What is a reggae “riddim?”
“Riddim” is the Jamaican Patois time period for the instrumental “rhythm” track of a tune, also referred to as the “groove” or the “beat”. Jamaican well-liked songs, and lots of other sorts of Caribbean music, are built on riddims.
Riddims normally consist of a prominent bass line and a selected distinctive drum sample and are truly the backbone of dub, reggae, lovers’ rock, ragga, roots, dancehall, etc. Many riddims originate from successful tune and the riddim carries the identify of the track, for instance I-Wayne’s 2.0four hit “Lava Ground” on the Lava Ground Riddim. Or, in some cases, the riddim takes the name of the most popular song recorded on it. For example, the Satta Massagana Riddim is called after The Abyssinians’ original music “Satta Massagana”.
Occasionally, an artiste will voice two utterly completely different songs on the an identical riddim. And it is quite common for different artistes to voice over the identical riddims with completely different lyrics and totally different vocal styles, ranging from singing to toasting. For example, Jah Treatment’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 choose whether or not or not the tune is large and, in that case, other artistes will write new lyrics to “experience the riddim”.
There will be greater than a dozen common current riddims, however there are often only some “sizzling” riddims at any given time. Artistes must report over these hot riddims if they need a better shot at getting their songs performed in the dancehalls or on the radio. Many instances a dance is even created in honor of the riddim, like Pepperseed, or Gully Creeper, or who can overlook the world’s quickest man Usain Bolt’s victory dance, “Nah Linga”?!!
The riddims don’t at all times originate from reggae; some urban up to date songs may change into riddims as well. The instrumental of Ne-Yo’s “Miss Independent” has become a popular riddim; many dancehall artists have recorded songs utilizing the track. Different songs have inspired riddims too, resembling George Michael’s track “Faith,” which turned a riddim of the same name, and R. Kelly’s “Snake,” which grew to become the Baghdad Riddim.
Forms of riddims
Riddims are African in origin and are typically one among three types. The oldest, the “classical” riddim, offers the instrumentals for dub, roots reggae and lovers’ rock (well-known producers embrace 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 phrases, they’re really digital riddims.
The appearance of know-how changed the whole business. Not do you might want to pay for studio time and hire musicians! This opened up the business to a complete new generation of producers, musicians and performers. In the present day, most riddims backing dancehall and Soca are digital. Digital riddims, along with the worldwide attain and recognition of dancehall, have also spawned the creation of an increasing number of in style riddims outside Jamaica.
Versioning
“Versioning” is the term for recycling or rejuvenating old riddims using computers and samplers, and voicing over them with new artistes. Jamaica has been versioning because the 1960s. A few of these riddims are decades old, lots of them popping out of Clement “Coxsone” Dodd’s renowned Kingston studio, Studio One. Some nice riddims got here out of Studio One within the ’60s and ’70s, and you will nonetheless hear them versioned in fixed rotation by sound systems today.
Versioning could be controversial, nevertheless, because many of those who produced the original classic riddims by no means obtained paid for the riddims themselves. It might be nice to get some “royalties”!! But today’s artists argue that they are inspired by these classics and paying respect by versioning and re-popularizing them. Many Jamaican producers rely closely on variations although, prior to now decade, we saw much less of this apply with hundreds of creative new riddims being released.