Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga, is a subgenre of
dancehall and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
music. The instrumentals primarily consist of
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...
. Similar to hip hop,
sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music.
Wayne Smith's "
Under Mi Sleng Teng", produced by
King Jammy
Lloyd James (born 26 October 1947),Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter: "Reggae: The Rough Guide", 1997, Rough Guides, better known as Prince Jammy or King Jammy, is a Jamaican dub mixer and record producer. He began his musical career as a dub ma ...
in 1985 on a
Casio MT-40 synthesizer, is generally recognized as the seminal ragga song. "Sleng Teng" boosted Jammy's popularity immensely, and other producers quickly released their own versions of the
riddim
Riddim is the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word "rhythm". In the context of reggae and dancehall, it refers to the instrumental accompaniment to a song and is synonymous with the rhythm section. Jamaican music genres that use the ...
, accompanied by dozens of different vocalists.
Ragga is now mainly used as a synonym for dancehall reggae or for describing dancehall with a
deejay
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile D ...
chatting rather than
singjay
Singjaying is a Jamaican style of reggae vocals combining toasting and singing in an elastic format that encourages rhythmically compelling and texturally impressive vocal embellishments. The performer is called a singjay, a combination of singer ...
ing or singing on top of the
riddim
Riddim is the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the English word "rhythm". In the context of reggae and dancehall, it refers to the instrumental accompaniment to a song and is synonymous with the rhythm section. Jamaican music genres that use the ...
.
Origins
Ragga originated in
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
during the 1980s, at the same time that
electronic dance music's popularity was increasing globally. One of the reasons for ragga's swift propagation is that it is generally easier and less expensive to produce than
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
performed on traditional musical instruments. Ragga evolved first in Jamaica, and later in Europe, North America, and Africa, eventually spreading to Japan, India, and the rest of the world. Ragga heavily influenced
early jungle music, and also spawned the
syncretistic
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...
bhangragga
Bhangra () is a type of non-traditional music of Punjab originating in the Southall area of United Kingdom. It is a type of upbeat popular music associated with the Punjabi diaspora in Britain. The style has its origins in the folk music of Pu ...
style when fused with
bhangra. In the 1990s, ragga and
breakcore
Breakcore is a style and microgenre of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sou ...
music fused, creating a style known as
raggacore
Breakcore is a style and microgenre of electronic dance music that emerged from jungle, hardcore, and drum and bass in the mid-to-late 1990s. It is characterized by very complex and intricate breakbeats and a wide palette of sampling sourc ...
.
The term "raggamuffin" is an intentional misspelling of "
ragamuffin
Ragamuffin or Raggamuffin may refer to:
Film
* ''The Ragamuffin'', a 1916 American silent film by William C. deMille
* ''Ragamuffin'', a 2014 film directed by David Schultz about Rich Mullins
Music
* Raggamuffin music, or ragga, a reggae and danc ...
", a word that entered the
Jamaican Patois
Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with West African influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. A majority of the non-English ...
lexicon after the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
colonized
Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...
Jamaica in the 17th century. Despite the British colonialists' pejorative application of the term, Jamaican youth
appropriated it as an
ingroup
In sociology and social psychology, an in-group is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By contrast, an out-group is a social group with which an individual does not identify. People may for example ide ...
designation. The term "raggamuffin music" describes the
music of Jamaica's "ghetto dwellers".
Ragga and hip hop music
King Jammy
Lloyd James (born 26 October 1947),Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter: "Reggae: The Rough Guide", 1997, Rough Guides, better known as Prince Jammy or King Jammy, is a Jamaican dub mixer and record producer. He began his musical career as a dub ma ...
produced 1985 hit, "
(Under Me) Sleng Teng" by
Wayne Smith. In the late 1980s, Jamaican deejay
Daddy Freddy
S. Frederick Small (born 1965), better known as Daddy Freddy, is a Jamaican ragga vocalist.
Early life
Small was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and grew up in the city's Trenchtown district.Huey, SteveDaddy Freddy Biography", Allmusic, retrieved ...
and
Asher D's "
Ragamuffin Hip-Hop" became the first multinational
single to feature the word "ragga" in its title. Their next single "Brutality" (1988) was a cover of
Mungo Jerry
Mungo Jerry are a British rock band, formed by Ray Dorset in Ashford, Middlesex in 1970. Experiencing their greatest success in the early 1970s, with a changing lineup always fronted by Ray Dorset, the group's biggest hit was " In the Summer ...
