Bounty Killer Hails Wayne Smith For Producing First Song ‘Top Secret’

Bounty Killer has hailed the late Dancehall singer/producer Wayne Smith as the man who displayed confidence in him as an artist by producing his first song Top Secret, back in 1990.  The song, which was produced by Smith on his Sleng Teng label, was recorded when the Warlord was only 18 years old.

On Monday, Bounty shared an image of the record on his Instagram page and gave what he described as a “history lesson” to his fans.

“My first ever recording and release in my entire career 1990 the same one they been calling Swatch Riddim its Wayne Smith Riddim with the same name as the song TOP SECRET history lesson 101👈🏿.   TOP SECRET aka NEW GUN.   RIP to the late great Wayne Sleng Teng Smith for believing in a kid dream at that time here I’m today as the General give many thanks 🙏🏾,” he wrote.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYjzdr8pBtv/

Top Secret was re-recorded for King Jammys in 1993 and renamed New Gun, after Bounty was asked by the legendary producer to re-record all his earlier releases under his label after he was signed.

New Gun was the 10th track on Bounty Killer’s first album, the 15-track Roots, Reality and Culture which was released in 1994.  That album included other hit gangster songs such as Kill for Fun, his breakout hit Coppershot, Spy Fi Die and Gun Thirsty.

Bounty Killer voiced his hit song Lodge, which was the ninth track on Roots Reality and Culture, on Smith’s legendary Sleng Teng riddim, which is regarded as a pioneering riddim for Dancehall’s digital age, being among the first entirely digitally produced riddims, for which no musicians were used to play instruments live in the studio.

Bounty and Wayne also teamed up for Sleng Teng Resurrection which Bounty hailed as “one of Dancehall’s finest riddims” in the intro.

Sleng Teng was composed by Wayne Smith and musician Noel Davy on a Casiotone MT40 keyboard which Davy owned and brought to perfection by King Jammys.

Smith died in February 2014.

Smith, who was a son of Waterhouse, had begun his music career in 1980 with King Jammy, who co-produced the iconic hit song Under mi Sleng Teng four years later.

Under Mi Sleng Teng was Smith’s biggest hit, and was ranked in 2011, at number nine of Rolling Stone Magazine’s 15 Greatest Stoner Songs.  Most recently, it was used by Meta—Facebook’s new parent company—for its new advertisement campaign.

Smith’s other hits were Ain’t no Meaning in Saying Goodbye and Come Along.