Words by Douster—
French tropical/bass/club music maestro Douster first landed on our radar with his remix of Busy Signal’s “Da Style Deh” (our favorite version of that tune) in 2010, and caught our attention again with his recent dancehall EP, Inna Style N Fashion, for Mixpak Records. He’s also recently put together a mix for us featuring some of his favorite dancehall tunes from the ’80s through today, which you can stream and download here. Keeping the link, we tapped him to select and break down his favorite French ragga/dancehall tunes….
For the Top 10, I decided to focus on the early French dancehall scene. Some of the tracks I heard on the radio as a kid. Most I discovered on CDRs when I was older, looking deeper into that early dancehall sound.
One of the most noticeable things in this early French ragamuffin style are the riddims. A lot of them sound really dated with all those preset-y orchestra hits, but I think the flow those deejays had, using the French language in a way it never had been used, is quite incredible.