Words by Jesse Serwer, DJ Gravy, Sherman Escoffery and Micro Don—
It’s been 20 years since Super Cat’s Don Dada album and street classics like “Ghetto Red Hot” made him most every hip-hop head’s favorite dancehall deejay, and one more decade on top of that since the deejay also known as Wild Apache first made his mark in Jamaica. Mr. Cat has grown increasingly reclusive in recent years, having made just a handful of songs and performances in the last decade, so we were super amped to hear his voice all over Nas’ brand new banger “The Don,” even if it was just a sample (well, actually two). With “The Don” earning praise and capturing the attention of listeners who were barely out of diapers the last time Super Cat had a song on the radio (and by that we mean his cameo on Sugar Ray’s “Fly“—now 14 years old!) the timing couldn’t be better to break down the most essential tunes from one of dancehall’s greatest and most mysterious artists.
Sometimes referred to as the Bareback Rider or Wild Apache because of his style of purposely staying slightly off or to the side the rhythm and then catching it every time you think he’s about to fall off—like the saddle-less Indians in old cowboy movies—Super Cat is all over this rhythm but never off of it. A response to his teacher Early B’s “One Wheel Wheelie,” he gives perfect instruction on how to handle a motor bike and talks about teasing up the clutch as he outruns the police, his lyrics sounding like a Jamaican version of The Fast and Furious. —Sherman Escoffery
Listen to this record. Listen to the lyrics. Cat shows he’s educated and his delivery is so nonchalant, as he tells the tale of how his island came about. Going way back when in history, he spans all over the world and comes right back to his home, the island of Jamaica. It’s an appealing track for a history buff like myself but mostly it’s the love he shows for the place he is from that makes it classic. He knows his roots, and this chune documents that precisely. —Micro Don
Super Cat fully inhabits his Wild Apache alter ego on this track from his 1994 collaborative album with his brother Junior Cat, Nicodemus and Junior Demus, The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and The Crazy, an extended double entendre linking the soundclash to the Western movies that have been so influential in dancehall music. Like nearly all of ‘Cat’s 90’s hits “Scalp Dem” was treated to a hip-hop remix, in this case a beast from the then-red hot hands of the RZA, also featuring Method Man. Thanks to his Columbia deal, Cat also tended to get some pretty nice video budgets—at least for a dancehall artist— and this one (sorry, embeds are blocked) was one of his best and most ambitious. — Jesse Serwer
7. “Dolly My Baby (Hip Hop Remix)”
A collaboration with Super Cat offered a huge boost to credibility in ’90s hip-hop and this one, from 1993, certainly paid off for a then little known Biggie Smalls and Puff Daddy. “Dolly My Baby” was many people’s first introduction to Biggie’s revolutionary lyrical style, and also spawned one of his most famous lines— “I love it when you call me Big Poppa,” later sampled in Ready to Die‘s hit by that name— while a pre-jiggy Puffy raps in a cartoonish style cribbed from Onyx. Without Super Cat’s classic original and his larger-than-life presence, things probably would have moved a little slower for that dynamic duo—and for that we named this one No. 1 on our Toppa Top 10 list of best rapper/deejay collaborations. Watch the video here. —Jesse Serwer
If you were wondering what the connection between Super Cat and “The Don” co-producer/late, great hip-hop legend Heavy D, look no further than this genius pairing between the Don Dada and the Big Belly Gorgon. This was actually one of two collaborations between the duo, the other being “Big and Ready” also featuring Frankie Paul. Lots of classic moments on this one, from Super Cat’s oft-sampled “How you mean?” ad lib to Hev’s classic ode to his favorite Jamaican foods: “I like mi chicken and mi goat well curry.” — Jesse Serwer
Don’t doubt the line “I have a bed and a sleep pan the floor” as Super Cat is obsessed with self preservation and haunted by the killing of many friends and musical colleagues especially his good friends, singer Tenor Saw and DJ Louie Lepke while in they were in the USA. Living what he preached, Super Cat did get himself a legal gun when he moved to New York and ended up shooting and killing Singer Nitty Gritty in self defense. An instant hit in Jamaica and the NY reggae scene, this was one of the songs that helped Super Cat to cross over into the New York hip-hop scene and brought him to the attention of Columbia Records. Brooklyn rapper Sean Price of Heltah Skeltah would later pay tribute to the track, borrowing Cat’s delivery on the intro to “Sean Price” from 1996’s Nocturnal. —Sherman Escoffery
When Super Cat describes “Vineyard Style” as a “special dedication to all farmers” in the song’s intro, he’s not kidding. He then precedes to conjure a dance full of anthropomorphic badman fruits and veggies. Super Cat’s wicked ah wicked and wild lyrical style is complemented equally by Ainsley “Rifle” Grey’s creative, almost hip-hop style mixing of the Answer riddim. Again, there’s a dope hip-hop remix of this, too—from the one Kenny Dope, no less. —Jesse Serwer
3. “Boops!”
