Riddim: Heaven Bless
Producer: Sting International
Assassin1 has always been one of those DJs whose skill outpaces his stature. Or, as someone at a show asked the The Jamaica Observer in 2012, “how come him nuh buss bigger?” He’s a lyrics-first kind of artist, though he’s also blessed with the kind of rockstone voice that never goes out of style in dancehall. This track from 2016 feels like a blast from the past—that’s what happened when you build a riddim out of an old-school Dennis Brown hit, itself an update on the foundation Heavenless riddim. It’s also clever enough that you’ll run it back multiple times just to catch the lines you missed (while also wondering how he kept that AAAA rhyme scheme going the whole track!):
Yuh know what’s gonna happen when di mommy mix with poppy
Nine months later, baby wrap up in a nappie
Yuh know money a mek a filthy rich mixed with di happy
Mi a tell you bout di duffel bag mixed with di attache (hear mi)
Man a gangsta—Al Capone mixed with the Gotti
Champion—Muhammad Ali mixed with Rocky
Real top a top, wi nuh travel in a jalopy
Mi pull up in a Rolls-Royce mixed with a Bugatti…
Additional Listening:
• The Skatalites, “Heavenless” (1968): The Studio One rocksteady song that’s generally credited as the birth of the riddim. However, two years earlier, Joe Gibbs worked with The Pioneers to produce…
• Pioneers, “I’m Moving On” (1966): You hear it, right?
• Dennis Brown, “Your Love Gotta Hold On Me” (1983): Seventeen years after “I’m Moving On,” Gibbs came back to make this beautiful Dennis Brown tune.
• Half Pint, “Greetings” (1985): If I had to choose one song on Heavenless a general music fan is most likely to know, it’s gotta be this one. There’s a good reason for that—it’s fantastic.
- He started going by Agent Sasco in the 2010s for SEO reasons, which, I mean, understandable. (He’s also got a pretty clean image, which presumably contributed.) ↩︎
CHUNE 
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