If you were anywhere near a sound system, a Kingston street dance or a London club in 2014, you already know this soundtrack.
The best dancehall songs of 2014 came out of a strange and thrilling year. A jailed deejay still set the agenda. A slow, heavy Notnice bassline rewired the dancefloor.
Popcaan carried Jamaican street music to international ears with a debut album the wider world actually sat down with. LargeUp summed it up neatly at the time: the year in dancehall could be told in two words, Vybz Kartel.
It was also Spice’s biggest year, Alkaline’s arrival and a golden season for riddims. Boom Box, Happy Hour and DJ Frass’s 90s revival set Gwaan Bad kept selectors busy from January to the December rewinds. Here are the twelve tunes that defined it, strongest first.
1. Spice, “So Mi Like It” (2014)
Few records have owned a year the way this one owned 2014. Built on Notnice’s Boom Box riddim, a sparse, slow-rolling bed of bass and empty space, “So Mi Like It” let Spice do what she does best: command the floor with unbothered, X-rated confidence.
The tune got so big that Busta Rhymes jumped on a remix, and LargeUp tagged it as the most ubiquitous dancehall hit of the year. It also opened the door to VP Records, which released the So Mi Like It EP in December 2014.
The set debuted at number 14 on Billboard’s Top Reggae Albums. The song never faded. A decade later, in 2024, it went Gold in Canada and Silver in the UK.
2. Alkaline, “Gyal Bruk Out” (2014)
That same slow, heavy Boom Box bassline gave Alkaline the template for his first real club smash.
Released in February 2014 on Notnice Records, “Gyal Bruk Out” took over as the most requested song in the clubs, and it is easy to hear why.
The young deejay rides the riddim with a cool, clipped delivery that leaves room for the bass to land in your chest. Alkaline had only surfaced in 2013, when he linked with Spice on “Only Ting Mi Want”.
A year later he was going toe to toe with the year’s biggest song on the very same riddim. For a generation of fans, this is where the Alkaline story truly starts.
3. Popcaan, “Everything Nice” (2013)
It technically dropped in October 2013, but “Everything Nice” belonged to 2014. The video premiered via SPIN in March, and in June the song anchored Where We Come From, Popcaan’s debut album on Mixpak.
The record entered the Billboard Reggae chart at number two. Dubbel Dutch’s production is a minimal thing that sits somewhere between dancehall and hip hop, and Apple Music’s comparison to a rock skipping across a pond in slow motion is hard to beat.
The easy, melodic mood made it a crossover favourite that turned up on mainstream party playlists, while a remix with Mavado kept it locked in the dance at home.
4. Chi Ching Ching & Popcaan, “Way Up Stay Up” (2014)
Every great dancehall year needs a dance, and late 2014 delivered one. Chi Ching Ching built “Way Up Stay Up” around a new move of his own and pulled in Popcaan.
The tune landed in October on Chimney Records’ Happy Hour riddim, the Jordan McClure and David Hayle production that LargeUp ranked the number two riddim of the year and called arguably the biggest dancing tune as 2014 turned over.
Then a November remix added Beenie Man, and LargeUp reckoned that version carried a compulsory rewind.
The Chimney connection carried forward too. In 2016 Chi Ching Ching featured on Sean Paul’s “Crick Neck”, which Chimney co-produced.
5. Spice ft. Vybz Kartel, “Conjugal Visit” (2014)
Five years after “Romping Shop” crossed over to US urban radio and spent 15 weeks on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, Spice and Kartel reunited, with one obvious complication: Kartel was behind bars.
Their answer was to lean all the way into it. The title says everything, and the video, starring a Kartel lookalike in jailhouse orange, was pure dancehall theatre, a provocation only these two could pull off.
Released on 2 November 2014 and included on the So Mi Like It EP, the song helped Spice clinch her biggest year yet. It also proved that Kartel’s voice could still crash any party from a cell.
6. Popcaan, “Love Yuh Bad” (2014)
The other single from Where We Come From showed the Unruly Boss in a gentler light. Mixpak issued “Love Yuh Bad” as a standalone digital release, catalogue MIX047, and the label’s preview credits Dre Skull on production.
Where “Everything Nice” floats, this one leans in close: a love song from an artist best known for street anthems, delivered with the melodic ease that made Popcaan the most distinctive voice of his generation. Its second life came two years later.
In 2016 Drake sampled “Love Yuh Bad” on “Too Good” featuring Rihanna, putting a piece of Popcaan’s debut on one of the biggest pop records of that summer.
