It’s been a year since “Wagwaan Popcaan” transcended into the international platform with “Clarks” and “Dream” and while many were still stuck pondering the playfulness of Vybz’s catchphrase, Popcaan was busy at work improving his lyricism and flow.

Several tracks emerged since the new year with the more matured sound of an artiste venturing out from under his mentor’s wings. Popcaan released “She Gone” off the Yung Riddim (Notnice) about a lover who’ll never get a man like him- “remember every gyal waan Popcaan”- and then coincided the single with “Tun Up the Scheme” and “No Sponsor“, both from Notnice.

Kartel’s entourage has slowly diluted since the peak of its franchise. With Kim, Lisa Hyper, Ryno, Former Manager Cory Todd, Merital Family and most recently producer Notnice and artiste Jah Vinci all leaving the camp to pursue their own projects (often with bitterness and controversy fueled by Kartel). Some are still lurking in the shadow of Jamaica’s most talked about deejay, Kartel, while others, freshly relieved from the troop, are imagining up new ventures. And the struggle to stay afloat will be difficult, not because they don’t have the potential, but because Kartel is an eclipse of a personality with an endless supply of production capabilities.

The young Popcaan, who recently shot down rumors that he too was leaving the Gaza, is quickly developing an artiste rapport with his fans that rivals those of his mentor’s generation. Still Jamaican fan’s grapple with the complexities of dancehall tribalism. Comments from “The City Yeah” youtubes highlight these conflicts within Popcaan’s fan base:

“Popcaan is a talented youth but it all will seem futile when associating with people who favor the devil’s work!!!!!!!! Now all is said and done..Popcaan your talented my youth……” – Black 56104

“Only reason why me listen to gaza cause of popcaan always droppin mad tunes nah lie.. JOP MI SEH Str8 always” -Gucci Thing

Despite the hesitance from the “other” side, Popcaan keeps getting more intriguing. And why not? An evolution on the scene would be welcomed with open arms. You can only listen to the same five deejays so many times before you crave something newer, something less embattled. After all, Popcaan says, “Mad still in Adi city yeah, but me haffi say, I’m kicking it the happy way.”

Always a great artiste with a consistent stride, Konshens does a well-produced heartfelt track for those dancehall/reggae artistes lost in the last year to sickness, tragedy and as Konshens points out in the video, greed. Using his crisp voice (don’t come looking for autotune here) Konshens encapsulates the depth of Jamaica’s musical losses this year. Brap Brap. See also the clean version, Buss a Blank.

For a while now Di Genius has been strengthening his roots in the R&B genre, utilizing his innate attraction to elongated synths and languid melodies to interlock them with the “oh oh oh” choruses of singjays like Mavado and Nicky B. Two new releases from the young producer prove his adoration for the genre with continued musical collaborations from close friend Laden. The two singles, “Come Mek Me Touch You” and “She’s Getting Drunk (Moet)” offer Laden in the best light of his talents, the realm of the singjay.

It’s no mystery that Laden as a singjay has become a darling of sorts for the crossover of dancehall/R&B and he may continue to stay up top in this genre (see the most recent Mavado exploration). Laden, who has lingered on the periphery for a great while, despite the strength of singles like “Really Like You” and “My Love”, is expounding on Di Genius’ R&B explorations with these tracks and solidifying his footing as a Jamaican R&B singjay to be dealt with.

Laden, “Come Mek Me Touch You”
Laden – Come Mek Me Touch You

Laden, “She’s Getting Drunk (Moet)”
Laden – She’s Getting Drunk [Moet]

The lyrical ammunition that feeds dancehall’s infinite archive of deejay conflict is fascinating for the dramatic posturing but also important because an angry deejay can be a lyrical murder if they have the capabilities. In some ways it’s what proves a deejay has reached status in the patriarchy (because dancehall is a patriarchy) or is trying to inoculate themselves into the circle. And if you’re young and poor in Jamaica, there is plenty to be angry about.

Since the beginning of the year, we haven’t been feeling the heat from many of dancehall’s “top” deejays, and call me nuts but a bout of anger is sometimes the best medicine for a) purging of societal corruption b) challenging the unchallenged c) invigorating a watered down career. The Anger Management column celebrates every thing about the angry deejay that we love to hate and hate to love. Check it out after the jump.

A venomous Busy Signal is one of my favorite facets of the dancehall. Closely followed is the hateful rattle of Aidonia or the paranoid schizophrenia of Bounty Killer. Recently Busy raised his weapon with stiff aim at ravaging the “pussyholes” of the world on “Pon Dem” off Di Genius’ Wildlife Riddim (released in April). Using the attack method of K.D. Knight (see Manett-Phelps) he goes in relentlessly with an insatiable craving for blood. See 1:09 where he slides off the top and carries the song seamlessly down the back slope. It’s in Busy’s ability to align rhythm and meter with lyrical purpose in this song that makes him exceptional as a deejay. Whether you’re a hater or not, you have to see the value in that.

