Words by Jesse Serwer and Richard “Treats” Dryden
Photo by Catherine McGann
In the Bronx in 1973, a Jamaican-born DJ started playing just the funkiest parts of his favorite records at parties, while his friends toasted on the mic, riding the ensuing grooves like the deejays back in JA. Soon thereafter, a son of Bridgetown, Barbados and a South Bronx native of mixed Jamaican and Barbadian parentage were adding to the template; the latter perfecting the technique of mixing between two turntables, the other convincing local gang members to lay down their grudges and join him in search of the perfect beat. And that’s how hip-hop began—with three West Indian youths full of ingenuity. As the culture built by Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaata and their peeers was translated into a commercial product through the advent of rap records, producers of Caribbean birth and parentage (including Bambaata himself) would become central to the genre’s development, injecting new and old ideas into the growing arena of hip-hop. And in the 35 year since then, this has remained true, as many of the genre’s most influential and important producers claim roots in the islands.
Continuing where our Top 10 Caribbean Pioneers list left off, here’s 10 beatmakers of Caribbean birth and/or parentage who have shaped the sound and direction over the last few decades, from unsung ’80s pioneers Kurtis Mantronik and Hitman Howie Tee to the ever-evolving and influential Salaam Remi. (And nuff respect to Q-Tip, KRS-ONE, MF DOOM and all of the great beatmakers with one Caribbean parent—we’ll get y’all next time).
As the brains behind ‘80s favorites Salt N Pepa and Kid N Play, Hurby “Luvbug” Azor was the architect of a musical era synonymous with lighthearted lyrics and synchronized dance steps. Hip-hop’s first out-front, “celebrity” producer, he was often seen in his group’s videos, hamming it up and projecting the producer-as-player image that Sean “Puffy” Combs, among others, would later take cues from. (Bad Boy’s in-house production crew The Hitmen, with Puffy as its face and marquee name, was also modeled after Azor’s own support unit, The Invincibles.)
Azor, whose often incorporated the sounds of D.C. Gogo into songs like “Rolling with Kid N Play” and Salt N Pepa’s “Shake Your Thing,” dropped off the hip-hop map in the mid ‘90s; his last notable international production was actually “Anything For You” by Snow. He currently resides in his native Haiti, where he’s put his artist-grooming skills back to work developing Shassy, a singer/rapper whose presentation (visually, at least) has been compared locally to Nicki Minaj.
DJ Evil Dee and Mr. Walt—collectively the founding members of Da Beatminerz—are the Belizean brothers behind the gritty sound of Boot Camp Clik, the Brooklyn super-crew consisting of Smif-N-Wessun, Heltah Skeltah, Buckshot and Original Gun Clappaz (O.G.C.).
Walt and Evil Dee represent Bushwick, Brooklyn, where they first hashed out their hazy sound on Enta Da Stage, Black Moon’s debut album from 1992. While Baby Paul, Rich Blak, and Chocolate Ty were added to Da Beatminerz as the Boot Camp Clik expanded its roster, the Dewgarde brothers remained the core of the production crew, with Dee also holding down duties as Black Moon’s DJ.
Da Beatminerz’ minimal beats were carefully arranged to let soul and jazz loops manifest visuals of Brooklyn’s concrete jungle landscape. Like many West Indians who import musical styles to Brooklyn, they represented their Caribbean background in their sound, with cavernous drums and whistling wind melodies reminiscent of reggae music. Their taste for tropical flavor was palpable on “No Fear” by Originoo Gun Clappaz, and they channeled the competitive spirit of a reggae soundclash on Smif-N-Wessun’s “Sound Bwoy Bureill.” Da Beatminerz’ discography is deeper than rap though: In the late ‘90s, New Yorkers were privy to weekly parties at Joe’s Pub hosted by DJ Evil Dee, DJ Butta L and supermodel Beverly Bond, as Evil Dee regularly rocked swinging his dreadlocks to the tempo of true music connoisseurs hanging onto every note of disco, R&B, and hip-hop.