7. Melissa Steel ft. Popcaan, “Kisses for Breakfast” (2014)
This is the crossover on the list, a slice of UK dancehall-pop rather than a Kingston street tune, but it showed how far Popcaan’s reach had stretched by mid-2014.
Released on 27 July 2014 as Melissa Steel’s first solo single, the Wundah-produced track entered the UK Singles Chart at number ten, which was also its peak.
Popcaan earns a writing credit alongside Steel and Derrick Cyrus, and his sun-warmed verse gives the song its Caribbean heart.
The video was shot on Hellshire Beach in Portmore, St. Catherine, so even British audiences got a postcard straight from the shoreline Jamaicans flock to on a Sunday.
8. Vybz Kartel, “Nuh Trust People” (2014)
If 2014 was Kartel’s year, this was the tune that reminded everyone why. Voiced on Chimney’s Happy Hour riddim and out in September, “Nuh Trust People” (often written “Mi Nuh Trush People”) found the Worl’ Boss in cold, suspicious form. LargeUp’s verdict was simple: “Vybz comes tough.”
The track sits beside cuts from Mavado, Serani and Alkaline on one of the deepest riddims of the season. Tunes like this are why Kartel held the front of the genre while incarcerated.
The flow is unhurried and the attitude is pure distrust. Over a riddim built for dancing, the contrast still hits hard every time a selector pulls it up.
9. Vybz Kartel, “Make Di Star Shine” (2014)
The 90s revival was in full swing in 2014, and DJ Frass led the charge. His Gwaan Bad riddim brought back 1998’s Brukout, and Riddimsworld named it the best riddim of the year.
The mood on Gwaan Bad was hard, with artist after artist warning enemies not to test. Kartel’s “Make Di Star Shine” stood out, with Riddimsworld calling it arguably the best cut on the whole set.
The riddim also carried a striking footnote: Buju Banton, then also in prison, appeared on it with “Make It”, his only new release of 2014. Two jailed giants on one riddim captured a strange chapter in dancehall’s history.
10. Demarco, “Good Book” (2014)
Demarco has always had a knack for melodies that stick, and “Good Book” gave him one of the standout songs of the spring.
Released in March 2014 through H2O Records on The Good Book riddim, it carried the riddim’s name and much of its momentum.
Riddimsworld ranked The Good Book riddim fifth for the year, and its pull stretched well beyond Jamaica. A South African DJ crew put it at number 11 on their own riddims list for 2014.
The song is a reminder that the year was never just about the obvious headliners. A singjay with a strong hook could still own a riddim outright.
11. Beenie Man, “Badmind People” (2014)
The Doctor was everywhere in 2014. He voiced “What Is This” on Boom Box, crashed the “Way Up Stay Up” remix, and on Happy Hour he delivered “Badmind People”, a solo tune LargeUp singled out because Beenie “comes tough” on it.
Two decades into his career, he slid onto the year’s two biggest riddims alongside artists who grew up on his records, and he sounded right at home.
“Badmind People” is classic Beenie territory, calling out the grudgeful and the jealous over a riddim made for movement.
It is the veteran’s entry in a young year, proof that the King of the Dancehall still knew exactly where the party was.
12. Alkaline, “Scumbag” (2014)
Alkaline landed twice on Boom Box, and while “Gyal Bruk Out” ruled the clubs, “Scumbag” showed the other side of him.
Riddimsworld describes the pair as capturing the sharper, colder edge of his early rise, and “Scumbag” is the colder half.
On the same Notnice riddim that carried Spice to the top and also hosted Beenie Man, I-Octane’s “We Bad” and Chico, Alkaline sounded like an artist with no interest in playing nice.
This blend of club appeal and menace made him such a polarising newcomer, and it pointed toward the run of hits that would follow. Listen back now and the blueprint is already there.
Why 2014 Still Echoes
Look back at 2014 and you see dancehall at a crossroads. The riddim system was still alive and kicking, with Boom Box, Happy Hour, Gwaan Bad and The Good Book proving that a single great beat could carry a dozen hits.
At the same time the genre was reaching outward: Spice moved to VP, Popcaan’s Mixpak debut found an international audience, and “Love Yuh Bad” would soon turn up on a Drake record.
The year also belonged to voices behind bars, with Kartel and Buju keeping their presence felt from prison. Meanwhile Alkaline announced a new generation that would dominate the years ahead.
These songs still fill dances because they captured all of it at once: the street, the club and the world beyond Jamaica, all moving to the same slow, heavy bass.
