9. Vybz KartelUp 2 Di Time
Dancehall is a really big influence on the East Man sound. Growing up in the 1990s listening to hardcore, there was loads of ragga, reggae and dancehall sampled in it – hardcore was a big gateway to other music. I’ve been listening to dancehall on and off since then, but it’s been hard recently to keep tabs on what’s going on because the infrastructure of distribution in Jamaica has been fucked for the past decade or so, and stuff isn’t getting pressed to vinyl anymore, which is sad.
But this Vybz album is the first from him that I listened to and when he came through, it changed the face of dancehall and moved it forward from that period of Ninja Man, Bounty Killer, Beanie Man to what it is today. I know he’s in prison but there’s always tunes from him coming out every other week and I don’t know how! You can’t deny that he’s the king of dancehall now. Vybz Kartel always comes with that bad man thing.
