Ghetto Palms 64: New Riddims – School Bell / G35 / Street Team Pt. II
- story Eddie "Stats" Houghton
- photo Andrew Dosunmu (F56)
What with all the raga soca, afropop, tropicalia and whatever the Payola riddim is, it has been a minute and a half since there was a straight ahead 90 bpm woomp/woomp/clack dancehall blend in this space. The last might have been the Street Team riddim in fact. Good thing a couple more artists have jumped on it since then, about the same time two new riddims in the same mode dropped.
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posted on Jul 30, 2009 in GHETTO PALMS tags Bugle, caribbean, Cham, Elephant Man, Leftside, Lisa Hype, Timberlee, TNT, Vybz Kartel
Street Bullies Riddim MP3
- story Erin Hansen
Typically we’re not down with street bullies since until age twelve some of us felt the brunt of being tagged “pip squeak” by just about everyone under the sun. Regardless, this Street Bullies riddim has a lot more feel good then mash down to it, pitting a rather sexy-time Vybz Kartel banger against a more cashflow-focused Elephant Man. AND if you need a little pop controversy in your diet, sandwiched in between is a tribute to MK’s “They Don’t Care About Us,” which pretty much got the street bully beatdown when it was released in 1996. Still, check out the awesome colorways in the original video directed by Spike Lee here.
Download: Street Bullies Riddim (via Rhona Fox)
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posted on Jul 16, 2009 in MP3 / STREAMS, MUSIC tags caribbean, Elephant Man, Michael Jackson, Street Bullies riddim, Vybz Kartel
Freeload: Elephant Man Sweep Dem! Mixtape
- story THE FADER
Though 2008 will go down most appropriately as the year of the Gully God, ‘09 seems to be shaping up nicely for another of dancehall’s deities. Linking up with G-Unit’s DJ Whoo Kid of all selectors, Elephant Man releases a tape full of high intensity ragga-robics sure to sharpen Clean Sweeps and Nuh Lingas competent. Like any good tape worth a reggaelution, there are reckless amounts of lasers firing and return to mothership teleport sound effects but also Ele’s signature chat, ever alluring as he promises to sweep away GIRLhattan. If you haven’t made it to a legitimate bashment party recently, sample the “Pop Champagne” refix included on the tape below.
Download: Elephant Man Sweep Dem! Mixtape
Video: Next Year We’ll Pass On Hunting The Montauk Monster
- story THE FADER
Over the Labor Day holiday, while most of us were doing our best to do as little actual labor as possible, the Irie Jamboree worked over Roy Wilkins Park in Queens with performances by, well, everyone, but especially entertaining, as we trawl the sea of footage from Sunday, are this onstage video of Mavado making his entrance (good crowd shots) and the clip of Elephant Man’s ridiculous Jamaican-American suit after the jump. For many more go to YouTube.
Video: Learn To Dance Like Usain Bolt With Elephant Man
- story THE FADER
If you watched the closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics yesterday, you saw the incredible dancing styles of London’s mayor Boris Johnson during the the Olympic flag handover. It was honestly nice to see someone more nervous onstage than we would have been, doing the pee pee dance and sticking his hands in the pockets of his unbuttoned suit jacket while roughly 1 billion people watched on television. So good. So promising for a truly bizarre and tacky London 2012 Games.
What you didn’t see during the closing ceremonies was the incredible dancing of Jamaican sprinter Usain “Lightning” Bolt, which he’d displayed moments after his 200-meter thrashing of the regular human beings representing the rest of the world. At first we thought he had an ingrown toenail or was having a short-circuit in his transformer legs, but he was apparently a little shuffle now known forever as the “Lightning Bolt” thanks to the Energy God. In the video above, learn the dance from Elephant Man, and below, hear the “Usain Bolt Remix” of his “Nuh Linga.” And if you’re in Zürich, Switzerland this Friday (why not?), you can watch Usain Bolt run and dance in person.
Elephant Man, “Nuh Linga (Usain Bolt Remix)”
Video/Freeload: Elephant Man, “Gully Creepa”
- story THE FADER
Elephant Man’s newest album is called Let’s Get Physical. HERE’S THE FUNNY THING: it’s nothing like this at all. Judge for yourself if that’s good or bad, but “Gully Creepa” is pretty nuts, and is, in fact, a great song to put on while riding a stationary bike or running on the beach. Or mashing your privates on another person’s hindquarters on a crowded dancefloor.
Download: Elephant Man, “Gully Creepa”
Video: Elephant Man f. Demarco, “Our World”
- story THE FADER
So this video is unsettling. We spent most of our time watching it trying to figure out what was weirding us out the most and came up with these things:
1) Elephant Man and current Gen-F’er Demarco waving their arms around like they are having a pretend conversation underwater but instead of water it is unreasonably smokey and there is a three quarters empty bottle of Hennessy.
2) The scene where Elephant Man is about to cut some dead guy’s head off and right before he does it the scene switches to a fish getting its head cut off.
3) Elephant Man squatting near a grave with a shovel.
Up Next: The “Velma” Riddim!
- story THE FADER
SHANKLE MI NANKLE!
Elephant Man’s goofy, catchphrase-driven dancehall is being edged out by culture tunes on the Jamaican charts, but this Black Chiney “Scooby Doo” remix 12″ (available here) keeps the novelty ray set to “decimate.” Yes, I realize this record – and the “Scoobay” rhythm that inspired it – have been out for months now. But this isn’t supposed to be some up-to-date dancehall blog or something; last time I checked, melding Hanna Barbera cartoon samples with frantic ragga (and a gang of bizarro instrumental drops) didn’t have a sell-by date.
