lankou2
Nah Follow Fashion
Posts: 34
|
Post by lankou2 on Oct 31, 2007 22:45:24 GMT 1
Original Front Tooth Gold Tooth Gun Pon Tooth Don Gorgon!
that's the only one i remember with interest. It was the days when Ninja tried hard to reach back to the top, after losing his feud with Shabba, at least in terms of global recognition. In the process, he mistook quantity for quality. A unique style, though (well, he had a few copycats).
|
|
|
|
Post by Freddy C on Oct 31, 2007 22:52:44 GMT 1
Original Front Tooth Gold Tooth Gun Pon Tooth Don Gorgon! If I remember correctly it came out right after the Jr Reid set - ""Ting A Ling A Ling A School Pickney Sing Ting"  |
|
mse
Ital Vital
Posts: 146
|
Post by mse on Oct 31, 2007 23:08:53 GMT 1
he didn't end the 90s so well, shot dead in harlesden NW10
mse
|
|
|
|
Post by mghifi on Nov 1, 2007 3:23:22 GMT 1
|
|
ns
Nah Follow Fashion
We don't trouble your banana
Posts: 96
|
Post by ns on Nov 1, 2007 7:39:52 GMT 1
It was the days when Ninja tried hard to reach back to the top, after losing his feud with Shabba, at least in terms of global recognition. I wonder how he expected to be globally successful with his violent lyrics. OT: Am I imagining things or are the two most globally successful Jamaican musicians are Shaggy - an ex-marine who fought in Desert Storm, and Sean Paul - a white (presumably upper class) man. Both seem to confine their songs strictly to romantic issues. |
|
lankou2
Nah Follow Fashion
Posts: 34
|
Post by lankou2 on Nov 1, 2007 16:00:02 GMT 1
The issue is more complex : Ninja fought hard to beat Shabba as the top performer in JA. Once Shabba took off as a crossover artist abroad, Ninja even tried harder on the local front : to no avail ! Then came a likkle youth by the name of Buju B. who very quickly became the country's pet !
Then Ninja and Shabba gradually took a backseat, though the latter had some rather dull int"l hits abroad (esp. the US). I don't think Ninja ever vied for int'l recognition but it was pretty obvious that Shabba 's popularity really pissed him off .
Sean Paul is white by JA standards but in other countries, he'd probably be called "spic", "darkie" and such sit. He is not exactly upper-class, his mother brought him up, he's from a broken home. Again, by JA standards, he grew up in a pretty safe environment. To his defense, i'll add that he started writing conscious lyrics, that led him nowhere so he went for the bashment style ( same itinerary for Lady Saw) and gal lyrics, as he was told that, given his social class, it' d feel odd for the public to hear conscious lyrics from him. He did a good anti-gun lyric on one of his album. having talked to him twice, i'd say he seemed a really smart & articulate guy and not the puppet some would like him to be. Still, i'd say that his colour opened certain doors for him, especially in the USA.
as for Shaggy having been a soldier, well, quite a few famous artists were once in the army too (Johnny Moore of The Skatalites comes to mind).
|
|
|
|
Post by Freddy C on Nov 1, 2007 16:38:00 GMT 1
I think Sean Paul has African (black), Chinese and Portuguese roots.
|
|
ns
Nah Follow Fashion
We don't trouble your banana
Posts: 96
|
Post by ns on Nov 1, 2007 18:46:35 GMT 1
I didn't mean in any way to state these facts as a problem, I couldn't care less if an artist is black or white. My thoughts were rather that it helped them to achieve their success in the USA, while other Jamaican artists are only very scarcely featured on the pop charts.
I still feel sometimes that most dancehall enters the US market as half a novelty act (I always felt that way especially about Shabba's tunes and Shaggy's Boombastic), as something wild and extreme, and never really accepted by the mainstream (perhaps Sean Paul is different).
|
|
