King Jammy Sheds Light On Facebook’s Use Of ‘Sleng Teng’ For Meta Ad

Veteran music producer Lloyd “King Jammy” James has shed some light on Facebook’s use of Sleng Teng, the legendary Dancehall riddim masterminded by singer Wayne Smith in 1984, for its first video advertisement for Meta, its new parent company name.

Meta’s 60-second spot, which was released in November, used the UK group SL2’s Way In My Brain (1992) — one of the hundreds of songs that have sampled the original Sleng Teng riddim and song, over the years.

Speaking on a recent episode of Onstage, King Jammy said that he was contacted by his music publishers, who informed him of Meta’s interest in using the riddim. “Well Winie, wi work hard enuh, suh if wi haffi get food, wi haffi get food,” King Jammy told Williams.

“I personally don’t know how it came about. The publishers told me that Facebook, the named has been changed, so they gonna use one of my tracks to launch the change.  So it was sounding good.   The details are not here yet.  It’s running and at that level, you know the kitty kinda gone pon a higher level,” he explained.

King Jammy also praised VP Records’ executives, whom he said were instrumental in the entire process.

“An a want big up VP fi dat too; VP Records and Chris Chin, Jessica and di whole a dem.  Cause they are doing a good job there for me, for us,” he said.

“Music neva die enuh.  Because Sleng Teng is over 40 years old and its been there playing in every Dancehall and all sometimes me figet it and there it comes now afta 40 years.  It bring forth fruit.  And other riddims gonna do the same thing too, even beyond my lifetime…,” he added.

Sleng Teng is regarded as a pioneering riddim for Dancehall’s digital age, as it was among the first entirely digitally produced riddims, for which no musicians were used to play instruments live in the studio.

It is also one of the most re-recorded Jamaican riddims of all time, with more than 350 songs being laid on it.  Sleng Teng, a term coined by Wayne Smith, was another name for a ganja spliff.

In the Meta advertisement, titled The Tiger and The Buffalo, Smith’s “well now”, lines from his song can be heard at the beginning of the sample, after which SL2’s take on the Sleng Teng riddim plays for the remainder of the advertisement.

According to Meta’s global director of brand marketing, Jasmine Summerset-Karcie, the goal of the advertisement, which was created with agency Droga5, is to share the vision of the company and “really excite people about the possibilities of the metaverse.”

At the time the ad was released, Dancehall fans had declared that they hoped Facebook had paid royalties to King Jammy and the family of the late Smith, who died in Kingston at age 48 in February 2014.

Smith, who was a son of Waterhouse, began his career in 1980 at King Jammy’s studio.

In a 2011 Gleaner article, Smith had said the Sleng Teng riddim was composed by himself and musician Noel Davy “on an inexpensive Casiotone MT40 keyboard which Davy owned”.

Davy had showed him that there were various patterns in which the beat could be played/designed and afterwards after he, while fiddling with the device one day when Davy was not around, pressed the button and the beat, one of the preset rhythms on the instrument began to play.

As fate were to have it, Smith eventually got Davy to take the keyboard to King Jammy’s studio to which he was connected, where the preset beat was subsequently re-engineered and re-created by himself, Davy and King Jammy and renamed Sleng Teng.

Smith has explained that after the work which he had done on the riddim was transferred to the studio’s recording equipment, King Jammy added his own expertise by putting in “the clap’, while Davy “put in the strum”.

With a riddim, but no accompanying song, Smith went into the studio and extemporized.  He sang his heart out, spitting lyrics including the hook, “under me Sleng Teng” on the spot.

Smith had also told The Gleaner how he wept and pleaded with King Jammy after the affable producer sought the opinions of the artists in the studio about the newly-recorded song, and they gave it a thumbs down, saying that “it no right”.

Smith said he was reduced to tears, and went outside, composed himself, and then returned and pleaded with King Jammy to release the song saying: “you no pay me, you no pay the youth. You nah lose. Jus’ put it out”.  King Jammy promised him that he would, and the song exploded when the producer debuted it on his sound system that night.

Smith arose the next morning he arose to find out that the song had propelled him to Dancehall glory, as the overwhelming response from the patrons had resulted in Jammy officially releasing it and scores of artists, including those who had said it was no good, rushing to voice on the riddim.

Using Sleng Teng, King Jammy then set the pattern for juggling riddims in Jamaica, as other producers were trying to make knock-off versions of the beat.

The producer went on a recording spree as result, allowing songs such as Call the Police by John Wayne, Trash and Ready by Super Cat and Tenor Saw’s Pumpkin Belly to be voiced on the riddim, in what is regarded as its first wave.

Under mi Sleng Teng became Smith’s biggest hit, and was ranked in 2011, at number nine of Rolling Stone Magazine’s 15 Greatest Stoner Songs.

Smith, who later operated the Sleng Teng label, also had other hits including Ain’t no Meaning in Saying Goodbye and Come Along.