's "
In the Summertime
"In the Summertime", released in 1970, is the debut single by British rock band Mungo Jerry. It reached number one in charts around the world, including seven weeks on the UK Singles Chart, two weeks on one of the Canadian charts, and number ...
". Beenie Man,
Papa San
Tyrone Thompson, (born July 1, 1967)
better known as Papa San, is a Jamaic ...
, Lieutenant Stitchie, Super Cat, General Trees, Ninja Man,
Shabba Ranks
Shabba Ranks (born Rexton Rawlston Fernando Gordon; 17 January 1966) is a Jamaican dancehall musician. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he was one of the most popular Jamaican musicians in the world. Throughout his prominence in his home cou ...
, Buju Banton, Yellow Man, Capleton, Pinchers, Courtney Melody, Sanchez, Sean Paul and Barrington Levy followed Daddy Freddy. At DanceHall concert, many performers found opportunities supported by InnerCity Promotions.
As ragga matured, an increasing number of dancehall artists began to appropriate stylistic elements of hip hop music, while ragga music, in turn, influenced more and more hip hop artists, most notably
KRS-One,
Poor Righteous Teachers
Poor Righteous Teachers was a hip hop group from Trenton, New Jersey, founded in 1989. Often referred to as PRT by its fans, Poor Righteous Teachers was known as a socially and politically conscious hip hop group, with musical content inspired ...
, the
Boot Camp Clik
Boot Camp Clik is an American hip hop supergroup from Brooklyn, New York City, which is composed of Buckshot (of Black Moon), Smif-N-Wessun ( Tek and Steele), Heltah Skeltah (Rock and Sean Price) and O.G.C. (Starang Wondah, Top Dog, and Louiev ...
,
Das EFX
Das EFX is an American hip hop duo. It consists of emcees Dray (also known as Krazy Drayz, born Andre Weston, September 9, 1970) and Skoob (also known as Books and Boogie Bang, born William "Willie" Hines, November 27, 1970). They named the ...
,
Busta Rhymes, as well as some artists with ragga-influenced styles, like early
Common,
Main Source
Main Source was an East Coast hip hop group based in New York City/Toronto, composed of Toronto-born DJs and producers, K-Cut and Sir Scratch, and Queens MC and producer Large Professor. Later, another Queens MC, Mikey D (Michael Deering), re ...
,
Ill Al Scratch,
Fu-Schnickens
Fu-Schnickens were an American hip-hop trio from 1988 to 1995, based in Brooklyn, New York.
History
Fu-Schnickens was composed of Chip Fu (Roderick Roachford), Moc Fu (Joe Jones), and Poc Fu (Lennox Maturine). ''Fu'' stood for unity and '' ...
,
Redman and NY ragga musician
Mad Lion
Oswald Priest, better known as Mad Lion, is a dancehall, ragga musician and rapper.Larkin, Colin (1998) "Mad Lion", in ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'', Virgin Books, , p. 178 He frequently collaborates with fellow hip hop artist KRS- ...
.
[Mad Lion was born in United Kingdom]
See also
*
Reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
*
Ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
*
Bouyon-muffin
*
Bhangragga
Bhangra () is a type of non-traditional music of Punjab originating in the Southall area of United Kingdom. It is a type of upbeat popular music associated with the Punjabi diaspora in Britain. The style has its origins in the folk music of Pu ...
*
Jamaican Patois
Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with West African influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. A majority of the non-English ...
, the language of the distinctive vocals found in ragga
References
The world of DJs and the turntable culture By Todd Souvignier* Stascha (Staša) Bader: ''Worte wie Feuer: Dancehall Reggae und Raggamuffin''. ''Words Like Fire. Dancehall Reggae and Raggamuffin''. Dissertation Thesis at the Zurich University, 1986. Buchverlag Michael Schwinn, Neustadt, Deutschland, 1. Aufl. 1988, 2. Aufl. 1992
* René Wynands: ''Do The Reggae. Reggae von Pocomania bis Ragga und der Mythos Bob Marley.'' Pieper Verlag und Schott. 1995 (Pieper), (Schott
Online-Version* Norman C. Stolzoff: ''Wake the Town and Tell the People. Dancehall Culture in Jamaica.'' Durham; London: Duke University Press, 2000.
External links
{{Authority control
Dancehall
Jamaican styles of music
Reggae genres