Why We Throw A$$: Reggae, Dancehall, and Miami Bass
Islandia Managing Editor Jasmine Respess writes about the historical and ongoing sonic interaction between Miami and Jamaica.
My statement may have been an exaggeration, I would never make such claims about places like New Orleans or the Bronx. Still, I have observed that in many U.S. cities further removed from Caribbean culture than Miami, folks simply do not shake, twerk, or throw it in a circle as they should. While this off-brand tweet was shared in jest, it reveals a truth, everyone in Miami can, and will, bust it down.
“Gays, gays, girls, and theys all throw ass in Miami,” is one of the things I tell people when they ask me about South Floridian music and dance culture. This idea seems to break the barriers of class, age, and dare I say race (with complete acknowledgement that Black people are the originators and maestros of any and all dances done or seen in South Florida, let's not get carried away now).
But why is that? Of course, it has to do with the cultural infusions of and fusions between Haitians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and more, but I believe the through pulse that really gets rumps shaking is Jamaican.
In the 1960s and 1970s, West Indians, including Jamaicans, were immigrating to the United States in droves, and with them came music. Jamaican sound (dancehall, reggae, deejays, and booming sound systems) is arguably one of the most influential music cultures in the world.
Throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s, there was a cohort of Jamaican children that had spent half their lives in Jamaica, before moving to the U.S. or U.K., the 1.5 generation. These kids were influenced by the fast-growing and popular music of Black Americans, all while Jamaican music had the greatest influence on Black American music. One such 1.5 generation child was Kool Herc; a man credited with Hip Hop’s invention.
“Hip Hop - the whole chemistry of that came from Jamaica,” Kool Herc said. Heavy D, Shinehead, Busta Rhymes, and Special Ed all have Jamaican roots.
Much attention has been paid to Jamaica’s role in the music scene of New York and London, but Southern Hip Hop, especially Hip Hop in Miami owe a lot to the Island as well.
For a cosign on this belief, look no further than Miami Legend Uncle Luke.
Uncle Luke went on record to state that the Miami Bass sound is “more like reggae than anything else,” in Spin magazine’s 1990 “Hip-Hop Map of America.”
This is not just due to the beats, rhythms, and sounds but also to the punctuation of the music with phrases or “Jamaican style toasting” (think Face Down, Ass Up, It’s Your Birthday, or Me So Horny) that mirrored the style of Jamaican deejays.
Toasting is a mix of talking and chanting over a melody, rhythm, or beat. The artist who does the toasting is called a deejay. Jamaican deejays such as Big Youth, U-Roy, Dennis Alcapone, I-Roy, Dillinger, Prince Jazzbo, and Trinity were known for toasting in the late 60s and 70s.
When talking with Large Up about the music he created with 2 Live Crew, Fresh Ice Kid said it was “a cross between Miami Bass and Caribbean culture.”
Uncle Luke and the 2 Live Crew are the Godfathers of the Miami Bass, Miami Sound, and the “Dirty South'' music culture. With their 1989 LP, Nasty As they Want to Be, they delivered an iconic example of Southern Black Caribbean culture that set the Miami music apart from the hip-hop of other Southern regions while also inspiring the genre as a whole.
"People don't realize there was no hip-hop in the South. Zero. No Texas, no Georgia, no Memphis, no nothing. I would go do shows in Atlanta, and they would have New York DJs on their radio," Uncle Luke told the New York Times in 2023. "So I tell people I created hip-hop in the South. People have a tendency of trying to put me in a box of just Miami. No, I inspired everybody. Tell me, who was before us?"
Well, as Luke said himself, Jamaica was before “us”.
Some other artists who existed at the intersection of Jamaican Reggae and Miami Bass include:
Miami Boyz––Outlawed Bass (1992), featuring the dancehall infused songs “Gangsta Bass”, “Ghetto Swing, and “A Hard Blow from the Bottom”.
Jamaican Quad Squad–– Rasta Bass (1994), with tracks like “Bass Off!” that featured one-drops and reggae samplings as well as dancehall rhythms on “Bass Riddims.
