DJ K-Note’s mission statement for this mix was ‘to broaden the boundaries’ and ‘include a bit of mainstream music’ with reggae/dancehall links. The result is a well rounded and nostalgic journey through the last twenty-odd years of reggae music, concentrating mainly on the 90’s and new millenium dancehall sound, including some big new tunes.
From the opening track – Akon’s ‘Mama Africa’ – K-Note’s willingness to drop more commercial tunes, to broaden the appeal of the mix, is evident, but is never overbearing. The track is a good opener for the mix, combining Akon’s distinctive voice, R&B elements and an authentic reggae riddim, it should appeal to a wide range of musical tastes.
Notorious BIG impersonator, Guerilla Black makes an appearance early on in the piece to satisfy the hip-hop heads, also providing some nice juxtaposition of old and new; the tune sampling, and following after Sister Nancy’s ‘Bam Bam’. K-Note selects more iconic tunes such as 90’s hits ‘A Who Seh Me Dun’ by Cutty Ranks, and Shabba Ranks’ ‘Caan Dun’, sticking to the task of featuring well known/commercial tunes, while still providing some lesser known gems, for example Capleton’s ‘Hunt You’.
K-Note also manages to explore the newer elements of dancehall and bashment, featuring some big Mavado tunes such as ‘Last Night’ and the massively popular ‘Dying’ featuring Serani, as well as some big dancing tunes; Fiesta riddim, Nookie riddim and Nina Sky featuring Jabba ‘Move your Body’, on one of the hugest riddims of the last decade, the Coolie Dance riddim.
To fit this many styles of dancehall on one mix CD, while maintaining a balanced musical selection which will appeal to a wide range of listeners and also satisfy the purists is no easy task, but K-Note achieves it with some tight mixing thrown in to boot.
Bigs ups to K-Note also for finishing up with one of my personal favourite tunes of the last several years – Busy Signal:
‘We not goin down and dem huff
and dem a puff and dem a frown.
Can’t tek di getto youth dem fi clown,
and dem a puff and dem a frown.
Can’t tek di getto youth dem fi clown,
cause what goes around, comes all the way around.’
BIG TUNE BULLET BULLET!
Al Good
