Sister Nancy Celebrates 40 Years Of ‘Bam Bam’ With Limited-Edition Skateboard
Dancehall icon Sister Nancy has partnered with Caribbean lifestyle brand LargeUp to release a limited-edition skateboard deck celebrating the 40th anniversary of her iconic 1982 single Bam Bam.
Drawing inspiration from the ’90s-era reissue of Nancy’s first and only album One Two, the skateboard deck is the latest of a “Bam Bam” capsule collection that also includes a T-shirt and baby onesie, as well as a pin collaboration with streetwear brand, RockersNYC.
Designed by Mickal ‘Mr. Mikey’ Stubblefield, former art director for Dee and Ricky and designer for Pharrell’s Billionaire Boys Club and ICECREAM brands, the Bam Bam skateboard deck is a must-have collectible for fans of Sister Nancy and Jamaican music, according to a release on the collaboration.
Sister Nancy, whose real name is Ophlin Russell, is widely regarded as the first female star in the male-dominated Dancehall industry. Despite only ever releasing one album, she continues to enjoy popularity decades later with Bam Bam, her most famous song, being named The Best Dancehall Song of All-Time by Pitchfork.
The classic has also been sampled and referenced by many other artists, including Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, and Jay-Z. Its popularity has even led The New Yorker to call it a “perfect song,” bestowing upon it the accolade of Song of the Summer in 2016. In that same year, Beyoncé also included it as an interlude in her Formation World Tour.
Bam Bam has also enjoyed success in filmmaking, having been featured in several notable movies and TV shows, including Hype Williams’ film Belly; The Interview, and the fourth season of Ozark. In 2007, it was included on the soundtrack to the video game Skate, helping to make it a cult favourite among skaters and gamers.
Now, in what is basically a full circle moment, Sister Nancy has become the first Jamaican woman and dancehall artist to appear on a skateboard. She says of that accomplishment, “Wherever I go around the world, skateboarders always hail me up and tell me ‘Nancy, we love your song.’”
According to LargeUp co-founder Dave ‘DJ Gravy’ Susser, their partnership with the Dancehall icon is over a decade strong, and it continues to be a mutually beneficial relationship for them. As the duo eyes the deck’s release, their project comes on the heels of skateboarding seeing an upsurge in popularity in Jamaica in recent years, with the opening of the island’s first two skate parks and its first skate shop taking place in the last few years. Recognizing that and intending to contribute to the sport and pastime activity’s growing popularity in the island, LargeUp and Sister Nancy are donating five ‘Bam Bam’ skateboards to the Freedom Skate Park. These skateboards will be given to girl skaters attending the park’s newly-launched Girls’ Session.
After two decades working in a bank, Sister Nancy has again plunged back into music full-time and is now based in New Jersey. She is enjoying the success of her trailblazing contributions to music culture, regularly appearing at sold-out shows and festivals around the world, having represented Jamaica and reggae/dancehall at prestigious venues such as the Lincoln Center in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Sister Nancy’s upcoming dates for 2023 include the Cali Vibes Festival in Long Beach, California and the South Facing Festival in London.
‘Bam Bam’ was recorded and released in 1982 by Channel One Studios, and was produced by Winston Riley. The three-minute and 17 seconds track had taken inspiration for its chorus from the Toots And The Maytals 1966 song of the same name, while the instrumental had sampled Ansell Collins’ 1974 Stalag 17 riddim.
Despite possibly being the most sampled Reggae song of all time, Sister Nancy was not keen on choosing a favorite out of all the samples of the song she had heard. She told Billboard back in 2016, “I don’t know if I hear all of them. They sample it so much times but none of them is my favourite. The reason why I say that is they know how to contact me. They know I live in the U.S. and nobody try to contact me to do it in person. They always sample the tune. If they had contacted me and I would do it for them live then I would have a favourite.”
Interestingly, for 32 years, Sister Nancy failed to receive royalties on the hit song, and only as recently as a little over a decade ago did she take legal action to have that rectified.
According to her, she now owns 50 percent of the rights to the One, Two album and the Bam Bam song, which was certified Silver in the UK, after it sold over 200,000 copies in that country, earlier this year.