The Beatnuts (Dominican Republic/Colombia)
Hip-hop has long had a Latin flavor, from its early days in the heavily Puerto Rican South Bronx. Hailing from Queens by way of the Dominican Republic and Colombia (a country technically located in South America but with its own deeply rooted Black/Caribbean culture), respectively, core Beatnuts members Juju and Psycho Les brought Afro-Latino flavor to ‘90s New York hip-hop, as both a self-contained rap group and a freelance production unit working for the likes of Fat Joe, Kurious and Big Pun. Though they never experienced major commercial success, they were one of the most beloved groups from the pre-Rawkus ‘90s-rap underground, bringing infinite credibility and a great ear for samples to every project they worked on, while their ‘90s hits like “Off The Books” and “Watch Out Now” (with Big Pun) are certified classics immediately recognizable to anyone who lived through the era.
“Dipset Anthem” can be played anywhere in the world, at any time of day, and you can bet the fish will stop swimming. The opening smash of chords, snares, and the sampled vocal riff of reggae crooner Sanchez elicits attention in the same way as a drill sergeant at boot camp.
The Heatmakerz, the Bronx-based producers behind the beat, definitely struck oil when they mined Sanchez’s original “One In A Million” for the 2002 single. Rsonist and Thrilla of The Heatmakerz originally hail from Kingston, Jamaica, which explains their educated inspiration for “Dipset Anthem.” Right around the same time that Kanye West and Just Blaze started speeding up vocals from old school R&B records, so were the Heatmakerz, making what Rsonist describes as “hardcore soul music.” Canibus was the first major artist to land a beat from the duo, who sampled the theme song from S.W.A.T. on “The C-Quel” on his sophomore album, 2000 B.C. But, after they met Cam’Ron and Jim Jones, they became resident producers for The Diplomats, giving the Harlem crew their signature sound. “Dipset Anthem” was hardly the only time the duo took inspiration from Jamaica; they sampled Sizzla’s “Woman I Need You” (on “More Gangsta Music,” from Cam’Ron’s Purple Haze) and “Simplicity” (on “Jamaican Joint” from Jim Jones’ On My Way To Church), and featured Kalonji on the Juelz Santana track “Shottas.”
Born in England to Jamaica parents and raised in the Caribbean culture hotbed of Flatbush, Brooklyn, “Hitman” Howie Tee has kept a low profile in recent years, and his online footprint hardly stretches past the impressive credits on his Discogs.com page. But we don’t need the Internet to be able to tell you that he was one of the most significant and diverse hip-hop producers of the 1980s. We can still remember hearing his productions like UTFO’s “Roxanne Roxanne”—the record that spawned a million answer tracks and basically inspired the entire cottage industry of attention-seeking diss tracks that still thrives to this day—and Whistle’s “Just Buggin” everywhere back in ’80s New York. The latter part of the decade saw him team with fellow yardies Special Ed and Chubb Rock (the latter being a cousin of his), laying down some of the earliest bashment rap tracks. In what was easily one of the most brilliant sample flips of its day, he turned the guitar riff from Desmond Dekker and the Aces’ “007 (Shanty Town)” into Special Ed’s “I’m the Magnificent,” spiking that track with vocal samples from another Jamaican classic in Dave and Ansel Collins’ “Double Barrel.”(To hear that all broken down piece by piece, run tune on our aptly titled reggae-in-rap mixtape, Double Barrel).
Despite all of his contributions to rap (we could go on and on), his biggest hit would have to be “I Wanna Sex You Up” from R&B/New Jack Swing group Color Me Badd—one of the defining tracks of 1990. Whatever you want to give him credit for, the Hitman definitely deserves his props.
