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Journey

09 · STREAMING & THE LIVING ARCHIVE

Jamaican music is everywhere—and still deeply local.

2010s–Today

Streaming, social video, diaspora networks and collaborations accelerate exchange while local scenes keep inventing.

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FROM THE ARCHIVE

Published records from this era

Follow any record into its connections, evidence and interviews.

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 · 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.

recording · Well supported"Caught You in a Lie" — Louisa Mark

Louisa Mark's mid-1970s record, cut when she was still a teenager, and usually treated as the starting point of lovers rock — the British reggae style that gave second-generation Caribbean Britain a music of its own, sung largely by young Black British women.

recording · Well supported"Everyone Falls in Love" — Tanto Metro & Devonte

"Everyone Falls in Love" by Tanto Metro & Devonte is a late-1990s dancehall crossover record, using singjay melody and duo interplay in a way that translated strongly to international radio and introduced many listeners to a softer dancehall sound.

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.

clash · Well supported"Final Warr" (Death Before Dishonour, 2010)

'Final Warr' was a 2010 installment of the long-running Death Before Dishonour sound-clash series, won by Manchester Parish sound Black Kat and its operator Pink Panther, who took the Squingy Cup.

recording · Probable"Footprints" — T.O.K.

"Footprints" by T.O.K. is a mid-2000s vocal cut on the Drop Leaf riddim, often cited in the one-drop/dancehall crossover moment when harmony groups, roots themes and polished rhythm production overlapped.

recording · Well supported"Get Busy" — Sean Paul

"Get Busy" by Sean Paul is the Diwali riddim's biggest international breakthrough, a dancehall single whose Billboard success made Lenky's rhythm and Jamaican deejay delivery part of early-2000s global pop radio.

recording · Well supported"Heads High" — Mr. Vegas

"Heads High" by Mr. Vegas was a late-1990s breakout hit that helped push dancehall further into global club and radio circulation, pairing a memorable hook with the faster international traffic of the VP/Greensleeves compilation era.

recording · Well supported"Here Comes the Hotstepper" — Ini Kamoze

Ini Kamoze's 1994 crossover: a decade-old roots deejay reborn atop Salaam Remi's hip-hop-framed production, riding the "na na na" hook to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 — dancehall phrasing at the summit of American pop three years after Shabba's Grammy run opened the door.

Showing 10 of 200 records