Toppa Top 10: Barrington Levy’s Biggest Tunes

Words by Jesse Serwer and Eddie STATS Houghton—

Trouble-double, doooeeeeuuble…sweeng. Shuddally wop, shuddally whoop, whoah-oh-oh…Oooweoo, oooweoo, oowoeeoo-ooweoo, shuddally waddly diddly diddly, whoah-oh, sweeng. Always wanted to see what that looked like in print. This past Saturday marked the 47th birthday of reggae music’s greatest vocal acrobat and the first voice of dancehall, Barrington Levy. We know you already have three different Barrington greatest hits collections in your crates and/or iTunes, but, after running through the catalog of dancehall’s other generation-bridging golden voice Beres Hammond last week, we just had to honor the man by breaking down the 10 most official, unmistakable Barrington anthems. Zeen?

10. “She’s Mine” (1988)

This song was included on the very first dancehall cassette I purchased (Rohit Records Reggae Dance Hall) and along with General Trees “Raggamuffin,” Shelly Thunder’s “Kuff” and Sanchez’s “Lonely,” it will always embody the essence of the genre to me. Many of us will have Barrington’s soaring “Young, fresh an’ greeeeeeeeen” hook stuck in our head for life–but only the warped genius of the late great Biggie Smalls would add a With no hair in between/ Know what I mean?

9. “Teach the Youths” (1988)

Barrington lived in England through much of the ’80s, hence his great popularity there during that period, but he could often be found in Brooklyn, working with local producers like Jah Life and Whitfield “Witty” Henry. “Teach the Youths,” on a riddim supplied by the latter, is essentially the story of those years, with Barrington recounting his experiences trying to stay connected to his roots in Jamaica while working in a “far, far land.” Truly one of the great songs about the expatriate experience.

8. “Living Dangerously” with Bounty Killer (1996)

Jamaican journalist Balford Henry makes a great point in the liner notes to Too Experienced, VP’s 1998 Barrington hits compilation: “He is the sort of singer you can never write off, becuase just when you start wondering why you haven’t heard from him in a while, he pops up with something new and substantial.” Point in case: Levy’s ’96 combination tune with Bounty Killer, a track, Henry notes, that went to No. 1 on the UK and US reggae charts and introduced Levy to a new generation of yutes after a low-key period in the early to mid ’90s.

7. “Bad Boyz” with Shyne (2000)

Besides for Junior Reid, Levy has gotten more love from hip-hop than any other dancehall OG (and hip-hop loves dancehall OGs, as they should), recording tunes over the years with Snoop, Jadakiss and Canada’s Rascalz and K-Os, among others. But his most memorable links were with Belize-born, Flatbush-bred (and now, apparently, Israel-based) rapper Shyne, on his self-titled 2000 album for Bad Boy Records. While Levy has a solid turn on that album’s “Bonnie and Clyde” it’s the Grace Jones/Sly and Robbie-sampling “Bad Boyz” that people still go nuts for to this day and which we ranked at No. 2 on our Top 10 all-time deejay/rapper collabos. And he’s still going…Jadakiss, Kardinal Offishall and Mobb Deep are among the hip-hop acts Levy has recorded with in recent years.

6. “Money Move” (1983)

Dancehall and rampant materialism rose in prominence together as the roots/culture/Marley-dominated ’70s gave way to the ’80s, a true chicken or the egg situation. Barrington played a major role in this, posing in front of Rolls Royce on the cover of his beakthrough British album, and helping to popularize don-inspired leisurewear as the uniform for dancehall performers. While But he was also a critic of it. “Money Move,” voiced for badman-turned-producer George Phang, can be seen as both a tribute to cash and a condemnation of its power. Or maybe its neither, just objective reporting about how money influences everything and everybody.

5. “Black Roses” (1983)

A weird marriage of Sly & Robbie’s signature “Revolution” riddim and Prince Alla and Phillip Frazier’s dub-era classic, “Black Roses” is one of the great all time minor-key dancehall 45s, incontrovertible proof that spooky and off-key can make for the most danceable of dance tracks.

4. “Prison Oval Rock” (1984)

Ooohh-yayyayyyee…Ooohh-yayyayyyee, what a cool and deadly! A tribute to the site of many a stage show and soundsystem dance, this rock is one of the cornerstones of dancehall music itself. And it was still the touchstone of tough some 15 years later when Vegas needed a foundation for his gangster’s anthem “Mus Come A Road.”

3. “Under Mi Sensi” (1985)

Whoa-ohhwhoa. Seen? Another classic from Barrington’s mid-80s peak, this cut with producer Jah Screw was No. 2 on our 4/20 list of top all-time weed tunes, but it could have easily been No. 1. It’s not just a great weed anthem, which it is, but a brilliant protest tune with its simple refutation of fallacy of Jamaica’s anti-marijuana laws. Barrington breaks the situation down as only he can: “Ay babylon, you no like the ganja man/But ya weed bring the currency pon di island.” ‘Nuff said.

2. “Murderer” (1983)

Sticka-dooda-dooda-dooda-dooda-dooda-doodaoohw…Zeen. Other artists have songs on Brooklyn producer/label Jah Life’s version of Jackie Mittoo’s “Hot Milk” riddim, but it’s safe to say that Barrington owns these notes. Hearing those opening guitar plucks followed by anything other than Levy’s trademark scat is just plain disappointing. Watch the above clip, from a Wray & Nephew/Red Label Wine concert tape called Dancehall ’85, to catch an energetic and still very fit Barrington jogging in place at a manic pace as he performs “Murderer,” and a string of other great hits: “Money Move,” “Minibus” and “Prison Oval Rock.” (And check out parts 2 and 3 of the concert on Youtube as well).

1. “Here I Come” (AKA “Broader than Broadway”) (1984)

It’s hard to believe Barrington was a lad of just 20 when he recorded this sage tune, about the tug between parental responsibility and selfish desire. As he told David Katz of Wax Poetics in 2007, the song’s very specific, descriptive lyrics were based on reality. “It’s something that happen to one of my friends where the girl have a kid,” he said. “She was young and pregnant and, after she had the kid, she was saying she don’t want to stay inside and look after no kid, because she have to have fun, because she’s young.” We figured we’d include the proper video for this song (filmed around the 1990 release of Profile Records’ compilation Broader than Broadway) but for the full effect of this song’s genius, check this brilliant performance footage on The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1984 and a 1985 British telethon.

httpv://www.youtube.com/embed/5KR6Y2-3T9Q

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What kind of world is this where we have to reduce Barrington Levy’s contributions to music to a single Top 10? Still a relevant factor in reggae/dancehall music after three-and-a-half decades, Barrington has way too many classics to narrow down to such a list. But, alas, such is life.  Starting with “21 Girl Salute” on the Down by the River riddim, here’s some more of our Barrington favorites…

“21 Girl Salute”

“Juggling Soldier”

“If You Give To Me”

“Shine Eye Girl”

“No Fuss No Fight”

“Ragga Muffin”

“Bonnie & Shyne” (with Shyne)

“Shaolin Temple”

“Get Up, Stand Up”

“Too Experienced”