For all of his braggadocio, Cat’s gyal tunes have a certain unique charm. This happy, major key song is the title track on Cat’s first album, an anthem to gold diggers and the sugar daddies they lean on for cash that started a small trend for similarly themed songs as well as a popular Jamaican stage play by the same name. Based on Marcia Griffiths’ Studio One classic, “Feel Like Jumping,” it became the inspiration for Boogie Down Productions’ “The Bridge Is Over” beat as KRS-One replayed the “Boops” bassline on piano (yes, KRS played that live the whole way through, no loop), altering it slightly into a darker, minor key scale. If you really check it, the lyrics and ad libs to that hip-hop classic are totally inspired by Cat—and dancehall at large. —DJ Gravy
2. “Ghetto Red Hot (Hip-Hop Remix)”
The original “Ghetto Red Hot” and its OG video helped introduce Super Cat to the mainstream urban market back in the early 90’s but it’s the hip hop remix that really exploded him. And explode this tune does, right from the intro—When I first heard “Some tan so back and some ah rally back” with its sirens, screams and gunshots I was pretty sure Supercat was the illest dude ever. Lyrically, “Ghetto Red Hot” touches on famous Jamaican gangsters and a plentitude of ghettos areas reminding us how ‘dem did hot.’ Super Cat could just shout out the names of hoods for hours and it’d still never get old. —DJ Gravy
The title track to Super Cat’s first Columbia Records full length touches on a range of topics—from biblical references on Gabriel’s hammer to his unlimited access of opposing garrison areas like Jungle and Rema to mentors Burro Banton and Stereo Marz Sound and rival Ninjaman—that only the Wild Apache himself could squeeze into one song without seeming out of context. The Bobby Konders remix, which effectively introduced the Jamaican term don dada into the hip-hop lexicon, also stands out as a landmark in the blending of hip-hop and dancehall as Cat’s nasal timbre compliments the gunshot laden boom bap beat like few others. In the third verse Super Cat takes us further into the cosmos claiming “This a yute yah come fi stop dem like a Tarzan dagger.” Who would question that?!—DJ Gravy
Honorebel Mention: “Under Pressure”
How many songs from 1986 can you find that speak about the tension between Russia and America, Ronald Reagan and Gaddafi, or the CIA-induced violence in Nicaragua? Super Cat sounds like an elder statesman on “Under Pressure” as he displays his knowledge of global politics here, but he is still rocking the dance on this cut, done over another updated version of the Skatalites classic rhythm, Heavenless.—Sherman Escoffery
Honorebel Mention: “Permit Fi Gun”
This one is definitely at the top of my list of favorite Super Cat records. Why? Because I love guns and badness… My father’s a military dude who served in ‘Nam so he taught me all about guns since I was able to talk. I remember being five or six years old at a bar with him and one of his peeps pulls out a shiny M-16 from a duffel bag. I was hype to say the least. This chune hit with me because havin some form of weapon on you in Brooklyn was always a necessity. And having a permit to carry it was license to kill at will. Yuh zeeeet… The rumor back when Cat shot up Nitty Gritty in front of Super Power Records was that he didn’t get arrested because he had a permit for his piece. I don’t know if that’s real talk—I don’t have official documents—but he never got charged for that.—Micro Don
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