Chronixx Offers Thoughts On What Drives Dancehall Forward
Jamaican superstar Chronixx says Dancehall is all about finding the next “baddest” thing, even if that means moving on from what may have worked before.
“Dancehall was never about oldies ting, it’s about what’s the latest, the freshest ting. It’s about advancing the ting fast. So Dancehall will always be that, no matter what happens. The music will never be the same as it was last. That will never, ever, ever be the case in Dancehall,” Chronixx said.
He was speaking on the Are We On Air? podcast, an interview series from music curator Armaan Naféei that explores the defining soundtracks of cultural figures. When asked how he adapts his sounds to the changing times, the Skankin’ Sweet singer began reflecting on the nature of Dancehall music.
“Dancehall is the first [genre] – before even Hip-Hop and dem other ting – where you could just mix all different genres of music and that’s what people come for,” he asserted. “Fi [the audience], the more thrilling, the more fresh di ting is, the better. That’s why Dancehall artists will come up with the most ingenious record and never do another one, cause the mission is not to recreate this sound that I did yesterday; it’s fi come up with the next baddest ting in the world, at any cost.”
Chronixx suggested that Dancehall’s live music culture exemplifies how the pursuit of novelty fosters the genre’s constant evolution.
“When we deh pon stage we look pon the soundman and we say, ‘gimme a mix’ and him start mix and create a new version in real-time of previously recorded music,” he said before later adding, “Nuff songs that we hear as Dancehall classics are songs that were originated in real-time.”
He praised Ring the Alarm deejay Tenor Saw as a flagbearer of this method.
Chronixx also emphasized the role that technology plays in the development of the music by highlighting another Dancehall tradition – sound clashes.
“That competitive, superheroic ting is like a Star Wars. Me a come wid my technology and you a come wid your technology and who have the craziest technology wid the biggest reverb and di biggest echo chamber, we a guh play Sound Wars,” the singer said.
“Like we a kill the next sound. That’s the thing. In the end, you supposed to kill the next sound…it’s like a war of the zeitgeist.”
Born October 10, 1992, Chronixx, who hails from Spanish Town in St. Catherine grew up around the likes of Burro Banton, Norris Man and the legendary Gregory Isaacs, as his father Chronicle was also a musician. At age 14, he began producing music and creating beats for artists including his compatriots Konshens and Munga Honourable. He also composed riddims such as the Freezer Riddim, which featured Popcaan‘s Real Bad Man, Vybz Kartel‘s Watch Dem, and Shawn Storm‘s Gaza Gallis.
His Dread & Terrible EP (2014) and his Grammy-nominated debut album Chronology (2017) both topped the Billboard Reggae Albums chart.
His Dancehall tracks include Behind Curtains, Odd Ras, Likes, Like A Whistle, and Safe N Sound.
Chronixx is the third Reggae figure to be featured on the podcast after Chris Blackwell and Teflon Zincfence were interviewed in 2020 and 2022, respectively. The episode also arrives on the heels of his most recent single, Never Give Up, which was released in April of this year.
Listen to the full podcast here and explore Chronixx’s “character-defining” soundtrack below.