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Music, Reggae & Dancehall
104 entries in this part of the language, each with meanings, pronunciation and worked examples.
- Air horn The loud horn blast — a real air horn or its electronic sample — that a selector sounds to…
- Akete The smallest and highest-pitched of the three sacred Nyabinghi hand drums — also called the…
- Almshouse Spiteful, wicked, mean-spirited behaviour — pettiness, scheming, and drama meant to bring…
- Answer tune A song made in direct reply to another — answering a rival's lyrics, a 'diss', or an…
- Bad gyal A bold, confident, self-assured woman who carries herself fearlessly and does exactly as…
- Bad man A tough, fearless man — and, depending on tone, either a genuine gangster figure to be…
- Banjo The plucked, drum-bodied string instrument that gives mento its bright, chiming melody…
- Banton An honorific in reggae and dancehall for a heavyweight lyricist or storyteller — a deejay…
- Bashment A big, lively party or dance event — and, as an adjective, anything exciting, top-quality…
- Bass bin A large speaker cabinet built to reproduce the deep bass frequencies — the massive 'boxes'…
- Bassline The deep, rolling bass melody that drives reggae and dancehall — the heartbeat and backbone…
- Benta A traditional Jamaican musical bow — a length of bamboo with a single string raised on it…
- Big tune A huge hit song — a track that everybody loves, that locks the dance and rules the airwaves.
- Big up To praise, celebrate, and publicly give respect to someone — to hail and honour them.
- Bleach In dancehall culture, to stay up all night — usually partying until dawn.
- Blimblim Dancehall slang for a gun or firearm — one of the many coded, playful-sounding words the…
- Boomshot An exclamation of high praise and excitement in dancehall — 'that's a hit!', 'big tune!'.
- Booyaka An imitation of a gunshot, used as a celebratory sound of approval in dancehall — the…
- Bruk out To let go and dance freely and wildly, holding nothing back — and, more broadly, to break…
- Burru An Afro-Jamaican drumming tradition of West African descent, played on three drums (bass…
- Buss a blank Originally, to fire a blank shot from a gun into the air as a salute to a hot tune at a…
- Buss a wine To break into a hip-rolling dance — literally to 'burst' a whine.
- Clash A musical battle between two or more sound systems, or between deejays, where each side…
- Conscious music Music (and lyrics) with a socially, spiritually, or politically 'conscious' message —…
- Crossover A song or artist that 'crosses over' from the dancehall/reggae world into the international…
- Dancehall The fast, deejay-led genre of Jamaican music that grew out of reggae in the late 1970s and…
- Deejay In Jamaica, the performer who chats or toasts rhythmically over a riddim — closer to what…
- Deejaying Chatting, toasting, or rhyming rhythmically over a riddim on the microphone — the Jamaican…
- Diss tune A song made to attack, insult, and 'disrespect' ('diss') a rival artist by name — a weapon…
- Dub A pioneering Jamaican music style born in the studio — stripping a reggae track down to its…
- Dub poetry A form of performance poetry, born in Jamaica in the 1970s, in which socially and…
- Dub siren An electronic effects box that a selector uses to fire off sirens, zaps, lasers, and…
- Dubplate An exclusive, custom recording made for one sound system, in which an artist re-sings a hit…
- Dubwise A dub mix, or the dub style of playing — a version of a track stripped down to its…
- Funde The middle drum of the three sacred Nyabinghi hand drums, which plays the steady…
- Gaza The name of the fan camp and movement led by dancehall artist Vybz Kartel (and, originally…
- Gun finger The hand gesture of a raised finger (or two) pointed up like a gun, thrust into the air to…
- Gun tune A dancehall song whose lyrics centre on guns, violence, and 'badness' — boasting of…
- Hitta A hit-maker — an artist who consistently makes hit songs, or, more broadly, a heavy-hitter…
- Horn section The group of brass and wind instruments — trumpet, trombone, and saxophone — that gives…
- Hotsteppa A bold outlaw or fugitive — a notorious tough guy 'on the run' who moves fast and lives…
- Hotta Hotter — but in dancehall it means more intense, more exciting, more fire.
- Jazz Jazz music — long woven into Jamaica's rich musical heritage.
- Juggling On a sound system, the art of mixing and blending riddims and tunes to keep a dance going —…
- Junglist A devotee of jungle — the fast, breakbeat-and-bassline dance music that grew out of the…
- Kill Besides the literal sense, in dancehall 'kill' means to defeat and dominate — 'kill di…
- Killa A killer — literally, but in dancehall an admiring word for something or someone deadly…
- Lick shot Two connected senses.
- Lovers rock A smooth, romantic style of reggae focused on love and relationships, built on soft…
- Lyrics Beyond the words of a song, in Jamaican slang 'lyrics' means smooth talk or a chat-up line…
- Mash up di place To give a thrilling performance that sends the crowd into a frenzy — to 'tear up' the venue…
- Mento Jamaica's original rural folk music — acoustic and rootsy, played on banjo, guitar, hand…
- Mic man The man on the microphone at a dance or event — the deejay or MC who hypes the crowd…
- Murda Murder — and, in dancehall, an exclamation of extreme excitement and approval.
