Words by Spliffington and Jesse Serwer—
After Sting 2012, Ninjaman linked with Downsound Records and so far dancehall fans have gotten a plethora of new singles from the Don Gorgon, as well as a music video for “Dweet” with Specialist which has the streets buzzing so much they ended up making two.
Highlighting Ninja’s latest round of singles is “Ninja Mi Ninja.” Ninja is lyrically deadly as ever, over a one-off riddim produced by Skatta Burrell and mixed by Colin “Bulby” York that wouldn’t sound out of place as the “hard” tune on a Junior Gong LP (hint hint, remix people). As one comment on Youtube attests, “Ninja CAREER have more GEAR than a Trailer.” This is THE song that sees Mssr. Desmond Ballentine, he-of-so-many-superlative-titles-it’s-impossible-to-list-them-all, going into his third decade in the dancehall and firmly affixing the ‘legend’ stamp to his brand.
The brand-new video for “Dweet” (here’s a more rough earlier version) meanwhile sees Ninja matching up with young deejay Specialist in a hilarious battle of the generations set in a manicurist’s shop of all places. This is definitely a fresh concept for a dancehall video, showing us a side of Ninja you’ve never seen before—in other words, his funky feet. Watch below, then check out “Ninja Mi Ninja” and Ninja’s latest tune, “Gweh (Wi Nuh Taste N Buy),” below.
