Toppa Top 10: Top 10 Caribbean Anthems of the 2000s

Words by Eddie STATS Houghton, as determined by the LARGE UP crew

Our reg’lar Friday Toppa Top 10 this week also happens to be our tenth and final Top 10 looking back over 2010 and the whole 2000s decade. After this 2011 can officially begin with our blessing…but we don’t recommend you jump the gun because we sounded the biggest thing last; the Top 10 Caribbean anthems of the entire decade. We consulted Billboard charts and soundscans, analyzed trends and recounted the essential, groundbreaking moments of island culture. We looked at every scene, taking into account reggae and reggaeton, merengue and merengue de calle, ragga soca and actual soca. And then in time-honored editorial fashion we had a heated argument which quickly devolved into a flame war/soundclash, fought by hurling youTube clips of kung fu flicks, classic picong face-offs and drunken foul-mouthed puppets back and forth over such essential questions as: “Iwer George vs. Bunji Garlin: go!” and “Lumidee is only #7…?!?” and the age-old puzzler “Scunt! Whate the hell this?!” In the end, that’s why we can be sure that the jams that withstood this trial by virtual fire are officially official. This is not no opinion thing. These 10 tunes are actually, factually the best of the best.

10. Mavado “On The Rock” (JA/BK)

Four words: Barack Obama dub-plate. One for the history books.

9. Machel Montano f. Destra Garcia, “Its Carnival” (T&T)

Fusion and cross-genre hybrids (reggaeton, ragga soca, crunkchata etc.) were the sound of the decade, but Machel Montano in general and this jam in particular were like ear-splitting airhorns announcing that raw,  1000-bpm Carnival-driven, wuk up soca was not going anywhere. It was in fact only growing in strength until the point where it may well be for the next decade what dancehall was to the ’00s.

8. Elephant Man “Jook Gal” (JA)

The original ambassador of dance and dancehall fashion, Elephant Man scored his biggest hit with this soca-tempo, crunk-remixed club banger. Also: the Coolie Dance. How did that happen?

7. Sizzla, “Just One of Those Days” (JA)

Along with Damian and Jah Cure, Sizzla was the most credible of a trio of artists who smuggled one drop into heavy rotation on urban radio–and Sizzla was the only one to pull it off twice, with “Solid As A Rock” and this heart-tugging rework of the classic Studio One riddim “Queen of the Dance.” The ’00s was also the decade in which Sizzla stopped being the most prolific Caribbean artist and became the most imitated with the emergence of a whole generation of post-Sizzla dreads (both in Jamaica and other islands) forming an industry almost to themselves.

6. Alison Hinds, “Roll It Gal” (Barbados)

Truth to tell, it was Kevin Lyttle’s “Turnin  Me On” that sparked the ragga soca phenomenon, but this unstoppable jam from lifetime soca queen Alison Hinds captures it at it’s best, and so for the purposes of this list she’ll have to carry the whole sub-genre on her capable legs. Solid.

5. Omega “Tu No Ta Pa Mi” (DR)

This song didn’t necessarily make much of a splash outside of the Dominican Republic (and a small circle of alert uptown New Yorkers) when it dropped. But that’s only because the rest of us didn’t know then that it was the shape of mambos to come, posing off in stunner shades and superhero boots.

4. Lumidee, “Never Leave You” (NY/PR/JA)

This New York/Puerto Rico/Jamaica hybrid was not only the song of the year (and many years to follow) it was also the biggest hit on the Diwali–as Erin MacLeod pointed out in chambers, the first riddim to cross over on its own riddimatical terms, spawning hits for not just Lumi but Sean and Wayne Wonder and club-classics for Bounty Killer, TOK and Elephant Man, among others. Pan-Caribbean teamwork at its finest.

3. Damian Marley “Welcome to Jamrock” (JA)

Minor-keyed and major-labeled, this “weapons-grade” riddim allowed Damian Marley aka Junior Gong to do what his more famous father never could in his lifetime: take uncut one drop reggae straight to the top of the pop charts.

2. Daddy Yankee, “Gasolina” (PR)

Although a poll would probably place it #1 in both the most requested/most hated categories, this zenith of the reggaeton phenomenon is mathematically speaking the biggest hit on this list by a good margin. To put it in perspective, in late 2005 I did a 7-city DJ tour of South Asian and they were caning this shit all the way in Bangladesh. There’s only one club in Bangladesh. And if it had only one record that year, this would have been it. Daddy Yankee.

1. Sean Paul “Like Glue” (JA)

“Temperature” and “Get Busy” were bigger chart hits but this track maybe go down in history as the essential Sean Paul song and the purest crossover of dancehall into the mainstream brainspace. Released as an Atlantic/VP single two years after it was originally pressed up as a 45 on Tony Kelly’s Buyout riddim, the dutty rockstar decided that what it needed was not a remix or a cameo from Busta or Beyonce but an extended bridge of his brother Jason bawling out the latest Jamaican dances at a squad of dancehall queens. And thus million MTV and VH-1 viewers learned how to signal the plane, row the boat and gi’ dem a run.

Honorebel mentions: Kevin Lyttle; “Turnin Me On,” Tego Calderon; “Pa Que Retozen,” Jah Cure; “Longing For,” Anything by Sean Paul, Nina Sky; “Move Your Body” and “Oye Mi Canto,” Beenie Man; “Dude,” Sizzla; “Solid As A Rock” and the whole Da Real Thing LP, Enur f. Nastasja; “Calabria,” Serani f. Bugle; “Doh,” Brilanders; “Party in the Backyard,” Collie Buddz; “Come Around,” Gyptian; “Beautiful Lady,” Vybz Kartel; “Rompin Shop,” Wisin y Yandel; “Rakata,” Ele & Wyclef; “Five-O”, Ele, “Pon Di River,” Erup; “Click Mi Finger,” Rihanna; “Pon De Replay” and “Rudeboy,” MIA; “Galang” and “Boyz” remix, Rupee; “Tempted To Touch,” and “Jump,” Cham; “Ghetto Story,” Turbulence; “Notorious,” Carimi; “Are You Ready.”