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IN CONVERSATION WITH

SPLIFFY DAN
While jamming to his track “Inna Di Dance” outside of Rockers International Records, we decided to ask local Reggae artist Spliffy Dan a few questions surrounding the historical music culture in the area and its comparison to Jamaican music culture today.
Text by Tyrell MacLennan
Photography by Saemouhl


DEH’YA
SPLIFFY DAN

Introduce us to Orange St. and its musical significance to Kingston.
Orange Street mean a lot to nuff people, the man that have a soundsystem, they are going to buy records. It was called Music Street from back in the 60’s, yuh have record shops left right and center. Every shop you can walk to or can pass, is a record shop, and it goes right down to Parade, so when people buy records, first place they come is to Orange Street.
Can you tell me more about the music culture in this area throughout the years, what kinds of sounds came out of here?
    The music culture in this area, it doesn’t matter what kind of music, which genre it's from, people love enjoying themselves. Whether it be calypso, reggae, mento, jazz… well jazz not really, that is fi di uptown people… but our music ah just rockers, reggae music, anything to make you nice and irie…. move. As long as the riddim is right, they will move to it. That’s Jamaica, yuh understand?
Yeah, a lot of feel good music.
Yuh know People gravitate to that, other people foreigners love it same way, just like how they gravitate onto reggae. This is a yaad mon ting, this is not no adoption yuh know. All other countries copy Jamaican music, yuh realize that?
Haha for sure, there’s definitely a ton of influence that expanded and took over globally.
Yea mon, nuff of people copy Jamaican music and ah mek it their own.

Why do you think that is?
                           


     Everybody want to be Jamaica, but there is only one Jamaica. But true di music spread worldwide, and it is all around. People just tek it and run wid it. Yeah, they can mek some money, so why not? The people dem in Jamaica have this and they are not promoting it the right way, so dem tek it and run with it. You find all stages, ah gwan out in foreign now, all dem place have all dem likkle band, and some likkle man wey ah play reggae, and dey don’t know nothing about reggae. Yuh understand? One of di times I was in Germany, and mi see a likkle band bredren and dem ah play one Bob Marley chune “No Woman, No Cry”. And dem ah play, but dem nuh give di chune no justice.

That’s why I haffi just walk go out dey, and walk right in front the stage, and I start belch out before I even go pon the stage and I sang “Noooo, woman nooo cry, ooooh”, and see di man stop sing, and said “come up man come up, come up, come up”. Ha ha ha ha, and dey love that. Dem band people dey, when dem ah play dem look like dreadlocks and Rastas, but ah braid dem braid. So people dem say, “Yeah yeah yeah!” I come off di stage and ting, and di white guy look on me and seh “You a good vibes singer, you Jamaican!” Mi seh, “Ya mon!” So reggae music on a whole, and our tradition with music, people gravitate to it and LOVE it. It’s like dem getting a nice food to eat, where dey never get that taste yet before, thats how di music comes to dem.
Your hit song is called “Inna Di Dance''. What was the experience of an authentic dance or a party in your earlier years? How does that compare to what you get in Kingston nightlife today?
Well vibes back then, when going to di dance, yuh hear dem talk bout every man to a woman. Now, it nuh nuthin like that. Yuh have mon a dance like “ME LIKE GO-GO”, like he deh pon stage. And yuh woman ah do di same ting yuh know… so yuh have ah group ah woman and pure woman around her, and ah group ah man, with nuff man around him… and yuh haffi stop and think what is going on with di new generation.
Do you find that difference in the new generation comes with the type of sounds being played as well?
      Even di music come with ah new generation, because dem nuh have no Jah inna music now. Many genres today nuh have baseline,  and music haffi have baseline and horns. If deh no baseline or horns, nuthin deh fi hold di balance of di music, yuh know… all bare noise yuh a hear. Yuh give a man a guitar, him can’t play di guitar, and give di man a drum set and him can’t play di drum set! Yet him tell yuh seh, him a mek riddims… what kind of riddim him a mek? Some electrical riddim, some dead summthin, yuh only hear it for one full week an den it dun. This is original music… acoustic music… lives on and on and on. Each time yuh hear this music, it like it ah brand new. This is original vinyl, yuh understand. (Vinyl music plays in the background). And yuh see these songs, and all dem chunes yuh ah hear awhile ago… is acoustic sounds… there is no computurs. Artist haffi deh pan keys, there is no stop and go. We have no stop and go. When man see light rolling, it means start singing.





INNA DI DANCE
SPLIFFY DAN & DERRICK SOUND