What is a reggae “riddim?”
“Riddim” is the Jamaican Patois time period for the instrumental “rhythm” track of a track, also referred to as the “groove” or the “beat”. Jamaican well-liked songs, and plenty of other forms of Caribbean music, are constructed on riddims.
Riddims usually encompass a outstanding bass line and a particular distinctive drum pattern and are truly the backbone of dub, reggae, lovers’ rock, ragga, roots, dancehall, etc. Many riddims originate from a success music and the riddim carries the name of the music, for instance I-Wayne’s 2.0four hit “Lava Floor” on the Lava Floor Riddim. Or, in some cases, the riddim takes the name of the preferred track recorded on it. For example, the Satta Massagana Riddim is known as after The Abyssinians’ original track “Satta Massagana”.
Sometimes, an artiste will voice completely totally different songs on the identical riddim. And it is quite common for various artistes to voice over the same riddims with completely different lyrics and totally different vocal types, starting from singing to toasting. For instance, Jah Cure’s “Call On Me”, Gyptian’s “Butterfly”, and Tanya Stephens’ “Reminiscing” are all on 2.09’s wonderful Good Love Riddim. The success of a riddim is judged by what number of artistes “juggle” it, or make their very own vocal interpretations of it. Jamaican audiences will judge whether or not or not the tune is massive and, if so, different artistes will write new lyrics to “trip the riddim”.
There could be more than a dozen standard present riddims, but there are usually only a few “sizzling” riddims at any given time. Artistes need to record over these hot riddims if they want a greater shot at getting their songs performed in the dancehalls or on the radio. Many times a dance is even created in honor of the riddim, like Pepperseed, VPRecords or Gully Creeper, or who can overlook the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt’s victory dance, “Nah Linga”?!!
The riddims don’t all the time originate from reggae; some city modern songs may become riddims as well. The instrumental of Ne-Yo’s “Miss Independent” has become a preferred riddim; many dancehall artists have recorded songs using the track. Different songs have inspired riddims too, akin to George Michael’s tune “Religion,” which turned a riddim of the identical identify, and R. Kelly’s “Snake,” which became the Baghdad Riddim.
Forms of riddims
Riddims are African in origin and are generally considered one of three types. The oldest, the “classical” riddim, provides the instrumentals for dub, roots reggae and lovers’ rock (well-known producers embody Sly & Robbie). The “ragga” riddim backs (or used to back) raggamuffin and dancehall songs. And “digital” riddims (e.g., King Jammy’s Sleng Teng Riddim) are created with computers, synthesizers and drum machines; in other words, they’re really electronic riddims.
The arrival of expertise changed the whole business. Now not do you want to pay for studio time and hire musicians! This opened up the business to an entire new generation of producers, musicians and performers. In the present day, most riddims backing dancehall and Soca are digital. Digital riddims, together with the global reach and popularity of dancehall, have also spawned the creation of increasingly more well-liked riddims exterior Jamaica.
Versioning
“Versioning” is the term for recycling or rejuvenating old riddims utilizing computers and samplers, and voicing over them with new artistes. Jamaica has been versioning because the 1960s. Some of these riddims are a long time old, lots of them popping out of Clement “Coxsone” Dodd’s famend Kingston studio, Studio One. Some nice riddims got here out of Studio One in the ’60s and ’70s, and you will nonetheless hear them versioned in constant rotation by sound systems today.
Versioning may be controversial, however, because a lot of those who produced the original classic riddims by no means received paid for the riddims themselves. It could be good to get some “royalties”!! However as we speak’s artists argue that they’re inspired by these classics and paying respect by versioning and re-popularizing them. Many Jamaican producers rely heavily on variations though, up to now decade, we saw less of this observe with hundreds of inventive new riddims being released.