rolling dancehall & reggae 2016

Yeah fair enough, I don't really get the fuss about "Controlla" with or without Popcaan, but "Work" was my favorite track to hear all over the city this summer and it def would be odd to not include it. Something like "Luv" would have been a lot less forgivable.

Right. Controlla set a trend... and it works on most dancefloors, still. So I'd say it belongs. I'll have to think a bit tomorrow about what they're leaving out here.

Some thoughts:
1) Why is Popcaan's We Still Ah Win so high on the largeup list? It's one of the Popcaan tracks I've played the least this year.
2) My pick for Alkaline track of the year is probably After All, above One More Time. City is good, but I prefer most of his other singles. Weirdest of all is that the part on Block & Delete on the intro where he goes "instant block and deleeeeeeeete" isn't utilized as a hook. It's easily the most catchy moment of the song, imo.
3) Did Dexta Daps kinda blow it this year, just by not releasing enough stuff, or will we see Haunted or one of his other tracks catch on in 2017? I know I played Shabba Madda Pot weekly at least until october.

afaict Largeup's general rubric for these lists is to take popularity/status as a "single" somewhat into account. Hence "Progress" being on there instead of a stronger Mavado song. Or the one from the Trini cricketer for that matter.

1) I like this tune but yeah it's too high, and I much prefer Nah Idle, maybe even more than Ova Dweet. World Cup did pop up on a bunch of mixes I heard around the Olympics, which could be a factor.
2) I seem to be alone on the board in thinking City is a consummate summer jam--love him in this breezily confident mode--and as much as I love One More Time I think this would be my pick too. Hearing this was the first time I was *really* struck by Alka's now-obvious pop star qualities. That said, After All, 12pm, and My Side of the Story have all been creeping up for me lately though. Formula could be here too. Hell I threw on New Level Unlocked yesterday and enjoyed it back to front.
3) They mentioned in the intro that Shabba Madda Pot was huge this year, but they'd included it on last year's list so it didn't fit through the Charly Blacks loophole. Haunted came out in early January iirc, so that seems like kind of a long shot to me. I feel like it's pretty common for dancehall artists to follow up a hot streak with total silence--I remember once being worried that Popcaan had blown it after the initial wave of Only Man and Ravin. Or like the other day I was fretting about Chronixx and then the next day he dropped a new video and announced a huge tour and an album release for 2017.

Trigger Finger would work too, lol. Or even Chinese Jordans. Honestly though, none of them are as good as Shabba Madda Pot or 7 Eleven. That's what I meant by stating that he kinda blew it. Still, when I listened through the new Road Block Riddim the other day and Dexta's version came on, my first thought was literally «how the heck didn't this guy rule 2016?» My best guess would be that he just didn't release enough music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faSYRFcut1E

Uhhhh... Road Show Riddim, obviously.

I think he'll be okay. Ignoring release dates, he basically had a major hit in 2015 and followed it up with a big hit in 2016. Maybe he would have risen even further if the video for Chinese Jordan wasn't so terrible.

Genuinely surprised that Fact picked "Ova Dweet" as their track of the year. I'm not sure I totally buy their narrative of the song encapsulating the year of pop-dancehall symbiosis, and I think the Red Bull Culture Clash/Mixpak figures too large in their assessment, but respect for actually putting some weight behind the idea of dancehall being important this year. I lolled at the Fader spending a couple paragraphs bemoaning Popcaan's like 90 seconds of material being cut from Controla and then not putting any of his actual tracks on their 115-item list (c.f., pitchfork letting andy beta say afrobeats was the sound of the year in their Alicia Keys writeup and then putting zero actual african songs on their list).

Well at least Ova Dweet is *that* good imo. I've played it since it dropped and it always brings good energy in whatever context. It's easily the 2016 popcaan song I'd play first to a non-dancehall-knowledgeable friend, and I'd be happy to put it on a top 20 songs of the year list. So... nice move by Fact. However, the whole Culture Clash thing barely registered with me - as I watched some highlights via youtube that didn't translate too well. I guess you had to be there. And yeah, spot on about Fader and Pitchfork.

tbc Ova Dweet is one of my favorite songs of the year. I just wasn't remotely expecting Fact of all places to make it number one! not that I read it all that often

Somehow, Largeup managed to leave All Inclusive out of their riddims of the year round up. [Trump] Weak! [/Trump]
http://www.largeup.com/2016/12/22/biggest-dancehall-riddims-2016/

rolling dancehall & reggae 2017

Playlist is finalized for the year.

ILM's Rolling Dancehall & Reggae Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist