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One index for everything published: records, stories, watchable media, community memories and places. 487 records match.
'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.
recording · Well supported"All Fruits Ripe" — Nyanda featuring StonebwoyNyanda'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.
recording · Well supported"Bam Bam" — Sister Nancy"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.
recording · Well supported"Bam Bam" — The Maytals (Festival Song 1966)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.
recording · Well supported"Beat Down Babylon" — Junior Byles"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.
recording · Well supported"Big Ship" — Freddie McGregorFreddie 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.
recording · Well supported"Breakfast in Bed" -- Lorna Bennett'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.
recording · Well supported"Down Town Ting" -- Queen Tiney (Hortense Ellis)Recording as 'Queen Tiney' for producer Bunny Lee, Hortense Ellis cut 'Down Town Ting' as a direct answer record to Althea & Donna's 1977 UK number-one 'Uptown Top Ranking', trading on the same uptown/downtown status theme that ran through late-1970s Jamaican song.
recording · Probable"Egyptian Dance" — Elephant ManElephant Man's early-2000s cuts "Egyptian Dance" and "Egyptian (Version)" rode producer Don Corleon's Egyptian riddim, part of a run of uptempo, horn-sampling rhythms that made Corleon one of dancehall's most in-demand producers of the 2000s.
recording · Well supported"Everything I Own" — Ken Boothe"Everything I Own," Ken Boothe's 1974 cover of David Gates's Bread ballad, reached number one on the UK Singles Chart on October 26, 1974, staying there for three weeks - produced by Lloyd Charmers at Federal Records in Kingston, with Lloyd Parks on bass, Willie Lindo on guitar and the Maytals' Paul Douglas on drums.
recording · Well supported"Fatty Fatty" - The HeptonesThe Heptones' 1966 Studio One debut, written by Leroy Sibbles and produced by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd; banned from Jamaican radio as too risque, which helped make it a best-seller and foreshadowed later slackness debates.
recording · Well supported"Girl I've Got a Date" - Alton EllisAlton Ellis's 1966 Treasure Isle single, produced by Arthur "Duke" Reid and often cited among the first rocksteady records as the ska tempo eased into a cooler, bass-forward groove; its bassline is frequently traced into later international hits.
recording · Probable"Gotta Be Mine" — Beenie ManBeenie Man's "Gotta Be Mine" voiced producer Tony Kelly's 2001 Buy Out riddim, one of the era's most-versioned dancehall rhythms, also carrying cuts from Sean Paul and T.O.K.
recording · Well supported"Here I Come" — Barrington LevyBarrington Levy's 1985 record, known by its "broader than Broadway" hook — one of the most recognisable vocal phrases dancehall has produced, and endlessly sampled and interpolated in hip hop and jungle. Levy's soaring style made him the great singer of the early dancehall era, and this is its concentrate.
recording · Well supported"Hol' a Fresh" - Red DragonLate-1980s dancehall hit that established deejay Red Dragon, produced by Winston Riley, its catchphrase becoming one of the deejay's lasting signatures.