Busy Signal, “Pon Dem”

03-BUSY SIGNAL – PON DEM

Just stumbled upon this new Blaze Fia Riddim from Dutty Rock Music. It’s been reported to be the newest producing venture from Sean Paul’s camp… actually straight from the musical keyboard that is Sean Paul’s transcendent mind. It’s chock-full of Jamaica’s finest, including a track from Sean Paul called, “Gal a Bawl for More” plus great tracks from Future Fambo, Elephant Man, Assassin, Busy Signal, Wayne Marshall… and plenty of other great artistes. Peep it below.

Assassin, “We Love The Girl Dem”

Elephant Man, “Turn Mi On”

Sean Paul, “Gal A Bawl for More”

So… *half smiles, stretches fingers*… back to hybrid sounds, bastardized tracks, dancehall soundsystems and the depths of Adele’s despair. The Heatwave crew has been stirring their summer coals over there in farin ‘ol merry England, dropping a refix on the remix of the soul lounge sound of Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep”. Heatwave calls it “Rolling in the Heat”, a double edged word play on the HEATwave and Summer HEAT, maybe?? I’m assuming. But it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think “Rolling in the Heat” is the club crew’s sly little way of saying they’re bringing on the Heat with their heavy bass yard version.

Talk about evolution of a song, the track has had multiple makeovers, beginning originally, of course, with Adele before taking a little dubstep detour with a remix from The XX producer, Jamie XX, and then being remolded dancehall-version style by The Heatwave. Topping off the track with dub overs from Cecile, Mr. Lexx, Timberlee and squeezing in a tidbit of Dixie Cups, “Iko. Iko”, Heatwave make themselves a hefty club track with a little fire under its ass (maybe that’s why it’s called “Rolling in the Heat”)

Get it here.

Adele & Jamie XX vs. Cecile, Mr. Lexx & Timberlee, “Rolling in the Heat”:

Another beautifully imagined video from Director Storm Saulter has emerged for Tarrus Riley’s roots track, “Shaka Zulu Pickney.” Evoking Garvey, Malcolm X, Nanny, Sam Sharpe and other Black American and Jamaican heroes in his track, Tarrus Riley continues to stay on the path of good virtue by keeping the content conscious.

I had the opportunity to do a video interview with Riley once a few years back (a video that lingers somewhere in the FADER/Suite 903 archives never to emerge). At the time, Riley, a man of medium build who sports small square glasses, wore a green army jacket pocked with picture pendants of Garvey, Marley and other Jamaican national heroes. It’s refreshing to see he is a man who sticks as squarely to his values as he does to his choice in optical styles.

In related news, check the trailer for Storm Saulter’s feature film, “Better Mus’ Come” with English subtitles below. Look for the film to be released in New York in late March with a week’s full of festivities at Gallery 151 in SOHO.

Photo from Morrison Hotel Gallery

Check the Birthday Bob mix Safari Sound whipped up:

The exact point of incision that catalyzed the feud between Aidonia and Vybz Kartel escapes me but as of last month, the two deejays have been indirectly and directly exchanging disses through the media. Aidonia released his track “Left Dem White” as a diss to Kartel, giving a healthy serving of his trademark lyrical elasticity with a barrage of venomous allegories. Kartel responded by twitter saying he wouldn’t bother even giving into the hype (in effect giving into the hype.) Thus was born Kartel’s Dancehall Hero pt. 2,” a preview for which was released earlier Monday and a follow up to “Dancehall Hero” which pissed just about every artiste off in the industry.

Aidonia ft. Navino, “Left Dem White” Download.

I don’t normally wallow in these sorts of matters. Clashes appear often as contrived petty cat fights veiled by the notion that two deejays are flexing their lyrical muscles. Not to disregard their importance, a good “clash” has long been the beacon of dancehall worthiness for an artiste. Nowadays, it seems more like a publicity stunt, presented as a shiny new platform to deliver hits for artistes. But hype is hype, and many artistes will take the free publicity, especially Kartel who uses unusual antics to keep the attention of the public. In this case, he has already used the clash with Aidonia to jumpstart his next hit, “Dancehall Hero Pt. 2″ which, despite only having previewed a rough sound bite at a recent session, is getting an unwarranted amount of attention from fans.

