Words by Jesse Serwer, Sherman Escoffery and Spliffington—
Ninjaman is dancehall music’s Edgar Allan Poe: dark, brilliant, curiously articulate… and possibly mad. Two weeks ago, the artist born Desmond Ballantine—but who we prefer to call Original Front Tooth Gold Tooth Gun Pon Tooth Don Gorgon—emerged from a three-year prison stint, out pon bail once again.
Even as questions about Ninja’s role in a homicide linger, the sound of his voice on the appropriately titled comeback tune “Don Gorgon Is Back” immediately took us back to another era when dancehall music was all about clashing and competition. And, oh yes, violence. Ninja is the embodiment of the dancehall outlaw. While he is the master of the double entendre in which “killing” refers to the defeat of a rival sound crew, and not actual homicide, the darkness that has pervaded his life imbues his gunman lyrics with an extra dose of reality. But let us separate the man from music (as any true appreciator of music should), and look back pon some of the works which turned the likkle stereo into No. 1.
The ruling JLP government’s birth control campaign was in full swing in 1987, with the popular tagline “Two is better than too many,” and the artist Screwdriver topping the charts with “Yes Mama (Sharon a Pregnant You Pregnant).” Ninjaman saw an opening and took advantage of the country’s mood with his self-produced “Protection.” Featuring an already popular Courtney Melody singing the verses from “The Greatest Love Of All” over a new version of the Punanny rhythm, and tackling a subject already a part of the national conversation, this song had all the right ingredients for a hit. But no one thought it would give rise to one of the most controversial—and the greatest—clash deejays in dancehall history.
9. “Don Gorgon on Bail”
YES MI FRIEND/MI FRIEND/THE GORGON DEH PON STREET AGAIN: An obscure production from Wayne Smith re-interpolating “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” over the massive Head to Toe riddim, this tune describes a long night driving from session to session, chatting on sounds in Westmoreland, and being harassed by police. Ultimately after attending a dance—even after having crashed his bike on the way there—he is arrested by the police during his performance for swearing. Considering his recent release from jail on bail, this one has a startling freshness for a tune of its vintage.
8. “Zig It Up” w/ Flourgon (Main Attraction Remix)
One of the earliest hip-hop remixes of a dancehall song, this reworking of Ninja’s original combination tune with Flourgon helped put him on the map in the U.K.
7. “Permit to Bury”
Only Ninjaman could turn a song with as sweet of a sentiment as Ben E. King’s “Save the Last Dance For Me” into a soundbwoy-killing gunman tune on the order of “Permit to Bury.” And only a soundclash champion like Ninja would tease the listeners with these lines— I’ve got a permit to bury and a license fi kill/From you test me—over and over before instructing us to write our own will.
6. “Hortical Don” (a/k/a “Don Inna Town”)
These days, it seems anyone with a modicum of swagger can dub themselves a “don.” In ’70s and ’80s Jamaica, the term was used strictly used to describe the all-powerful gangster who controls the distribution of resources in a garrison community. Sometime in between—1989— there was Ninja’s “Hortical Don” (alternately spelled “Heartical” or “Artical”), which proved so influential that it quickly became the norm for dancehall artists—with and without the backgrounds to back up the claim—to dub themselves dons.
“Things A Gwan” saw Ninja assume the identity of a bounty hunter but instead of criminals he decides to go after Death himself. When the law finally catches up with him, he’s sentenced to hang but as rope is put around his neck, he laughs and exclaims that he’s killed Death, so dead business is over… You could be forgiven if you thought this song was simply about being a badass. It certainly had an influence on a young Rodney Price, who originally christened himself Bounty Hunter before he learned of another artist by that name and decided to ‘kill’ all bounty hunters.
4. “Number One (Test the High Power)”
2. “Border Clash”
Honorebel Mention: “Dead Bloodclot” (a/k/a the Badword Special)
A vicious, expletive-filled Killamanjaro dubplate that no producer would risk recording as a commercial song, “Dead Bloodclaat” was initially conceived for a clash with the high-flying Silver Hawk, which had bullied its way to the top with weak selectors but the largest arsenal of dubplates in sound system history. The dub was the beginning of the end for the seemingly invincible Hawk as Bobby Digital’s Heatwave used that same Ninjaman dub—with the sound of a choking bird struggling to say “Hawk” dubbed over Ninjaman’s voice—to finish the job. Silver Hawk would never truly regain its status as a champion sound killer.
“Wrenkin’ Meat”
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