Words by Nick Catchdubs
We happened to run into Fool’s Gold co-founder, former FADER editor and superstar DJ Nick Catchdubs at the healthy-ass grocery store up the block from the LargeUp offices yesterday, and knowing that he (like all music heads?) is a secret dancehall (and soca!) fanatic we asked him to contribute this week’s Throwback Thursdays…the timing could not have been more auspicious because not only is ‘dubs is basically running New York with extra-size gigs for the Labor Day/West Indian Carnival weekend–including: the Electric Zoo Festival (tomorrow Friday 9/2) the 10Deep/Federation “Summer Murda” mixtape launch (Saturday 9/3) and the Fool’s Gold Day-Off jam (Monday 9/5)–but then he immediately departs to hit the road with Crookers on their North American tour. He still graciously found time for a quick sprint down memory lane–and ran into Mega Banton on the way:
If you want to get chronological with it, the first dancehall I can remember was “Murder She Wrote” and “Rich Girl” at school dances, in between heavy doses of Shai, All-4-One, and beginner slow-wines with girls in Champion sweatshirts. But the first dancehall that actually made my braceface go screwface and exclaim OH SHIT!!! was this Mega Banton mega jam, built on the same Barry White boom bap that Black Moon immortalized as “I Gotcha Opin (Remix).” I vividly remember the first time seeing the video, with my Sony Watchman tuned into a fuzzy-ass UHF channel playing Uncle Ralph McDaniels’ Video Music Box, and almost two decades later I still bug out every time I hear it.