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Dance-community term for the street-dance style that followed the 1990s 'old school' Bogle era, credited in scene oral history to dancer John Hype as part of the video-light generation's transition into 2000s Kingston street-dance culture.

A documented international public debate over homophobic content in some reggae and dancehall lyrics, focused on tracks such as Buju Banton's 1988 'Boom Bye Bye' and artists including Bounty Killer, Sizzla and Capleton; the 'Stop Murder Music' campaign (from 2004) led to widespread concert and sponsorship cancellations, and the 2007 Reggae Compassionate Act saw several artists pledge against inciting violence, though observers noted uneven compliance. Framed here neutrally as a documented debate over lyrics, free expression and human rights.

'Til Shiloh, Buju Banton's 1995 album produced by Donovan Germain at Penthouse, marked his widely documented turn from slack dancehall lyricism toward Rastafari-conscious songwriting and is regarded as the signature recording of dancehall's mid-1990s cultural turn.

"007 (Shanty Town)," Desmond Dekker & the Aces' 1967 rocksteady hit, drew directly on "rude boy" street culture and gang imagery, helping establish the rude-boy narrative as a recurring theme in Jamaican pop reaching international audiences.

"A Little Too Late" is a recording by Julian Marley. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"A Man Is Still a Man" is a recording by Morgan Heritage. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

Signature 1994 hit from Cidade Negra’s album Sobre Todas as Forças, a Brazilian reggae radio staple that helped cement the band’s national mainstream breakthrough.

A study of the Alpha Boys' School built on fifteen interviews with its graduates, and the source for most of what this archive now says about Alpha. It supplies the chronology: Justina Ripoll (Sister Mary Claver) opening the Alpha Cottage on 1 May 1880, the drum and fife corps in 1893, the Bishop's gift of brass instruments in 1908. It also makes two arguments that matter more than the dates. First, that music at Alpha was a product of discipline rather than of an arts mission: precision, repetition and routine were what the school was for, and a brass band teaches them efficiently. Second, that the legacy runs into the state as well as the studio, with Jamaica's military, regiment and police bandmasters all Alpha graduates at the time of her interviews. It is also where Sister Mary Ignatius Davies' sound system is recorded.

"Access Granted" is a recording by Chronixx. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Affairs of the Heart" is a recording by Damian Marley. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

Pinchers' late-1980s dancehall hit, one of the records that defined the era's smoother singing side and a fixture of any late-80s selection since. It carried his name far beyond Jamaica and remains the tune he is introduced by.

"Ain't It Good to Know" is a recording by Beres Hammond. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Al Capone" (1964), Prince Buster's gangster-imagery ska hit whose gun-talk swagger fed the rude-boy aesthetic and later became a touchstone for the UK 2 Tone revival.

John Holt's rocksteady side for Arthur "Duke" Reid at Treasure Isle, released around 1968-69 with (uncredited) Joya Landis, later circulated as its own versioned rhythm.

Nyanda's August 2022 single with the Ghanaian star Stonebwoy, produced by Richard "Honorebel" Bailey and Conceptual Reality Media, a reggae voice from a group best known for a 2007 hit finding a second audience through an Afrobeats-facing collaboration, in the same year "Love Is Wicked" itself went viral again on TikTok. Nyanda choreographed a dance challenge, balancing a fruit basket on the head, to go with it.

"All Night" is a recording by Damian Marley. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Always Be Around" is a recording by Jesse Royal. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Amazing Grace" is a recording by Sanchez. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

Adom Heron's essay reads the mid-2000s shift toward flamboyant male dancehall style (Clarks shoes, tight trousers, skin bleaching) through a "hermeneutic of play": borrowed symbols (a colonial-era British shoe, clothing coded feminine, a "browning" complexion) deliberately re-signified rather than simply copied or rejected. Traces Clarks from 1970s "rude boy" opposition through Vybz Kartel's 2010 single "Clarks"; the rise of all-male troupes Ravers Clavers and Ghetto Legacy around Elephant Man's stylistic turn; and male skin bleaching as a practice predating Kartel's own, including Carolyn Cooper's account of a young DJ bleaching for Christmas c. early 2000s.

The best-known song by Gondwana, the Chilean band who did more than anyone to establish reggae in Spanish-speaking South America. It is a good illustration of how far the form travelled and how completely it was absorbed: a Jamaican rhythm, a Chilean band, a Spanish lyric, and an audience that heard it as their own music rather than an import.

"Are You the One" is a recording by Julian Marley. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

Willi Williams's Studio One roots record for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, cut on the "Real Rock" rhythm (recorded 1977, issued 1979) and famously covered by The Clash - a vivid case of a Studio One riddim reaching global rock audiences.

