walking upstream…
Shabba Ranks
Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon was raised in the Kingston neighborhoods of Trench Town and Olympic Gardens, where he fell for the sound systems and the deejays who chatted over their riddims. Toasting at first as 'Co-Pilot,' he cut his earliest sides in the mid-1980s before renaming himself Shabba Ranks and finding his sound at King Jammy's studio during the digital dancehall boom. His gruff, chesty bark and unapologetically raw 'slackness' made him the reigning dancehall deejay of the late 1980s, and a run of crossover hits, capped by the 1992 ballad-and-toast 'Mr. Loverman,' carried him onto American radio and MTV. He won back-to-back Grammy Awards for Best Reggae Album in 1992 and 1993, becoming one of dancehall's first international superstars and a template for the Jamaican deejay-turned-pop-crossover act that followed.
the sound in question
1992
Mr. LovermanShabba Ranks
walk the tributaries ↓
Josey Wales1980s · Dancehall
Shabba has named Josey Wales as his most important early influence and mentor. Wales, the authoritative 'Colonel' of early-1980s dancehall, took the young deejay under his wing and helped connect him to producers at King Jammy's studio, and Shabba modeled his commanding, deliberate toasting on the older deejay's delivery.
listen: upstream & here
1984
Undercover LoverJosey Wales
1992
Ting-a-LingShabba Ranks
listen forPlay Josey Wales's 'Undercover Lover' before Shabba's 'Ting-a-Ling' and hear the same deep, unhurried patois toast planting each couplet squarely on the downbeat, a deejay chatting with a spoken, almost military authority rather than singing.
Yellowman1980s · Dancehall / Reggae
Shabba grew up idolizing Yellowman, the dominant dancehall deejay of the early 1980s, and counted him among the styles he loved coming up around the Olympic Gardens sound systems. Yellowman's boastful ladies'-man persona and hooky, chant-like slackness are a clear model for Shabba's own swaggering, girl-centric bragging.
listen: upstream & here
1983
ZungguzungguguzungguzengYellowman
1991
Trailer Load a GirlsShabba Ranks
listen forCue Yellowman's 'Zungguzungguguzungguzeng' next to Shabba's 'Trailer Load a Girls' and both ride a hard, stripped riddim with an endlessly quotable chanted hook and a deejay boasting in broad, comic strokes about his pull with women.
General Echo1970s · Dancehall
Shabba named General Echo among his early influences. Echo is remembered as the deejay who pushed raw, sexually explicit 'slackness' to the center of dancehall, and that unabashedly rude, X-rated boasting is a foundation of Shabba's own persona.
listen: upstream & heresource: DancehallMag ↗
1980
ArleenGeneral Echo
1989
Wicked Inna BedShabba Ranks
listen forPlay General Echo's 'Arleen' before Shabba's 'Wicked Inna Bed' and hear a dancehall deejay building a whole tune around women and sex, Echo's cheeky, girl-obsessed chat over a well-worn riddim laying the groundwork for Shabba's blunter, X-rated boast.