Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner: Reggae’s Toppa Top Food Tunes

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December 9, 2014


2. Super Cat “Vineyard Party”


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There’s an entire subset of reggae and dancehall songs in which food is employed as a sustained metaphor in a way that it actually becomes, in essence, a tribute to Jamaican cuisine, even if that’s not really what the song is about. (See almost anything by Lovindeer). Such is the case with Super Cat’s “Vineyard Party.” The tune is a masterful parable for Jamaican society from dancehall’s Don Dada, but his literal rundown of the island’s homegrown vegetables is so thoroughly mouthwatering that it’s almost impossible to resist the urge to eat—or garden–after listening. —Jesse Serwer