To make matters worse, promotional sites such as Hypetv further mock the original dancehall clash with videos like this, claiming that they are bringing back “authenticity to save the music” and “authentic dancehall fans” through “lyrical death matches.” Key words being “authentic” here. Oh, but don’t forget to scroll down and pay up your 25 USD to enter the authentic contest.

Vybz Kartel drives full force ahead

Last year Kiss my Teeth/Imagelala did a much more straightforward run down of the top ten riddims and singles of 2009, but this 2010 round-up goes a little deeper into the shifty geology that makes up this year’s successes and failures in dancehall. In 2010 we saw the sometimes successful, sometimes brash shuffle dancehall took into new sounds, the systematic revoking of visas, catastrophic failures in album sales, the incredible personal branding successes and some serious bleaching. Read it all after the jump.

Clashes No More

With the revoking of many artiste’s American visas, coupled with Bishop Herro Blair’s orchestrated peace initiative between longtime feuding deejays Mavado and Vybz Kartel in early December 2009, dancehall had no choice but to turn a new page. With no beef to simmer, gun songs became scarce and slackness picked up… well, the slack. Kartel and Mavado went head to head with gyal songs, but also delivered epic conscious songs with “Thank Yuh Jah” and “Nine Life.” Man a General!

Some peace initiatives were made in the studio. The most surprising being that of Cham and Bounty Killer who squashed their longtime feud to make the Dave Kelly/Mad House banger “Stronger”, a tune that shows the return of the 90′s dancehall beat. Even Beenie Man was seen out mixing and mingling with the old crew (and later talking frankly about his business relationship with Kartel on Ragga’s show). In fact, everyone seemed to be getting along except Kartel, who was still building enemies as quickly as he was slamming singles. Needless to say, not much controversy came to head by the end of 2010, which made business slow for some (especially the uncreative) and in turn left the annual Boxing Day STING concert with not much of a burn.

Cham featuring Bounty Killer and Mykal Rose, “Stronger”

Genres Evolve

While 2010 marked the year of amazing feats in sound for some artistes, an innocuous classification called “Island Pop” surfaced as the newest genre bending version of Jamaican music. Despite dancehall’s long history of being closely linked with hip hop, and reggae’s love affair with R&B, 2010 seemed to be name-tagged the year Jamaican music ventured into “pop” to create a new style (that’s to say the lines weren’t blurred already). The marking of its coming was due in part to the release of the Razz and Biggy mixtape titled “Island Pop” and newcomer Richie Loop’s catchy “My Cupp” tune. However, the new genre title began, and shortly ended, when the “cupp” ran dry.

Few dancehall artistes shed their skin to embrace new sounds, but female deejay Natalie Storm climbed to the top when she released her house/reggae/dancehall mixtape, “Songs to Fuck and Fight To.” Her producer, Prodigal Entertainment, released a refreshing riddim called Showa Eski with tracks from Grime artiste Wiley, Jamaican artiste Rage and British dive Lady Chann, showcasing dancehall’s intermingling with Grime. Dancehall trained Jamaican artiste, Terry Lynn, continued her romance with house/electro music in her Wildlife! produced track, “Nocturnal World.” American producer Diplo extended his affection for Jamaica by continuing to stick his fingers into the dancehall cookie jar, djing on multiple occasions around Kingston and producing singles with local artistes.

VYBZ takes the Cake

Vybz Kartel did a lot of things this year: He released a double disc album of his tracks from the last year or two, he infamously fired Gaza Kim and Blak Ryno from the Gaza Empire, he became the unofficial spokes person for Clarks (and cakesoap), he took over the Building (formally Asylum) on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays AND Saturdays all while flirting with the topic of bleaching. Known as the unofficial Robert Johnson of dancehall, some have suggested the man has sold his soul to the devil for success, which could explain why the color is being sucked out of him. Of the many tracks he did this year, here are the top ten:

1. Clarks Pt.1 ft Gaza Slim and Popcaan (Notnice)
2. Straight Jeans and Fitted (Russian)
3. Clarks Pt. 2 (Russian)
4. Touch a Button Nuh (TJ Records)
5. Dumpa Truck (Smokin Riddim)
6. Cakesoap (Blue Bamma Riddim)
7. Oh Deh Gyal (Doncorleon)
8. Turn and Wine (DNA Riddim)
9. Thank Yuh Jah (Notnice)
10. Neva Get a Gyal Mi Love So Much (Blackstreet)

Mavado continued to build his success at a very different pace then Kartel but with the same self-branding boldness, assuming the throne as LIME ambassador and packing QUAD every Wednesday for his “Stulla” Wednesdays based on the popularization of the term. For those who don’t know, “Stulla” from the track with the same name off the Smokin Riddim is a term for a thoroughbred horse, a “long-distance stulla.” The Gully Gwad used a different angle, spending time in Europe and Canada touring and working on a newer, cleaner image (without the cakesoap routine). Here are the top ten songs from Mavado for 2010:

