CHUNE

Riddim: Sleng Teng

Producer: King Jammy

Forty years ago today, Jammy unleashed Wayne Smith’s “Under Me Sleng Teng” at a clash with Black Scorpio and changed the sound of dancehall. Smith and keyboardist Noel Davey had been experimenting at home with a Casio MT-40 keyboard and discovered that one of its presets slowed down produced an irresistible bassline. They brought it to Jammy, who built a track around it—generally recognized as the first purely digital riddim—then cut dubplates with various artists in the days leading up to the clash on Waltham Park Road. That night, Smith’s song, combined with Jammy artists voicing over the riddim, turned the clash irreversibly in Jammy’s favor.

Sleng Teng didn’t just usher in a sea change; it brought a tsunami. More than 200 people voiced on it; producers built copycat riddims, like Harry J’s Computer Rule. The era of musicians replaying old Studio One tunes was on its way out, and dancehall was officially digital.

To mark the day, we’re going with one of my favorite tunes on the riddim, from the late great Tenor Saw—”this is a song of the old time proverbs,” he begins, then recounts a conversation full of wisdom from his grandmother¹.

“How water walk go a pumpkin belly?”
Who ask mi dat, it mi old time granny
From down in the country
Grandma, oh yes I know
I won’t tell you no…

Saw voiced massive hits over some of the era’s biggest riddims before dying in 1988 from injuries sustained in a hit-and-run in Houston; what he might have accomplished otherwise is one of dancehall’s most tragic, and fascinating, questions.

Additional Listening:

• Tenor Saw’s “Pumpkin Belly” dubplate for MetroMedia Sound: “Fling dubplate on a soundbwoy belly” is a hell of way to start off. Whew.

• Performing in Japan in 1986: After a few artists visited Japan in the ’70s (most famously Bob Marley in 1979), the nation has had a thriving reggae culture, including J Splash, a counterpart to Jamaica’s annual Sunsplash concert. It would have been hard to imagine Saw getting this kind of reception in the States, outside of a few Caribbean enclaves. (It’s also a great introduction to “Fever” and “No Work On a Sunday,” two other essential tracks.)

• Echo Minott, “Original Fat Thing”: A third slice of the original Sleng Teng riddim. Where “Under Me Sleng Teng” rhapsodizes weed and “Pumpkin Belly” is an ode to the wisdom of the elders, Minott (no relation to Sugar) chooses a more carnal approach.

1. “How water walk go [inna] pumpkin belly?” is basically a rhetorical version of “why is the sky blue?” It just . . . does. ↩︎