Pretty Please Riddim – Loy Records

Loy Records wasn’t usually the first name people reached for in the big 2002 dancehall shuffle, but Pretty Please Riddim had enough star power to cut through, anchored by Shabba Ranks’ title cut in both edit and raw form. The juggling leans on a cheeky, mid-tempo bounce with a bright keyboard line and enough low-end weight to keep it firmly in street-party territory, while Bling Dawg’s “Explode” and Mr Easy’s “How Much More” push it toward the rougher, harder-edged side of early-2000s dancehall. Notch’s “Panty Pudding Pie” adds the sly, playful tone that ran through a lot of the era’s best one-riddim sets, and T. O. K. ’s “John Pop” closes things out with the kind of crisp, harmony-driven energy that helped make the riddim memorable.