Dancehall has changed over the years and it is hard to compare music from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. In the 80s we had the usual bass, recorded drums, and reggae’s four-beat rhythms. In the late 80s going into the 90s, Shabba Ranks was the most popular dancehall artist and popularised the brash toasting rap style along with other artists like Ninjaman and Buju Banton. The genre grew bigger and became popular worldwide with the emergence of artists like Capelton, Sizzla, Cutty Ranks, Chaka Demus and Plies while Lady Saw and Tanya Stephens held it down for the ladies. Their distinct sound was brash, possessing a hardcore machine-driven bassline.
After[/embed] listening to all the tracks, it’s hard to describe the music as dancehall. It’s more like American Hip Hop. The rap toasting no longer exists and the beat is no longer in your face. I have been trying to rack my brain as to what I should call this new sound and after a while, I realized it was just Jamaican Hip Hop and Rnb.
It’s not all lost because the music does sound good. However, it’s no longer the stuff from the 90s. Question is, do people really want that old sound? And is there room for it? I am all about music so let it play on. And in excess. It could just be a millennial wave that will pass, so let us allow the genre to evolve as necessary.