Wyclef Jean + Jerry “Wonda” Duplessis (Haiti)
When Wyclef made a roll call on the intro of The Fugees’ “Killing Me Softly,” he formally introduced himself, Lauryn Hill, Pras, and a a guy you might not have noticed by the name of Little Bass a.k.a. Jerry “Wonda” Duplessis. Technically, The Fugees has always been more than a trio, if you include Jerry—Wyclef’s cousin—who has been with the crew since he and ‘Clef immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti as a teenagers.
While Duplessis wasn’t a vocal member of the group, his bass guitar has done all of the talking for him, anchoring his co-production of The Fugees’ Caribbean-tinged sound with reggae, soca, calypso and konpa flavors. His legacy is musically and visually etched in the pop culture memory bank strumming the thumping bassline of Fugees classics on live TV at the BET Awards. The combination of Wyclef and Jerry Wonda though is a sonic whirlpool that swallowed up salsa and reggaeton for Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie,” and bellydance music for ‘Clef’s “Hollywood to Bollywood.” These days, Wonda has made a name for himself in hip-hop producing Raekwon’s rap-reggae collab with Assassin and Melanie Fiona, “Soundboy Kill It,” and Lupe Fiasco’s “Out of My Head.” Sak pasé.
Kurtis el Khaleel was one of the key beatmakers evolving hip-hop during one of its most crucial and overlooked eras: the mid 1980s. Born in Jamaica, the future Kurtis Mantronik moved to Canada and later Manhattan, where he was living when he met up with Haiti-born rapper Touré “MC Tee” Embden while working at Times Square’s legendary Downstairs Records. Uniting under the name Mantronix, the duo took the synthetic, drum machine-based production of Run-DMC and Afrika Bambaata to the next level, creating some of the most futuristic sounding music of their day, including the classics “Bassline” and “Needle to the Groove.” Venturing into A&R work and outside production, Kurtis would also give Just Ice, a fellow Jamaican-American, his hardcore sound on the landmark 1986 LP, Back To The Old School.
Moving away from hip-hop and deeper into dance music in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, Mantronik maintained his signature sound of polyrhythmic drum patterns and soulful, highly funky use of electronic instrumentation. You might even call him the father of (or at least an ancestor of) trap music; he was the first beatmaker to program a track with hi-hat triplets from an 808 drum machine, a hallmark of the Southern US-born and now globally-ubiquitous music style.
Salaam Remi is known for producing hit songs for The Fugees, Nas, Amy Winehouse, Mack Wilds and Miguel, to name a few. The veteran producer’s resume is star-studded because he is one of the few producers who has such a natural rapport with the artists he works with that almost anything they create is destined to be a classic. The son of Barbados-born Van Gibbs, a famed producer in his own right, Remi is one of the few producers who can claim to have had a real influence on the direction of hip-hop, R&B and reggae.
Remi’s career took off when he remixed Super Cat’s “Ghetto Red Hot” (with DJ Bobby Konders) in 1992 and Ini Kamoze’s “Here Comes the Hotstepper” in 1994. The crossover success of these early productions put him at the forefront of the hip-hop-reggae trend. Next, he helped shape the sound of The Fugees, whose classic tracks “Nappy Heads” and “Fu-Gee-La” were remixed by Remi. As with many tracks he’s touched that were originally done by other producers, it’s Salaam’s remixes of the above that became the commonly known versions. Some years later, Remi connected with Nas for his 2002 album, God’s Son, giving the legendary MC some of his most classic tracks, namely “Made You Look” and “Get Down.” They’ve continued their partnership up through Nas’ last release, 2013’s Life Is Good, which was executive produced by Remi. Despite his lengthy association with hip-hop, Remi’s greatest accomplishment is arguably the discovery of Amy Winehouse, shaping both of the singer’s albums, Frank and Back to Black.
The key to Salaam Remi’s consistency is his ability to bring out the best in the artist. His chemistry with The Fugees channeled their respective Caribbean roots in a way that felt natural and totally uncontrived. Add a hip-hop breakbeat layer to it, and a song has Remi’s signature. For more on Remi’s legacy, read our 2012 interview with the beatmaker, and hear him break down 10 of his most classic tunes here.
