Every week resident FADER selector Eddie STATS runs through dancehall riddims and other artifacts from the ghetto archipelago.
The ATM is a new riddim from the label run by veteran deejay Bling Dawg aka Ricky Rudie, which is naturally called Dawg House. Built from scratchy scratchy sounds and techno-terrorist synths, it’s reminiscent of the Nookie riddim which backed “We Set the Trend”—Beenie Man’s unsolicited answer record to “Ghetto Story”—but more melodic and thus maybe a stronger vehicle for different versions. One of the toughest is from Assailant, a new artist I’ve been waiting for more new tracks from ever since Bounty Killer name-checked him in an interview I conducted with him for the FADER 10th Anniversary issue. Assailant’s name came up as one of a handful of Alliance young guns that Killer endorsed as a Could be the next Busy or Mavado type dude, and upon a MySpace and YouTube review, Assailant definitely stood out from that pack, killing a tune on the under-utilized one drop riddim Ole Sitt’n and a few other off-the-wall tunes like “Fling Some @#S%” and “A Wa.”
ATM / Sunglasses Blend:
Assailant, “Dirty Money”
Assassin, “Mind of my Own”
Busy Signal, “Blaze Up the Herbs”
Stacious, “It’s Over”
Bling Dawg, “Jamaica, Jamaica”
Fire Linkz, “I Need Money”
Bruk Up, “Sunglasses At Night”
Download: Ghetto Palms ATM / Sunglasses Blend
Then at the end I threw on (literally, like as in needle dropping) a track called “Sunglasses At Night” from dancer-turned-vocalist Bruk Up and NYC’s own Shortman Movements. Bruk’s flow sounds a bit like Ding Dong on Ricky blaze collabo’s like “Badman Forward” or “For Life,” while the hook does to Corey Hart what Blaze did to Depeche Mode on “How Mi Look.” But it works, the track is straight adrenalin, a ragga-soca meets evil NRG track that sounds like it would blend nicely with DJ Mujava’s anthem “Township Funk.” Note to self…