I Swear Fifth Element Productions “Marijuana” by Richie Spice on I Swear was truly a great tune. Fenders, I Swear and second extraordinary Jah Cure tune of the year (Good Morning Jah Jah) made this a killer. As all traditional reggae riddims it was a lot bigger outside the dancehall capitols like JA and NY. In France and Germany riddims like this are always huge. As I mentioned earlier, dancehall is growing.... Perhaps not in traditional strong regions like JA, UK and US, but is growing like crazy in Europe and Asia. I get e-mails almost daily, especially from Soundman users, in the old “east” Europe, like Hungary, Bulgaria, Rumania. Also, just about every old “west” European country has sound system scene. The sound system culture, and thaw clash culture in particular, has grown immensely over the last few years. I think this has a lot to do with the availability of dubplates. Just 5-6 years ago you needed to know the right people and have deep pockets. These days deep pockets is enough. Sounds that used to run their sound as a business, i.e. in the end make some profit, are being put out of business by sounds that just have a lot of money and don’t care that they essentially are paying to play. These days you can go to clashes between small sounds in just about any larger city in the world and hear a whole night of pure 300$ dub plates from dancehall elite artists. There might be (as in a clash I recently saw) 100 people in the audience and three sounds keep playing plates for a total of ten thousands of $ worth at least.... And the soundmen all looked real happy anyway... Ok, everyone is happy, but in the end it’s crazy... Sure it is pretty cool that have your fav Sizzla voicing your fav Sizzla tune mentioning your name, but the fascinations will soon fade, because in the end most of the audience don’t care, perhaps with the exception of the real core clash fans. To most of the audience it’s just a version inferior in sound and execution to that original Sizzla tune. Secondly, I think everyone involved in the end is more interested in who is the best selector then who has the most expensive dubs. So the analyse? 45 clashes, perhaps with a few odd dubs in the one 4 one seems like something that made sense both from an economical aspects and from an entertainment aspect. Good Morning Jah Jah - Jah Cure Marijuana - Richie Spice I Swear - Chuck Fenda Mama's Blessing - Anthony Cruz For You - Sizzla Woman To Man - Richie Stephens Conquer Dem - Natural Black Dem Story - Junior Kelly Tell Me - Luciano Why Cant You - Pliers What A Life - Melchezidek Your Goals - Jah Penco Tragedy - George Nooks Long Way - Iley Bless Never Had To Lie - Omar Silk Zion Gate - Ultimate Shine :-) Selecta Jan -05