Words by Eddie STATS Houghton

Seems like everybody is getting inspired by the look and sound of classic dancehall these days and as any graphic designer knows the purest form of flattery is to slap your inspiration onto a t-shirt. The very same day this FADER post put us up on the new UK-based line of tees called Ranks–as the name suggest it seems to be a series of tributes to top-ranking old-school deejays like Buju (above) Shabba (after the jump) and Ninjaman–we also lucked up on these recent beauties from NY-based Swiss designer Grotesk, which deftly illustrate more slippery abstract concepts like “Super-Clash” and “Soundboy Burial.” If there’s any justice in the dancehall universe, the next Ranks tribute will feature a portrait of Supercat and the next Grotesk edition will visualize the metaphysical aspects of “Cabin Stabbin’” with some lincoln logs and a dagger.