Dancehall legend Bounty Killer whose real name is Rodney Price expressed worry about the proliferation of “disposable” tracks and the poor mixing and production of a large portion of the new music being created in Jamaica.
In a recent interview with CVM Television, Bounty discussed his new Moment Bomb EP, which he co-produced with producer Dave Kelly and fellow musician Cham. Bounty added that the time has come for Dancehall to step up, especially in light of persistent rumors that the genre is “leaning on death’s door.”
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The “Look into My Eye” singer noted, “At this stage of the game, we have to move to another level. Because we are having a lot of disposable music, and people are saying the music deteriorating, and we don’t have a stance on the global stage anymore and Afrobeats take Dancehall spot… We have to make our presence felt right now. We need to step up to the plate.”
“Production-wise, our music is off-par. Music [is] not mixing properly and the production is not done properly. And is not just voicing a good song; is putting a production together. It have to properly produced, and market and promote. And we jus waan voice a bad song an give it an think seh ‘oh das how it work’,” he noted.
Producer JonFX claimed in October of last year that the rise of the internet had led to the exclusion of seasoned producers from the music-making process, which in turn had resulted in the majority of Jamaican songs being of poor quality.
“Social media gave us a lot of ego. That’s one. There was a time when artists use to be humble, wait at the studio. Now you have a guy send them a speaker with a laptop, they have a studio. That’s another issue that we have. We have to get into the humility,” he remarked.
The renowned entertainment journalist Anthony Miller and the award-winning producer were speaking about the state of Jamaican music production at the time. Miller had earlier said that “new artistes will tell you they not going back to where the producers call the shots and tell us what to do.” This prompted the award-winning producer’s remarks.
A well-structured song and potential success depend on learning and understanding the fundamentals of music, according to the producer.
In addition to encouraging young Jamaicans to use their own music methodologies and sounds, endorse their own culture, go to the studio, protege and learn from these experts like he did, JonFX attributes his own successes, including his net worth, to the techniques he learned as a child from Jamaican music producers, whom he refers to as “the masters.”
He noted, “I use these techniques to constantly get those platinum records. And I constantly get them now.”
One of Jon FX’s major Dancehall achievements was producing Sizzla Kalonji’s I’m Yours album. Jon FX has long said that the poor quality of local music productions is to blame for Jamaican music’s lackluster performance on overseas charts and in GRAMMY nomination pools. He had noted that this frequently leads to sound equalization issues and improper mixing and mastering of songs, which causes the midrange to be too loud when music is played on sound systems.
Miller said that “the sound of the music has got to be a little bit more sophisticated, better mixed, better mastered to rack up the numbers,” and the producer who serves on the Florida Chapter Board of the Recording Academy (GRAMMYS) agreed, noting as well that some artists even misunderstand streaming services like Spotify.
“I hear an artiste seh to me that you muss put out a bunch a songs to trigger the Spotify algorithm. What are you talking about? Those records from Jamaica that hit, they are being in the United States for 57 weeks. That’s more than a year. And the records have to grow,” the mega hits producer explained.