1. Stulla (Smokin Riddim)
2. Nine Life (Di Genius)
3. Come Into My Room ft. Stacious (Di Genius)
4. Nuh Fraid a Dem (DJ Frass)
5. Gyal a Mad Ova (Di Genius)
6. Hold Me (Sex Appeal Riddim)
7. When You Feel Lonely (Daseca)
8. Pon Di Ting (Seanizzle)
9. Gyal Dem Love Me Daily (Payday)
10. Stullesha (Winnings Riddim)

The Hold Yuh Phenom

Gyptian swept the world with his Ricky Blaze produced “Hold Yuh” track, the single for his album with the same title. While the song made waves and sparked interest everywhere, provoking a remix from rapper Nicki Minaj, his album did little to meet the hype. The track, however, resonated for a good portion of the year with remarkable success thanks to the pop style riddim and his keen play on words (tightest hold/tightest hole).

The artistically diverse dancehall artiste, Busy Signal, dropped the album D.O.B. early summer providing a contemporary collection of Jamaican music at its most experimental. The artiste used an open mind to mix Latin sounds with one-drops and opera but lacked the hype to score major downloads. Despite slow record sales, Busy still made for one of the most focused artistes this year– leading in songs for girls to fling up dem backside– thanks to tracks like “Bare Gyal” and “Jafrican Ting“.

Spragga Benz also released a solid album with “Shotta Culture,” giving old school dancehall fans something to add to their collection, but all in all albums released in 2010 produced hardly enough of a wave to boost overseas sales. In most cases this had less to do with the quality of the album and more to do with the state of the music industry.

New Artistes/ Hot Shots

Very few new artistes emerged in 2010 with exception to Khago who built two instant hits with the tracks “Nah Sell Out” on the one Day Riddim and “Nah Sell Out Pt. 2″ on the Split Personality Riddim. New artiste Chan Dizzy also took a lap around the dancehall track with his song, “Nuh Strange Face.” Breakout artiste for 2010 should be handed to Popcaan for the complete 0 to 60 he made in 2010 with “Clarks Pt. 1″, “Dream” and “Hot Grabba.”

Artistes continuing on a steady incline in 2010 included Chino, who took Japan (again) with “From Mawning”, Konshens, who toured Europe and Japan, Serani, who never goes off tour and I-Octane, who isn’t dancehall technically but really seems to be growing with the most foresight (take notice new artistes).

Riddims That Just Wouldn’t Quit

Riddims this year were damn good with Jeremy Harding coming outta retirement, Dave Kelly returning to old school sounds and Seanizzle sweeping the floor with two robust riddims and plenty singles dropping from them. Producers in 2010 were putting their foot forward to play with old dancehall sounds and new ones, but the best riddims were the most well rounded in sound and lyricism. Here are the top 10:

1. Seanizzle’s One Day Riddim
2. ZJ Chrome’s Smokin Riddim
3. Seanizzle’s Split Personality Riddim
4. Di Genius’ Bad People Riddim
5. Zj Chrome’s Mad Collab Riddim
6. Notnice’s Gangsta City Riddim
7. Daseca’s Genesis Riddim
8. Madhouse’s Turn it Up Riddim
9. Don Corleon’s Gala Riddim
10. Equiknoxx’s Jim Screechie Riddim

Mavado, “Pon Di Ting”, Split Personality Riddim.

And Finally…

Choosing the top five singles from 2010 was not easy considering how my top five favorites and the ones written here don’t necessarily align. But after taking into account what a sucker I am for a good gyal chune (for obvious reasons), I took the high road and came up with the top five singles based on what I heard from being at sessions, clubs and listening to the radio during my 2010 year in Jamaica. I invite you to disagree with the following:

1. Vybz Kartel ft. Popcaan and Gaza Slim, “Clarks Pt 1,” produced by Notnice.
2. Mavado, “Stulla,” produced by ZJ Chrome.
3. Vybz Kartel “Straight Jeans and Fitted” produced by Russian.
4. Bounty Killer and Baby Cham, “Stronger,” produced by Dave Kelly.
5. Khago “Nuh Sell Out”, produced by Seanizzle.

And while Gyptian isn’t necessarily considered dancehall, we can easily put “Hold Yuh” on top as the most “global” single from a Jamaican artiste for the year:

1. Gyptian, “Hold Yuh”, produced by Ricky Blaze.

Looking ahead into 2011 should be interesting since album sales are at an all time low, global collaborations are excelling and dancehall artistes are racing to get their visas back … even though some will likely never see that come to fruition.