- Murderation A total, crushing victory or an overwhelming hit — something so powerful it 'murders' all…
- Nice up di dance To liven up the party and make the vibe sweet — to bring good energy so that everyone…
- Nize Noise — the Patois pronunciation of 'noise'.
- One drop The signature reggae drum rhythm in which the emphasis falls on the third beat of the bar —…
- Pull up To stop a tune abruptly and restart it from the top, at the crowd's demand, because the…
- Ragamuffin A rough, streetwise ghetto youth — a rude bwoy from the poor inner city, and, worn as a…
- Reggae The world-famous Jamaican music genre that grew out of rocksteady around 1968 — marked by…
- Repeater The English name for the akete — the lead, highest-pitched Nyabinghi hand drum that…
- Rewind The act of spinning a record back to replay a tune the crowd loves — the same, in effect…
- Rhumba box A large wooden box thumb-piano — the bass instrument of the mento band.
- Riddim The instrumental backing track of a reggae or dancehall song — the bass, drums, and melody…
- Rock steady The Jamaican music style that came between ska and reggae in the mid-1960s — slower and…
- Rockers A hard-driving style of roots reggae drumming that emerged in the mid-1970s (a busier, more…
- Rocksteady The soulful Jamaican genre that came between ska and reggae, roughly 1966 to 1968 — slower…
- Roots Roots reggae — the conscious, Rastafari-and-social-themed reggae of the 1970s, singing of…
- Roots reggae The deep, conscious style of reggae — spiritual and socially aware, steeped in Rastafari…
- Rub-a-dub An early-1980s dancehall style in which a singer and a deejay trade back and forth over a…
- Rude bwoy A rebellious, streetwise young man — the defiant urban youth archetype that arose in 1960s…
- Scraper A ridged metal grater (like the kitchen grater) played as a percussion instrument in mento…
- Selector The person on a sound system who chooses and plays the records — the equivalent of what…
- Session A dancehall event or party where a sound system plays through the night.
- Shak-shak A rattle or maraca — a hand percussion shaker, named for the 'shak-shak' sound it makes…
- Shell To perform brilliantly and dominate — to tear up a show or shut down a dance.
- Shella One who 'shells' the dance — dominates and destroys it with hot tunes and energy.
- Signal A hand gesture used in the dancehall to show approval and hype for a tune — most famously…
- Sing-jay An artist who both sings and deejays (chats) — blending melody with rhythmic toasting…
- Singjay A performer who blends singing and deejaying — sliding between melodic singing and rhythmic…
- Ska The first modern Jamaican popular music genre, from the early 1960s — fast and upbeat…
- Skank To dance to ska, reggae, or dancehall with a loose, bent-forward, arm-swinging step — and…
- Slackness Lewd, vulgar, sexually explicit content — especially in dancehall lyrics — and, more…
- Sound boy A member or representative of a sound system — and, in the heat of a sound clash, a…
- Sound bwoy A sound-system deejay or selector — and, especially, a rival one in a 'sound clash', where…
- Sound clash A musical battle between rival sound systems, each playing its best and most exclusive…
- Sound system A mobile setup of powerful speakers, amplifiers, selectors and deejays that brings recorded…
- Soundclash A head-to-head competition between rival sound systems, each trying to outdo the other and…
- Steppa A bold, forward-moving person who 'steps' with confidence and doesn't back down — a…
- Steppers A militant, driving style of roots-reggae rhythm with a steady four-to-the-floor bass-drum…
- Stone Love One of the most famous and longest-running sound systems in the world — the 'Stone Love…
- String up di sound To set up and wire the sound system for a dance — connecting the speaker boxes, amps…
- Studio One The legendary Kingston recording studio and record label founded by Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd…
- Tambourine The jingling hand drum — a small frame with metal discs set in the rim — that drives the…
- Toaster An early sound-system deejay who 'toasts' — chants, rhymes, and talks rhythmically over an…
- Toasting Chatting or half-singing rhythmically over a riddim — the Jamaican vocal style, dating from…
- Tun up Lively, hyped, and full of energy — at the very peak of excitement.
- Vershun The instrumental 'version' of a reggae tune — the stripped-back rhythm track (the 'riddim'…
- Version The instrumental cut of a reggae song — the bare 'riddim' with the vocals stripped out…
- Voicing In Jamaican studio culture, the act of recording a vocal — singing or deejaying — over an…
- Wheel an come again The selector's move of stopping a hot tune and spinning the record back ('wheeling') to…
- Wheel up To rewind and replay a tune from the start because the crowd loves it.
- Whine To dance by rolling and gyrating the hips and waist in slow, circling motions — the…