In true Jamaican multi-tasking fashion, Pete Rock set the standard for producer/DJ/rappers. Lyrically, he provided the foil to rhyme partner C.L. Smooth during their ‘90s prime, but it was on the beats where he truly excelled, flexing his workaholic dexterity on beats for Run DMC, Nas, and Mary J. Blige, as well as on Pete and CL’s nearly flawless albums Mecca and the Soul Brother and The Main Ingredient. And quiet as it’s kept, he was also the uncredited ghost producer for A Tribe Called Quest’s “Jazz (We’ve Got).”
Pete Rock’s Jamaican heritage influenced his passion for music. There are iconic photos of a young Pete Rock stacking 45s like pancakes, and another of him sitting on a floor flanked by 12” records. Like many other generations of DJs before him, music is in his blood. He and his late, great cousin Heavy D collaborated on each other’s projects, with Pete bringing the beats to Hev’s Peaceful Journey and Blue Funk albums, and Heavy making a cameo on Pete Rock’s solo debut, Soul Survivor (on the appropriately-titled “Massive” also featuring Beenie Man).
Flash forward to the aughts, and Kanye West declared himself the “new version of Pete Rock” on Slum Village’s “Selfish”; West and Rock eventually hooked up on the same track when Pete produced “The Joy,” a track which appeared on the deluxe edition of Watch the Throne. And earlier this year, Pete Rock’s second all-instrumental album PeteStrumentals 2, arrived featuring “Rootz, Reggae, Kulcha.” The one-drop style beat, with a vintage sound that recalls the founding fathers of dub like Lee “Scratch” Perry and Horace Andy, is prefaced by a declaration, “roots reggae is to be found in Jamaica.” And the track wouldn’t be complete without its fair share of air horns, and lazer sound effects.
Rashad “Ringo” Smith (Jamaica)
The lines between hip-hop and R&B have been blurred in recent years, but in the mid 1990s, the two genres were just starting to co-mingle. As one of the original beatmakers for Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy Records, Rashad “Ringo” Smith (then part of the production duo Tumblin’ Dice with Avon Marshall) was building that fusion with productions and remixes for the likes of Mary J. Blige and the Notorious B.I.G.
Smith got his start in production as a teenager, making tracks for his high school friends, Main Source, and soon found himself “ghost producing” for Eric B & Rakim: his hands are all over their classic “Don’t Sweat the Technique.” Along the way, he also produced pivotal tracks for Nas (“If I Ruled the World”), Busta Rhymes (“Woo Haa!”) and LL Cool J (“Doin It”), to name a few. He would also give fellow Queens native 50 Cent an early boost with productions like “Thug Love” on his pre-Interscope debut Power of the Dollar, and he has maintained a close and fruitful working relationship with Erykah Badu since the early 2000s, as part of the singer’s Freakquency production crew (which also includes another soulful Jamaican—The Roots’ James Poyser). And wait ‘til you hear what Mr. Smith has in store next: among other things, he’s currently working with Herbie Hancock on the soundtrack for Don Cheadle’s upcoming Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead.
One thing you can say about hip-hop is that it always continues to evolve. One producer who’s been pushing things in a forward direction for the last five-plus years has been Kingston-born, Toronto-raised Matthew Samuels, better known as Boi-1da. An associate of Drake’s since day one, he helped put the king of emo rap on the map starting with “Best I Ever Had” and Thank Me Later. He’s continued to work on each of Drake’s ensuing projects, and recently laid down the oft-freestyled-upon, Sprite-commercial-soundtracking beat for “0 to 100.” Boi-1da’s work on Kendrick Lamar’s “The Blacker The Berry,” which featured Jamaican dancehall star Assassin, saw him connect with his Jamaican roots, meanwhile. And it won’t be his last foray into Caribbean music: After attending Trinidad Carnival last year, he hit the studio to work on upcoming tracks from Trini soca queen Fay-Ann Lyons.
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