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One index for everything published: records, stories, watchable media, community memories and places. 232 records match.

recording · Probable'Til Shiloh — Buju Banton

'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"007 (Shanty Town)" — Desmond Dekker & The Aces

"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.

recording · Well supported"A Sombra da Maldade" — Cidade Negra

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.

recording · Well supported"Agony" - Pinchers

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.

recording · Well supported"Al Capone" — Prince Buster

"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.

recording · Well supported"Ali Baba" - John Holt

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.

recording · Well supported"All Fruits Ripe" — Nyanda featuring Stonebwoy

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.

recording · Well supported"Antonia" — Gondwana

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.

recording · Well supported"Armagideon Time" - Willi Williams

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.

recording · Well supported"Baby Boy" — Beyoncé featuring Sean Paul

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.

recording · Probable"Bakardi Slang" — Kardinal Offishall

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.

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 · Probable"Below the Waist" — Queen Ifrica

"Below the Waist," a 2000s Queen Ifrica recording, is associated with the singer's social-commentary songwriting, part of a lineage of Jamaican artists using popular recordings to prompt public conversation on sensitive social issues.

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