Roots Archives Forum

Hey brothers i wanna know what "type" of reggae es Big Youth ,is he a dancehall singer? or what , and why? .Is he what u denominate early dancehall? I am new and wanna know more of he.Thanks Brothers

ONE LOVE

Big Youth would be known as a "DJ" or "Toaster." Basically what he did would be to take the "version" (or instrumental track) of a popular song and "DJ" or "toast" some rhythmic lyrics over the top. Modern Hip Hop can trace its roots to these early Jamaican DJ's as well.

In a way, you could say that his music was early dancehall... But then again, since all Jamaican music was originally designed to be played at a dance (sometimes indoors, sometimes outdoors) ALL Jamaican music might be considered dancehall.

I think if you ask most people, "dancehall reggae" really started in 1985 when a producer named King Jammy created the first digital riddim- Sleng Teng. HOWEVER, guys like Big Youth, U Roy, I-Roy and others were definitely the foundation on which future dancehall artists built their style.

tingjunkie,
Your post made me think of something. I once saw Sugar Minott at Reggae on the River (late 1990s) in California and about midway through the show he gave a little speech about taking back dancehall from the current style and if memory serves he ripped into "Buy up the Bar" and "No Vacancy".

I think I know what you mean and I'm not trying to be disagreeable and I understand people associating "dancehall" with digital riddims, but I think artists like Levy, Minott, Carlos, etc. were the true fathers of "dancehall", long before it went digital on us.

Chris

There is another post floating around where someone asked for a definition of Rub-A-Dub. As I replied in that post, it's really hard to try and decide how to label certain tunes/artists.

Sugar Minott could certainly claim to be one of the father's of dancehall, but then U Roy might come along and say that he was the original father of dancehall (and he would have a point), but then Count Machuki could come and tell U Roy to piss off as well!

It's nearly impossible to draw a line and say when dancehall really started. For me, I draw the line at King Jammy's first digital riddims... wait, no I don't. What about Yellowman, Eek-A-Mouse and other's before then... they can't just be considered Rub-A-Dub..? Ahhhhh! See, it's just too confusing!

Here is a perfect example. Which of these songs are rub-a-dub, which are dancehall, and which are still roots reggae? ..... [cover=1367,1571]

Thanks for the help breddas!!

what about king stitt and count machuki? we have to call them "prehistorical dancehall toasters"? djs were toasting in jamaica before the birth of ska...

I consider that the beginning of the so called "dancehall singers" was when producers released the first record with a dj version on it. it meant that audience was ready to this kind of sound and that it was also possible to sell this type of music. so I would say u roy was the first of all.

In these early DJ and Toasting sessions, early reggae that is, artists like Big Youth would sing it in a chanting stylee. They are chatting on the record but in a sing-J style. There's melody as well as riddim and it's a very appealing style for some listeners. But not all reggae fans enjoy the toasting masters like U-Roy, Big Youth, Ranking Trevor and all.