"Ask My Granny" is a recording by Queen Ifrica. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Autumn Leaves" is a recording by Damian Marley. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Avocado" is a recording by Jah9. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

From Beyoncé's debut solo album Dangerously in Love (2003), on Columbia, directed by Jake Nava. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there nine weeks, making Sean Paul's voice, on a riddim-inflected hook, part of the biggest pop record of its year.

Lead single from Kardinal Offishall’s major-label debut, articulating Toronto’s West Indian presence in patois-inflected verse and becoming his first Top 20 Canadian solo hit; a remix paired him with Jamaican deejay Bounty Killer.

"Bam Bam" is Sister Nancy's 1982 song, produced by Winston Riley for his Techniques label over the Stalag riddim (built from Ansel Collins's 1974 "Stalag 17"); it is now regarded as one of the most sampled reggae recordings in hip-hop history.

The first Festival Song winner, taken by The Maytals in the competition's inaugural year, 1966. The song long outlived the contest that produced it and has been versioned and sampled far beyond Jamaica.

"Batty Rider Shorts" is a recording by Lila Iké. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Bawl Fe More" is a recording by Major Mackerel. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Beach in Hawaii" is a recording by Ziggy Marley. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Beat Down Babylon" (1972), Junior Byles's fierce Rastafari protest record produced by Lee "Scratch" Perry, capturing the militant, change-is-coming mood of early-1970s Jamaica.

"Beautiful Day" is a recording by Ziggy Marley. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Beautiful" is a recording by Damian Marley. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Behind Curtain" is a recording by Chronixx. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Below the Waist" is a recording by Queen Ifrica. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Best of Me" is a recording by Romain Virgo. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Better Must Come" (1971), Delroy Wilson's hopeful reggae hit on Dynamic Sounds, adopted as an anthem of Michael Manley's PNP in the 1972 election and remembered both as a people's cry for change and as a case study in political appropriation.

"Better Tomorrow" is a recording by Etana. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Beware" is a recording by Tarrus Riley. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

Freddie McGregor's record, and the name he took for his own label and studio, the Big Ship operation that has since produced a substantial catalogue and given the singer a second career as a producer and label owner.

"Biggest Fan" is a recording by Lila Iké. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

Released on Prince Buster's own Voice of the People label, this record attacked the Chinese-Jamaican producer Leslie Kong, accusing him of profiting from material that rightfully belonged to Black Jamaicans and questioning his standing in the business. It was triggered partly by Buster's belief that Derrick Morgan's Kong-produced hit "Forward March" had lifted one of his own tunes, and it opened a war of words answered by Morgan and Kong with a reply record, to which Buster responded again with further songs including "Thirty Pieces of Silver" and "Praise Without Raise". Buster framed his stance as political, rooted in his 1962 conversion to Islam and a belief that record-industry profits should stay within the Black community, even as he remained personally friendly with Morgan throughout.

"Black Woman" is a recording by Jesse Royal. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Black Woman" is a recording by Queen Ifrica. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Blazin" is a recording by Koffee. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Blessing" is a recording by Etana. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Blood & Fire" (1970), Niney the Observer's brooding, apocalyptic roots hit, one of the best-selling Jamaican records of its moment and a landmark in the Rastafari-fire lyric that broadcasters once kept at arm's length.

"Blood Money" is a recording by Protoje. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Boom Draw" is a recording by Julian Marley. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

Hopeton Lewis's 1970 Festival Song winner: the rocksteady pioneer of "Take It Easy" taking the national title with "Boom Shaka Lacka", proof the contest and the studio mainstream were one talent pool.

"Borders" is a recording by Kabaka Pyramid. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Bout Noon" is a recording by Protoje. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

'Breakfast in Bed', Lorna Bennett's 1972 cover of the Baby Washington soul song, was commissioned by producer Harry J and arranged by Geoffrey Chung; the single's success made Bennett the first woman to top the Jamaican singles chart, and its Scotty-voiced deejay B-side is a landmark of the toasting era.

A Warriors Musick production, released 2021, and one of the plainest statements of the modern drink record: the rum as the instruction rather than the subject.

"Broken Sail" is a recording by Julian Marley. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Brown Eye Girl" is a recording by Sanchez. An Apple Music catalogue preview is attached to this page and is the whole of what the archive can play. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Bubble" is a recording by Etana. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.

"Buffalo Soldier" is a recording by Bob Marley & The Wailers. A catalogue preview is attached to this page. The release date, the producer, the label and the riddim behind it are all undocumented here.