Words by Eddie STATS Houghton
Yes, Memorial Day weekend is over–and if you were here experiencing the sparkling hot weather here in NY, it was probably spent in the first of many picnics, park jams, cookouts or rooftop bashies. Hopefully you checked Mixtape Mondays before you left the house but if not you might have got caught up short for picnic-appropriate selections, which is why I took the trouble to assemble this pan-Caribbean top 10 picnic jam playlist to get you started. The selection of picnic jams is a subtle art, and should not be confused with the related but separate categories of carnival/parade anthems, and general summer bangers. The key elements are lyrical references to sunshine, breezes, sexy people and all-around relaxed, feel-good vibes…feel free to add your own in the comments section.
10. Tony Rebel, “Fresh Vegetable”
An all time party-rocker, this is also of course, one of the ultimate cookout jams of all time, for obvious reasons. There’s really no better soundtrack for grilling vegetables and brushing up on your sweety simultaneously.
9. Jacob Miller, “Tired fi Lick Weed in a Bush”
Another escapee from the Top 10 Weed Tunes (see the 4/20 picnic clause above) this undying ganja-burning classic is also a subliminal ode to the joys of outdoor recreation: We want to come out in the open / where the breeze can blow it so far awayyyy!
8. Benjai “Trini” f/ Nicki Minaj
Yes this is a Carnival anthem and also the official patriotic Trini pride jam of 2011 but in spite of the groovy soca tempo it has the mellow vibes to work as an ideal picnic jam–and is heavy in my personal rotation for the summer anyway. Play it and add some Trinis to your picnic–they make good company.
7. The Fugees, “Nappy Heads”
Yes, right at the outset of their career 2 1/2 Haitians from New Jersey recorded one of the best picnic jams–radio jams, mixtape jams, block party jams–of all time. And then they went down in history by reuniting to perform it at the ultimate block party of all time. By the way, that block with crazy building in the background? That’s my old block!
6. Bob Marley, “Jump Nyabinghi”
One of any number of picnic-friendly Marley jams, this captures the vibe best to me, possibly because a Nyabinghi is basically a huge picnic centered around Rasta and drumming. Or to put it another way, the essence of the picnic vibe is not just sunshine and good food but the communal feeling of people moving with the rhythm and dancing from within.
5. Notch, “Verme”
This Spanish/English ragga-soca tune from Cuban-Jamaican singer Notch is just one of those songs. Something about the spare hand drums and synth chords on the riddim seems to conjure up long days and endless blue skys. Not sure it didn’t become a worldwide hit on the order of “Gasolina” but if you could collect royalties off picnic boombox spins, Notch would be a rich man.
4. Tom Tom Club, “Genius of Love”
Another honorary Caribbean selection, this is pretty clearly the Tom Tom Club’s answer to the burgeoning rap and reggae scenes in 1981 New York (probably recorded to impress Tina Weymouth’s Latin boyfriend). The music they shout out in the lyrics — Bohannon, James Brown, Bootsy Collins, Kurtis Blow and Smokey Robinson in addition to the sing-along moment: Wailing and shaking to Bob Marley / Reggae’s expanding with Sly & Robbie — Makes a pretty good guide to picnic jams in itself.
3. Frankie Paul, “Pass the Tusheng Peng”
This one came to mind partly because it was an unfortunate omission from our Top 10 Weed Tunes for 4/20 (weed tunes almost always seem to make good picnic jams, for some reason. Go figure.) But nothing makes a cookout like flipping chicken legs on the grill as you sing off-key in the kitchen she frying chicken and then making the flames jump with a squirt of charcoal lighter on time with the snare-drum Bim! in the “Norwegian Wood” riddim.
2. Arrested Development, “People Everyday”
There is nothing really Caribbean about this song, except that everybody has dreads and of course the fact that the whole key to its picnic-starting power is the opening whooo–ooah / yeeeeaaah which is lifted from Johnny Osbourne’s dancehall classic “Budy Bye“–itself not a bad picnic selection. It also doesn’t hurt that the whole video is based around a down south Afrocentric picnic/hayride scenario.
1. Third World, “Cool Meditation”
The perfect Caribbean picnic jam, I actually thought of this song first and then built the rest of the list around it’s mood. I see sisters prostitutin’ and I don’t like city streets / So I’m heading for the countryside where the air is nice and sweet. Gonna get some cooooooool… you get the vibe. This is like the happy b-side to “96 Degrees in the Shade” which is more of a pre-riot jam.
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