Bomb Threat ––Bass-N-Tha-Jungle (1995) a reggae influenced record featuring patios-rapper Scrappy on “Bomb Threat Stylee.”
Daddy Rusty – Ragabass (1995) with classic dancehall deejaying, Miami Bass Beats and evocative lyrics on songs like Stab The Punani.
Madd Blunted – A Day In The Life of Madd Blunted (1995) Mad Blunted, a Miami based production, put out bass-heavy songs such as “Can I Smoke”. Louis Howard, aka Don Ugly, co-produced Uncle Luke’s Changin’ The Game(1997) and recorded the dancehall track “Boo-Ya-Ka” with Bogle Riddim and “Wicked Thing” for Visions Records.
On the flipside, Jamaican musicians were affected by Miami too. Yellowman’s 1982 song “Jamaica A Little Miami” directly references the exchange with lyrics like:
Jamaica a little Miami, Jamaica a little Miami
Cah, man, in Jamaica, the girls sexy
Left Jamaica and go a Miami
And when them write love letter to me
And likkleafter that, me start reading
The first thing me see, "Hello, sexy"
Second thing me see, "I hope you're feeling irie"
The third thing me see, "Send request for me"
The fourth thing me see, "Please send some money"
The fifth thing me see, "I soon have a baby"
Uncle Luke and 2 Live Crew may have been the original connective tissue between Miami and Jamaica, but many artists followed their lead including The Dogs, Anquette Allan, MC Luscious, L’Trimm, DJ Uncle Al Hill and the Sugar Hill Djs, Mother Superia, JT Money and the Poison Clan, and, of course, Trick Daddy and Trina.
While other movements like Jook and soundcloud have affected Miami’s music as well, Miami Bass, and therefore dancehall and reggae, have clear through lines to the music of Pitbull, Ski Mask the Slump God, who was born to Jamaican parents in Fort Lauderdale, Kodak Black, and City Girls.
Most of the Black folks in Miami can trace their ancestral lineages to the Caribbean. In South Florida, Jamaicans come in second only to Haitians in terms of foreign born immigrants who now live here. Yet, that doesn’t fully take into account those whose parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents hail from Jamaica.
The Jamaica/Miami connection runs deep in a myriad of ways. As of 2024, Carnival will have been hosted in Miami for 40 years and The Jamaican Jerk Festival has been held in Miramar Regional Park for 21 years and counting.
Right now, Jamaican musicians are still moving to South Florida and bringing their art with them.
In 2021, Konshens, a Jamaican dancehall artist from Kingston who now lives and works in South Florida, told the Miami Times that he thinks of Miami as “the Jamaica outside of Jamaica.”
Recently artists and producers like Konshens, KemarHighcon, and Baby Cham have tapped into their Jamaican roots and culture while experimenting with new sounds, continuing the tradition started by the Jamaican deejays, 1.5 kids, and the original creators of “Dirty South” hip-hop, Miami Bass, and the Miami Sound.
For me, not a weekend, and let's be real sometimes not even a Tuesday, goes by without a colorful flier for a perreo/reggaeton party appearing on my various social media timelines.
So, while there are many cultural influences here in South Florida, Caribbean and not, I am going to have to say big ups to Jamaica when it comes to why we all whine, twerk, grind, and throw ass, and I hope we never stop.
Sources
Lesser, Beth, et al. Dancehall: The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture. Soul Jazz Records, 2023.
Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner, Hip Hop History 101. Interview with DJ Kool Herc, 1989 New Music Seminar, by Davey
Spin Magazine “Hip-Hop Magazine of America” 1990
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/music/50-years-of-miami-hip-hop-17605868
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/07/18/arts/music/hiphop50.html#uncle-luke
https://www.largeup.com/2014/10/10/check-it-deeply-the-caribbean-roots-of-miami-bass/3/#
https://humthrush.com/rap-atlas-mapping-the-hip-hop-nation-in-the-1990s/
https://www.largeup.com/2014/10/10/check-it-deeply-the-caribbean-roots-of-miami-bass/4/
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article18228377.html
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Very dope article, respect! ❤️🔥