Murda She Wrote: May 2021
This month’s hottest new dancehall tracks courtesy of Spice, Shaggy & Sean Paul; Skillibeng; DJ Khaled, Buju Banton, Capleton & Bounty Killer; Jo Mersa Marley; and 10Tik & Yaksta.
by Reshma B
May means different things to different people. The last Monday of the month is Memorial Day, a time to honor America’s fallen soldiers. May 25 of this year marked another kind of memorial — the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, which sparked worldwide protests and brought new urgency to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. “Twenty-twenty was one of the most fucked-up years for this generation,” Rick Ross states in a recent doc I directed, “Let’s Take It Higher,” which underscores the Miami rap legend’s work with Skip Marley, grandson of the King of Reggae. May 11 marked the 40th anniversary of Bob Marley’s passing in 1981.
This month’s Murda She Wrote is packed with the biggest new dancehall tracks, from crucial collaborations and party tracks to reality tunes — strictly the best, whatever it may be.
Spice x Shaggy x Sean Paul
“Go Down Deh”
“Wining makes me happy,” said Spice, the reigning Queen of Dancehall, who’s been the face of Tidal’s Fine Wine playlist ever since it first launched. “It doesn’t matter what problems I have. When me hear a song and me ready fi wine, it just give me that vibe and that energy! It makes me feel happy.”
Spice has plenty of reasons to feel great. She has the No. 1 dancehall song in the world with “Go Down Deh,” a blockbuster collaboration with two of the genre’s biggest stars — Shaggy and Sean Paul, both of whom have No. 1 pop singles and Grammys under their belts. Spice has been patiently waiting to unleash it on the world, but as the old Jamaican saying goes, nothing before the time. “We’ve had this music video for almost a year now,” Spice recently told me. “I’ve been waiting until closer to when the pandemic was over and we’re getting over this horrible moment. Because I know that it’s a happy, exciting song and [it makes] you wan’ wine and go down deh. And me never wanted nobody ah wine with the depression.”
“My Instagram page is flooded with girls just wining and having fun,” she added. “And that’s the aim.”
But even without a hit song, Spice would have a lot to be excited about. Her fashion line Gracie Noir has been selling briskly. Following a Covid hiatus, she’s shooting a new season of VH1’s Love and Hip Hop Atlanta. She has a new man in her life, and a beautiful new home in ATL to raise her children. Plus her debut album, 10 — due out this summer — will be executive produced by Shaggy.
“It’s an overwhelming feeling, to be honest,” Spice said. “I feel extremely great because it’s an iconic moment. It’s a historic track. I keep telling people how grateful I am to know that me, Grace Hamilton, brought the two big legends together on one song on my album. I’ve been celebratin’. I’ve been really hype. I have the No. 1 reggae song in the world. So me a gwan wid’ meself.” But even amidst all the celebration, nobody keeps it realer than Spice. “I’ve always had a fight,” Spice admitted. As a Black woman in a male-dominated industry, she’s battled sexism, colorism and her record label — which inspired her 2018 mixtape, Captured. She’s also endured painful public fallouts with so-called friends turned frenemies, or “Frenz,” as Spice likes to call them. Those experiences spearheaded her song “Frenz,” which shot to No. 1 late last year: a prime example of the artist’s uncanny ability to flip negative situations into positive ones. “I don’t want to say I’m unlucky,” said Spice. But she has never been one to hide the fact that life has a way kicking us all in the arse at times. Everybody faces bumps along the road; what’s important is dealing with them the right way. “No matter how much them fight,” Spice explained, “I’m always happy and smiling.”
Skillibeng
“Guide Me”
The prolific lyricist from the parish of St. Thomas, located to the east of Kingston, Jamaica (a.k.a. EastSyde), continued his uncanny run this month, building on the success of last December’s mixtape The Prodigy and his moody breakout hit “Crocodile Teeth,” produced by legendary dancehall producer Johnny Wonder and Adde Instrumentals. Originally released in September 2020, the song — a metaphor for rounds in an AK clip — has built a powerful international buzz and landed on the U.K. pop charts in May. When Skilli teased a remix of the song with Nicki Minaj, haters questioned whether the whole thing was a hoax. But sure enough the rap megastar rereleased her 2009 Beam Me Up Scotty tape this month with a few new tracks including the “Crocodile Teeth (Remix).” Nicki’s tape debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and the Skilli remix cracked the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, a major achievement for any rising Jamaican star.
As the accolades pile up, Skilli appears to be seeking guidance from a higher power to help keep things in perspective. On his latest release, “Guide Me,” he teams up with Johnny Wonder and Adde once again, speaking soul-baring bars over another wistful piano-driven melody. “Me alone pon eh lonely road,” Skilli states. “Me alone can tell you what the fuck me goin’ through.” As the song unfolds, the artist says he’s been praying for guidance in navigating the challenges of life, but he’s in no hurry to reveal too much. “Me no trust people and no is not no joke,” he says, referring to nameless parties as “a pussy them.” Giving thanks for his God-given talent, Skilli also makes sure to big up himself. “Me so unique and me magnificent,” he says. Who’s gonna argue with him?
