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Top 10 Biggest Dancehall Tunes of 2016 - Fact

People go on about how dead dancehall is, like no one cares for it, but when you consider these people lack major industry experience and resources, these numbers are pretty healthy. Dancehall has always been a hit industry. Hit songs and shows. Talking about sales in this day and age is pretty dead. A problem is people compare dancehall success to hip hop and r&b. Why compare music from a place of 2 million people with one that has 200 million+ people on their own land space? A predominantly independently run and divided scene against one boasting millions of $ of investment from corporates. A genre that relies on foreign territories to sustain it compared to one where homegrown artists can tour home and live well. Dancehall has to be exported but doesn't have to investment to do so yet still survives. Yes, dancehall has punched above its weight in the past, but believe me, it continues to do that. Don't think "Oh, it ain't in the Billboard charts anymore"

Why Hasn't Jamaica Had A One Dance?

For anyone who doesn't know, Drake - One Dance was number 1 in UK for 14 weeks and 10 week in US. It topped the charts in 16 countries. Drake is known as a hip hop artist but he dabbles in other styles of music such as dancehall, r&b and afrobeats. One Dance is a dancehall song which samples a UK funky classic and features afrobeats superstar, Wizkid. Truth is, if a Jamaican dancehall artist made One Dance in 2016 it probably would've been popular in dances but struggled to break through from the dancehall's to the charts. And that's if it wasn't deemed to pop sounding by core Jamaican dancehall DJ's. It could've been one of those rest of the Caribbean hits that does well in New York and the rest of the tri-state, Africa then hits Jamaica on the rebound. Most of those types of songs aren't worth the risk because many of them float in no man's land; not hardcore enough to fit dancehall DJ's sets, and despite its accessibility to the mainst

So, Jamaican Music Is Currently Dominating UK Pop Chart

Based on official UK top 100 singles chart week commencing 15th April 1. Drake featuring Wizkid & Kyla Don't listen to the afrobeats or UK funky claims, Drake made a dancehall song with elements of the aforementioned. But I addressed that in the ' Mis-Appreciation of Jamaican Culture ' post. 2. Sia feat. Sean Paul - Cheap Thrills Sidenote: Song declined by Rihanna 5. Zara Larrson - Lush Life Sidenote: Allegedly a song declined by Rihanna. Not sure how true that is. 10. Rihanna feating Drake - Work (peak chart position 2) 13. Major Lazer feat. Nyla & Fuse ODG- Light It Up (peak chart position 7) Sidenote: Nyla is part of Brick & Lace fame. They dropped one of the best written dancehall pop crossover songs ever in Love is Wicked . I believe she's the singer although she singjay's on this. 26. Justin Bieber - Sorry (peak chart position 1) 39. AlunaGeorge feat. Popcaan - I'm In Control 43. Kygo - Stay (peak chart

(feat. Sean Paul) [the 2016 edition]. The Songs Them So Far

So, Craig David and Kano are having renaissance moments in the UK. "feat. Sean Paul" is also having a bit of a revival. 13 years (yes thirteen years) on from his grand entrance into the mainstream market with the unstoppable dance floor smash "Gimme di Liiight". Obviously, it was followed up by the US #1 " Get Busy ", " Like Glue " and " I'm Still in Love With You  " but in and amongst all of that, Sean Paul became a go-to guy for features to make singles hot. That melodic dancehall wave from a Jamaican was fully in.

The Mis-Appreciation of Jamaican Culture

Now I know I'm using mis-appreciation in the wrong context but you're just gonna have to see with me and basically deal with it. I like the title and the sense it makes in my head more than I care about my colonial tongue. This is why I love speaking slang. They stole my language so I'm misusing theirs. Seems like a fair trade to me which is more than can be said for the slave trade... There have been more than a few examples of non-Jamaicans practicing the fruits of Jamaican culture over the past few decades. Something that seems to have risen in popularity over the past 12 months. I don't beat this appropriation drum. I believe the difference between appropriation and appreciation is in the intention of the person using it, in my opinion. I believe most victims of "Appropriation" hounding committed their "crime" from a place of appreciation more often than not. Maybe I don't understand it well enough, maybe I'm naive but I don't see m

Jamaican/Bashment Music Banned In Croydon? We Are In 2016, Right?

The headline on the Croydon Advertiser read like something I'd have expected happened until the 90s at the very latest: Exclusive: Police accused of racial profiling after ban on 'unacceptable' Jamaican music https://t.co/zue8UD85ft pic.twitter.com/hwdARMrt7C — Croydon Advertiser (@CroydonAd) March 11, 2016 How is that even allowed in this day and age? A type of music that's commonly associated with participants securing a wine, daggering or bussing gun finger is related to crime and violence? That's what they're allegedly saying. The owners of Dice Bar were told “not to play bashman or John Paul”, translation: bashment or Sean Paul. We don't "bash" man, uzimi? And the only John Paul I know was the pope and I swear my man's reasoning with his peer Jesus while Selassie, Peter Tosh, Jacob Miller and Bob Marley bun him out? "We had a flyer which said R&B, garage, house, bashment and hip hop and I was advised to remove the word b

Kano 'Made In The Manor' review = album I needed to hear

This is a good old-fashioned long read. I don't care about the ideal word count limit or ISO. Optimum anything can sxck ya mam. Man's 'ere to express, uzimi? If you don't want to know what I think of the singles, skim from here to the next bold. Bold onwards is about the album tracks. In an era where it felt like everyone was trying to make "universal" stuff that sounded/ripped off American aiming to appeal to a global audience by kids who grew up with aspirations to be like rich US hip hop artists, grime's return to the mainstream conversation kicked the regional ownership back into gear. It reminded Londoners that we have a history and identity beyond images we saw on MTV Base. Don't get me wrong, I indulge in the gritty, road rap tales from the younger generation. I love their way with words, passion, hearing their pain, perspective and outlook over trappy beats. But I love balance too. It was lacking 2 to 3 years ago. While there has been hit