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Street Sweeper
Sly and Robbie started the year in a big way with the extra heavy (but sadly
overlooked as it turned out) New Thing riddim. I was about to call it riddim
of the year already in Februari, but two other veterans was to show that
it wouldn't be undisputed.
I was at a dance in Mars or April when out of the speakers came the voice of the
most gruff voiced of gruff voiced DJs, Burro Banton. The delivevery was
wicked, but the riddim just SHOCKING! One of the heaviest riddims I have ever
heard. I was stunned!
As it turned out what I just had heard was a brand new Steelie and Clevie
riddim called Street Sweeper. And really, the term "instant classic" springs
to mind because it is so inventive, so well built, rythmatically complex but
yet at first listen so simple. Not to mention brutally heavy! I was
planning to start building riddims of my own encuraged by unelegantly
built riddims like Unda Wata, Bada Bada and Coochie, but when I heard
Street Sweeper I instantly cancelled my plans.
I think I'll leave it to others to embaress themself with trying to
compete with riddims like this.
As many of you old timers probably have noticed that the riddim is
reminiscent of the one Barrington Levy cut Here I Come on. That riddim,
(anyone who know his name BTW?) was itself inspired of the way operators
sometimes slided the volume bars up and down to accent the bass notes of
the riddims. So now you now...
(Years after writing this Nathaniel Greene was nice enough to help me out:
"If you haven't figured it out since you wrote that, "Here I Come" is on Revolution originally by D. Brown.")
Thanks Natel. Just one question, what are you other guys doing? Should it really take year to answer this simple
question? Shame on ya all!!! ;) )
Also it was great to hear the veteran Burro Banton streching out on a
new and hot riddim. He probably felt some pressure to do good there,
because he draw fe a old trusted card, his Boom Wah Dis lyric, cut several times
before. So he revisited Boom Wah Dis land as in the days of early eighties
when he was hotter than Vegas. And evidently things haven't changed much,
Sugar Minott and Gregory Isaacs are still his favourite singers.
(Ok, I stole that joke from Dub Vendors mail order letter. (If you don't get
it you never grooved to his old BoomWahDis:es 15 years ago. But don't be sad,
this probably means you are not as terribly old as some of the others of us.)
For a long time I was really upset. The reason for this was that for some
a few cuts was realeased on a album called Street Sweeper, but only half
of the tracks where
Street Sweeper cuts, and lots of the best, Burros and Capleton for
example, was missing. I was waiting for the a Street Sweeper album with
all of the version on it, but started to fear that the it would never
be a reality and the riddim would be overlooked the same way as Now
Thing was. But at last "Street Sweeper - Round Two" arrived. A great riddim
album of course, but had only all the best version been collected on it instead of
spread over 1 1/2 album this would have been a classic riddim album in the
same class as Sleng Teng Extravaganza, Heathen Chant and the Stalag albums.
And lately cuts from other producers are starting to arrive, and at the time
of writing the top of the reggae charts are totally dominated by Street
Sweeper cuts. More riddim albums to expect!
This is definately the biggest riddim since Joyride of -97. A classic riddim
is born! To qoute the intro:
"STEELIE AND CLEVIE! THE STREET SWEEPER!!"
Selecta/June -99
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