DJ Khaled feat. Buju Banton x Capleton x Bounty Killer
“Where You Come From”
Before DJ Khaled was a full-fledged hip-hop mogul, putting together chart-topping albums and epic collabs like “Sorry Not Sorry” featuring JAY-Z and Nas, the Florida-based DJ was a dancehall fanatic, cutting crates full of dubplates and jetting down to Jamaica on the regular to compete in big sound clashes like Fully Loaded. A few years back he invited me to We the Best Studios in Miami to check out his dubplate collection. “Ain’t nobody got dubs like this,” he told me while clicking through his laptop, running through exclusives by the likes of Buju Banton, Bounty Killer and Capleton.
Khaled’s passion for Jamaican culture shows no signs of wavering. As his 24 million IG followers are well aware, Khaled is quick to flip into “Yaad man” mode, especially when it’s time to roll out a new album. One of the first singles off his latest album, Khaled Khaled, is “Where You Come From,” a track built around Barrington Levy’s ganja anthem “Under Me Sensi.” Recorded at the sprawling Ocho Rios estate where Khaled lives and works while in Jamaica, the hard-hitting track features blazing verses by — no surprise — Buju, Capleton and Bounty Killer. If you don’t know where you’re coming from, you can’t know where you’re going.
Jo Mersa Marley
“Guess Who’s Coming Home”
“I don’t really walk around bragging about what I can and can’t do,” Jo Mersa told me the first time I interviewed him. As the eldest son of the renowned singer, musician and producer Stephen “Ragga” Marley, Jo learned the “action speaks louder than words” approach by example. “I don’t talk about it,” Jo said. “When you hear, you hear it — and you get weh you get.”
The first Jo Mersa song I ever heard was “Bad So,” from the 2013 Ghetto Youths International compilation Set Up Shop Vol. 1. Listening to him spit lyrics over a hard digital beat, I was impressed with his dancehall flair. But when I asked if he felt his future work would tend more toward a dancehall direction than toward reggae, he said no. “I love dancehall just how I love reggae,” Jo admitted, then thought again. “Well, not just like — me love reggae more, still. But I still have a love for dancehall which I can’t ignore.”
Both sides of his creativity are on full display throughout Eternal, his second EP, released on May 21. “No more will I roam,” Jo Mersa states on the EP’s opening track, meaning he’s staying close to home. But stylistically the project roams freely amongst varied sounds and styles. The first two singles from the project are the dancehall-flavored “Yo Dawg” featuring Busy Signal and “Made It” featuring rootical DJ Kabaka Pyramid. But on the EP’s opening track, “Guess Who’s Coming Home,” Jo Mersa finds his sweet spot, riding a rugged yet majestic roots-reggae groove produced by Llamar “Riff Raff” Brown with a singjay flow.
Having performed onstage with his father for years, and having appeared on his father’s star-studded album Revelation Part II: “The Fruit of Life,” Mersa steps out on his own with Eternal. There are no features from his father or uncles, although his cousins Skip and Soul Marley did co-produce the cautionary tale called “That Dream.” Forty years after the Tuff Gong’s earthly transition, his grandchildren are stepping up to carry on the family legacy. “My brothers, my sisters, Yohan, Stephan [a.k.a. Hymn Marley], Summer,” Jo said. “My cousin Daniel, my cousin Justice. Shouts to the whole of them who do music. Just keep your eyes out and your ears out, and you will always hear a familiar sound. Or … who knows? That’s the whole surprise of it.”
10Tik & Yaksta
“Freedom”
Jamaica is an island blessed with an abundance of talent and a deep-rooted culture of music creation, production and promotion. Although the street-dance and sound-system culture has been disrupted over the past year due to quarantine and lockdowns, a new wave of talent has managed to rise to prominence even in these challenging times.
10Tik, a former fire fighter from the Red Hills Road area of Kingston who shifted his focus to music, broke out earlier this year with a smash hit called “Roll Deep.” The melodic street record with hardcore lyrics finds 10Tik declaring his devotion to the members of his crew, and promising severe retribution for anyone who betrays their code.
Yaksta, also known as Bush Lawd, hails from the rural parish of St. Mary — the birthplace of such legendary talents as Capleton, Ninjaman, Lady Saw and Tanya Stephens. He once supported his wife and child as a waiter and a dishwasher before his musical dreams were fulfilled. This year he achieved new levels of success with “Ambition,” whose insightful lyrics about the wisdom of budgeting your money and “farming over flossing” struck a chord with all the youths in Jamaica who were trying to survive during these especially hard times.
The two rising stars connect on a poor-people anthem called “Freedom,” released during the last week of May. “Dog if you nuh work for yourself you ah work for a next man rich,” 10Tik states at the top of his first verse. “Just check how much money di ghetto spend pon weed, liquor and cigarette — daily.” Yaksta picks up the theme and runs with it in his verse. “Dem money deh fi circle an’ circle back quick quick quick, and make the system tek a backflip.”
Realizing full well that their musical talents have given them a powerful platform from which to speak, 10Tik and Yaksta are not about to squander the opportunity. “All I have are my dreams,” they sing on the chorus. “And all I need is my freedom.”
