A non-Jamaican has entered the UK national charts by making dancehall for the first time since Glamma Kid "Bills 2 Pay" in 2000. The dubstep-infected dancehall jam "Soundbwoy" entered at 18.
A top 20 for this type of song is a great achievement in this current climate where there are a lot of great pop songs. Especially in absence of most things generic in what's coming from the London "urb*n" scene at the moment; 4x4 dance, no feature, no big pop chorus, no talking about money, clever punchlines, rapping about rapping, references to money or girls... It doesn't even a feature a remix with at least 4 London artists with greater buzz (YouTube views)... None of the above. And dubstep's not even in anymore.
Also, it isn't a song women will request at a club to sing and dance to, it's one for the head nodding, man dem to rate. He made it after the Red Bull sound clash for sound systems to play because he didn't have a song like that when Major Lazer introduced him as a special guest. We know girls music dictates the charts.
Just seen this tweet from the producer:
It's also impressive when you compare it to the amount of artists with a much bigger "buzz" from the UK rap scene that dropped flop glorified freestyles about rapping dressed as singles last year. I don't need to name names, but they all rapped on beat produced by the same guy. It's a shame when you consider the dude is actually a decent beat-maker. Not to mention a song earlier this year which reached #18 despite boasting a #1 artist feature, over 100k followers on Twitter and surpassed 2 million views on YouTube. You know, the stuff that sells records now. Well, that's what the industry believes...
This has been a long time coming as regular readers of this blog and Twitter followers will know. My reason for the 2011 and 2012 "How Jamaican music influenced UK music this year" round-ups were to show it can and will happen. All it needed was time/attention and money and we're in there. Hopefully more labels wise up to the fact that dancehall and reggae music deserves to be on BBC Radio1 A-list like Stylo G. With all due respects to Stylo G and "Soundbwoy", there have been much bigger songs from Jamaican dancehall which have been completely ignored because "this isn't what the kids are into. They're into grime and hip hop."
It's about time people in the industry look beyond which "urb*n" genres are in and see songs for what they are; good and bad, commercially viable or not. This is a victory for every artist that sticks to their guns and doesn't follow a scene because it's what in. That's exactly what Stylo did. UK dancehall hasn't been in, but he has made it work for him through determination and a serious set of undeniable club bangers, namely "Call Mi A Yardie", "Swagger Dem" and "Boasy".
This week we here at Marvin Sparks are putting our support behind Fuse ODG, a UK afrobeats artist and fellow Radio 1 A-lister with the infectious "Antenna". We champion diversity of "urb*n"/black music genres. It's more than r&b and hip hop. There isn't any American in our blood line, we are Caribbean and African. Give us our support and appreciation.
And (UK dancehall artist that doesn't get credited for it) Sneakbo drops on 7th July with his moombahton song "Ring A Ling" which samples Shabba Ranks' famous "Ting A Ling".
I repeat: artists who are currently following the trend, feel free to breakout of it.
Best of luck to Stylo G and the rest of the team for the future. Good foundation set. Big up the fathers before such as Glamma Kid, General Levy, Tippa Irie and Smiley Culture.
Oh and lastly, catch Fuse ODG on the Stylo G headlined 4th stage at the Yahoo! Wireless Festival taking place at the Olympic Park in July. More info here.
A top 20 for this type of song is a great achievement in this current climate where there are a lot of great pop songs. Especially in absence of most things generic in what's coming from the London "urb*n" scene at the moment; 4x4 dance, no feature, no big pop chorus, no talking about money, clever punchlines, rapping about rapping, references to money or girls... It doesn't even a feature a remix with at least 4 London artists with greater buzz (YouTube views)... None of the above. And dubstep's not even in anymore.
Also, it isn't a song women will request at a club to sing and dance to, it's one for the head nodding, man dem to rate. He made it after the Red Bull sound clash for sound systems to play because he didn't have a song like that when Major Lazer introduced him as a special guest. We know girls music dictates the charts.
Just seen this tweet from the producer:
Tbh ... I was only hoping and aiming for 1xtra playlist when we did #SoundbwoyLoool thought it was too hard for radio.. God is Great! #18
— Diztortion (@TheDiztortion) June 2, 2013
It's also impressive when you compare it to the amount of artists with a much bigger "buzz" from the UK rap scene that dropped flop glorified freestyles about rapping dressed as singles last year. I don't need to name names, but they all rapped on beat produced by the same guy. It's a shame when you consider the dude is actually a decent beat-maker. Not to mention a song earlier this year which reached #18 despite boasting a #1 artist feature, over 100k followers on Twitter and surpassed 2 million views on YouTube. You know, the stuff that sells records now. Well, that's what the industry believes...
This has been a long time coming as regular readers of this blog and Twitter followers will know. My reason for the 2011 and 2012 "How Jamaican music influenced UK music this year" round-ups were to show it can and will happen. All it needed was time/attention and money and we're in there. Hopefully more labels wise up to the fact that dancehall and reggae music deserves to be on BBC Radio1 A-list like Stylo G. With all due respects to Stylo G and "Soundbwoy", there have been much bigger songs from Jamaican dancehall which have been completely ignored because "this isn't what the kids are into. They're into grime and hip hop."
It's about time people in the industry look beyond which "urb*n" genres are in and see songs for what they are; good and bad, commercially viable or not. This is a victory for every artist that sticks to their guns and doesn't follow a scene because it's what in. That's exactly what Stylo did. UK dancehall hasn't been in, but he has made it work for him through determination and a serious set of undeniable club bangers, namely "Call Mi A Yardie", "Swagger Dem" and "Boasy".
This week we here at Marvin Sparks are putting our support behind Fuse ODG, a UK afrobeats artist and fellow Radio 1 A-lister with the infectious "Antenna". We champion diversity of "urb*n"/black music genres. It's more than r&b and hip hop. There isn't any American in our blood line, we are Caribbean and African. Give us our support and appreciation.
And (UK dancehall artist that doesn't get credited for it) Sneakbo drops on 7th July with his moombahton song "Ring A Ling" which samples Shabba Ranks' famous "Ting A Ling".
I repeat: artists who are currently following the trend, feel free to breakout of it.
Best of luck to Stylo G and the rest of the team for the future. Good foundation set. Big up the fathers before such as Glamma Kid, General Levy, Tippa Irie and Smiley Culture.
Oh and lastly, catch Fuse ODG on the Stylo G headlined 4th stage at the Yahoo! Wireless Festival taking place at the Olympic Park in July. More info here.
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