Red Rat Says Dancehall Music Production ‘Out Of Whack’

Veteran Dancehall deejay Red Rat has lamented the fragmentation of the once-clearly demarcated creative process involved in the composing and producing  Dancehall songs, a situation which he says is steadily stifling the genre.

Red Rat spoke on the vexed issue of production of Dancehall music on the DJ Kash Podcast recently.  Kash, a US-based music selector, had raised the issue, noting that not only was music made differently in the 1990s, but the creative process was very structured, and the roles of the artists and producers were clearly defined.

“Yeah, because everybody had a role to play.  I was the artiste.  I come and I write the songs and I am coming to you as the producer.  As the producer, you know what the song should sound like; you created the beat and you know how to… because there is a formula.  A lot of artiste don’t know that there is a formula to creating a hit song.  These artistes don’t know this because they are producing themselves,” Red Rat explained.

“We allowed the producers to tell us what to do.  These artistes is tellin the producer weh dem waan hear and how it fi sound.  So the creative process is all outta whack.  And das why all a di song dem sound a way as opposed to when we was doing it even though you have 10 songs on one riddim, all 10 songs sound different.  To me that’s what’s lacking with di yute dem.  Because a lot a dem very creative and bright.  Some a di man dem penmanship is excellent.  But, they are not getting production.  A man send dem a riddim and yuh voice waheva yuh feel like,” he explained.

Red Rat referenced his own Danny Browne-produced hit song Shelly Ann, which he said, was a prime example of the producers-artiste synergy.

“Like for me, in Shelly-ann there was one line throughout the whole song, after I finished recording it they called me back to change that one line.  You caan call a artiste now and seh: ‘’dawg, yuh know mi neva like dah one line deh.  Yuh can change it?  Him not gwine change it,” the Tight Up Skirt artist said.

“You caan voice him again caw him feel like yuh violate and yuh disrespect di man. No, it’s production.  We want the best out of it.  Me want the best out of it; you should want the best out of it and if one line is going to mess up the song, then change the one line.  But too much ego inna di game now,” he continued.

DJ Kash also hailed the music of the 1990s era and asked Red Rat to give his opinion, as to why the music from back then has remained timeless and artists from that period always guarantee a sold-out show.

Red Rat’s reply was that this should be attributed to the camaraderie the artists who ruled that era had with each other.

“The camaraderie that we had back in the day where like every day you would see myself, Buccaneer and Goofy guh check Bounty Killer and Ghost and Roundhead and all of us would be down by the carwash everyday reasoning as bredrins. And then a man wi get a call and she ‘yow yuh know seh Steelie have a riddim?’  An everybaddy would leave there and drive guh up to Steelie and Cleevie and yuh buck up pon a Lexxus and different artiste,” he recounted.

“Suh everybaddy was friends and comrades, even though you might not be friend-fren with somebaddy, yuh show dem certain respect,” Red Rat added.

Red Rat also pointed out that unlike nowadays, in terms of stage shows, there were no discomfitures with performing on any stage, irrespective of which artists were also booked.

“And den you as a promoter gwine call and she: ‘yow I want you on a show and yuh seh dis man and dat man is on di show and wi seh ‘yeh man of course’ boom! Now, if you call, a man a guh seh ‘if you book me, don’t book dat man on di show and don’t book dat man’… back in the days you will see all of us on a flyer,” the St. Ann native reminisced.

He said that as long as feuding artists continued to not set their ego aside in the name of Dancehall, the genre will continue to be stunted.

“You are not gonna see Alkaline and Popcaan on a bill –  I am just calling names – and they are the two poppin name in Dancehall, so that don’t make no sense.  You are killing the genre… All a dem names that fighting each other, it killing the vibe of the industry,” he said.

“Because yea, I might be a Alkaline fan and I go to watch Alkaline and then Popcaan would come on and I done even rememba seh ‘yuh know she mi love di song deh – Family’.  And I am going to sing the song because everybaddy dat falla Dancehall listen everybody, but we the artiste feel like we should segregate and not realise that the fans dem still goin listen.  Alkaline fans listen Popcaan regardless a wha anybody think.  They are going to listen, so it’s just the segregation that’s going on that’s messing it up,” Red Rat continued.

He added: “Its simple; teck yuh ego and push yuh ego aside.  Di music bigga dan all a wi.  We come si di music an wi a guh dead lef it.  Suh nuh feel like di music surround you.”