. 0:55inse and m like humanood mouth and of
  12. 0:58humanood mouth and of
  13. 0:58humanood mouth and of myse the air
  14. 1:01myse the air
  15. 1:01myse the air [Music]
  16. 1:44[Music]
  17. 1:44[Music] Myin
  18. 1:47Myin
  19. 1:47Myin [Music]
  20. 1:50[Music]
  21. 1:50[Music] Myin and moving like a
  22. 1:54Myin and moving like a
  23. 1:54Myin and moving like a human
  24. 1:58M
  25. 2:02[Music]
  26. 2:26[Music] putin I don't I don't
  27. 2:31putin I don't I don't
  28. 2:31putin I don't I don't my brain no I don't I don't go
  29. 2:38oh
  30. 2:41oh Myin
  31. 2:44Myin
  32. 2:44Myin my
  33. 2:48Myin
  34. 2:50Myin the give to
  35. 2:54the give to
  36. 2:54the give to neb
  37. 2:56neb
  38. 2:56neb the to my neighbor
  39. 3:03and like a
  40. 3:07[Music]
  41. 3:18[Music] human
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Audio

Under Me Sleng Teng - Wayne Smith

SPOTIFY · rights discovery only · performs

Official spotify upload; embedded as a discovery-only reference pending editorial review.

Source link ↗

In stories

Story · Well supportedThe Riddim Economy: One Riddim, Many Voicings

How a preset rhythm on a consumer keyboard turned Jamaica's oldest studio economy into the digital age.

Story · ProbableThe night the riddim went digital

How a cheap keyboard preset in 1985 reset the sound of dancehall.

Debate & reception

How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →

debate

Sleng Teng: digital revival or the ruin of live reggae

Wayne Smith's 1985 'Under Mi Sleng Teng', built by King Jammy and Noel Davey around a Casio MT-40 preset, is widely credited as the first fully digital dancehall riddim. Purists and some session players held that the drum-machine sound cheapened reggae and displaced the live rhythm bands (the Roots Radics and Sly & Robbie's circle) who had defined the music, while champions argued it democratized production — a youth with a keyboard could now cut a hit without costly studio time — and that it launched the most-versioned riddim in Jamaican history. Later writing frames the moment as either a revival that birthed modern dancehall or the ruin of organic reggae craft.

Stance: democratizing computer riddim vs. the death of the session-band sound