Up front and in your face, Max Glazer and Federation Sound get right at it on this compilation called simply: Max Glazer presents DanceHall Classics [Sequence SEQ 8026-2 ]. You will happily recognize all of these jamz, especially if you live in a metro where the massive give 'nuff respect to Rasta music.
In case you don't know, Dancehall is a live-and-direct descendant of reggae which became popular around 1979, gained momentum and almost became a social cause celebere through the eighties as the strict musical orthodox Rasatafarian ideals loosened a bit. Many in traditional Jamaican society turned up their noses at Dancehall, but it is a natural progression that they shouldn't shun. One of the first reggae cuts I ever heard was Augustus Pablo's primordial "King Tubby Meets the Rockers Downtown." It was a mostly dub track with Pablo's chants done echo-style. Well this big hit is a direct scion to Dancehall music's dub poetry stylings just as some credit the artist Yellowman with bringing the genre to the fore.
To me, it is just a DJ-driven analogous style much like "House" is to "Trance," except the lingo is Patois which makes you want to undulate and jump-up, jump-up to its rapid raw riddims. Dancehall's pace is faster than regular reggae, with a full thump, thump-thump, thump beat. This is typified on track eight, "Ting A Ling" from Shabba Ranks. As my friend, New York radio personality and original rude boy Daved Levy might say, "It'll keep rockin' you, rockin' you!"
Several words have been added to our lexicon as a result of Dancehall. Terms like ragamuffin, bashment, and the chat chant "its murrrdaa!" come to mind. All the heavyweights of the past twenty years are represented on this disc from a triple dose of the slackness of Barrington Levy with "Here I Come," to Mad Cobra doing the famous "Flex..." which I don't consider to be Dancehall because it is too easy rockin'. There is Capleton, whose groove is more conscious Haile Selassie Rastaferience (thank you south Jersey's Michael Thomas) than Shabba and those, combining with a Lil Jon and Paul mix of "Tour."
Max's strategy seems to be about three song loops all mixed seamlessly here; short versions which allow the album to play well for the massive. The best of which are cuts four through six featuring my favorite- Cutty Ranks' "A Who She Me Dun," one of the first recognized Dancehall hits here in the United States.
If you want shimmering "Action," you get it courtesy of Terror Fabulous (featuring Nadine Sutherland) on cut two. Yes it is the one you think it is! Dancehall has gone so commercial that I think even the casual listener has heard these beats, if no place else than as commercial or movie beds. Some say that is a sell-out, but in this case it helps the whole reggae cause monetarily. More familiarity represents on Dawn Penn's "No, No, No (You Don't Love Me)," and yet another Shabba staple, played on Frankie Crocker's WBLS, New York back in 1990, "Twice My Age" – who is the female on the melody here? I have always wanted to know, and am sure that Frankie gave props back then, but no credit is given in the liner notes. Although it is difficult to single out another one track that might be my favorite of this collection, I would dedicate "Wicked In Bed," the last track, to my x-girlfriend. How'd that happen??
There was this club in New York City at the corner of West Broadway and Canal Streets back in the late '80s/early '90s that comes to mind whenever I hear Dancehall, and where I first discovered it. I cannot remember its name as I write this, my reader, but suffice it to say that the speakers were huge (sometimes I would sit on them just to feel the bass), and it was full of ganja smoke or some sort of very strong incense. No doubt I give Max Glazer (and I couldn't find out much about him either) and company Five Stars! As Shaggy and Rayvon say on track thirteen, "Big Up." As I say, give 'Nuff respect - for a thorough job.
