12. Dwayne “DJ” Bravo, “Champion”

2016 was a big year for Caribbean sports, with the West Indies taking home the Cricket World Cup in India, and Team Jamaica cleaning up at the Rio Olympics. Given the connections between sport and music in the region, it was fitting that one of the biggest songs across the Caribbean this year came from an athlete. Trinidadian cricket star Dwayne “DJ” Bravo recorded “Champion” in 2015 on the Culu Culu riddim (the same instrumental responsible for Savage Savo’s “Culu Culu”) but it really solidified its status this year after Bravo’s Windies team won the World Twenty20 in dramatic fashion, with “Champion” as their soundtrack. The tune which name checks both Trinidadian and Jamaican sport and music icons from Chris Gayle to Bunji Garlin, was a major source of inter-regional pride from Barbados to Guyana. —Jesse Serwer