I cannot tell a lie, y’all. It was not a particularly good week for dancehall. My ears got so sick of trance synths, auto-tune and trap drums they almost walked off the set before I had anything to palmcast. (sidebar: seriously, music dudes of the world—change it up. I have defended auto-tune and I am not on some DOA type purism but please, pick your spots. Rotate your stock. Let that field lie fallow for a season. Give the next piece of gear a bligh.) There would be no joy in ghettopalmsland at all if not for some fresh remixes injecting new shoots into the landscape. Natalie Storm jumped on some tambarzao drums, De Tropix and Shredah whupped some UK biz on Vybz and Sizzla and coupe decale and kuduro are apparently crossing the streams in France of all places. Before I knew it I had a Ghetto Palms Allstar part 2. Which just underscores the philosophy behind this column—a little cross-pollination is good for the soil.
GP77 Remix blend
Faytinga, “Buba” (Eritrea LP)
Vybz Kartel, “Ramping Shop” (DJ Shredah UK refix)
Jahdan f. 77Klash and Spoek Mathombo, “Dem Nuh Like”
Mavado f. Natalie Storm, “Neva Believe You” (Favela riddim refix)
ZaZa Twins, “Couper Decaler Instrumental”
Sizzla, “I Was Born in a System” (De Tropix System Rough refix)
Download: Ghetto Palms Remix Blend
The intro is actually a killer Eritrean folk jawn I copped from Chief Boima last week when I dipped out to SF for a guest set at his Baobab residency. Don’t know much about the singer but apparently she took the name Faytinga because her father was the leader of the “Faid Tinga” (translation: “Fighting Gun”) independence movement, in which she fought herself starting at the age of 14. Brap, indeed.
In addition to building with Boima, I also got to sit down over some South African biryani with Ghislain Poirier and Guillame who runs the Masalacism blog while they were in New York for CMJ. All of which makes me feel better about reposting this Ramping Shop refix, cause it’s like I know dude now, so it’s not style-biting. The Jahdan track that immediately follows is not new but it didn’t seem auspicious to turn in the 77th Ghetto Palms blend without including 77Klash in some form, and since it fit the tempo, the immortal Payola riddim provided the perfect vehicle.
Which brings us to the Favela riddim. This exclusive Mavado remix arrived fresh from Natalie Storm’s manager with no info on the production credit but damned if it does not sound heavily inspired by the Tim Turbo “After Hours” remix which debuted in this very space. The main difference comes from the baile drum pattern breaking up under Mavado and Nats’ respective flows which gives the beat its name: Favela riddim. Since Natalie gets much creative support from DJ Max Glazer, I suspect Federation Sound had a hand in this somewhere but in any case the ghost of Disco D is hovering over this particular machine.
The ZaZa Twins instrumental is another Boima passed me and you can get it on the Ghetto Bassquake blog that he runs with Vamanos from the UK. Apparently this beat represents the newest wave of Coupe Decale which is fusing with euro-house and the harder sound of kuduro in places like Paris. The result is a dance-style called Logobi, which looks a lot like Pantasula moves associated with kwaito and a little bit like certain versions of the Jit from Detroit. Finishing up in style, Instinct from De Tropix road-tested another pan-tropical beat in progress on this Sizzla vocal, which kind of ties everything together, thematically, geographically and tempo-wise.