Dancehall Culture

Ugandan dancehall artists who have achieved success include Fire Base adversary Chameleone, Uganda’s dancehall queen Bella, Bebe Cool (who rivals Elephant Man for extravagant appearance) and duo Peter Miles & Menshan.

The latter have performed all over Africa, Europe and the US, where they have played alongside Jamaican reggae/dancehall greats including Richie Spice, Shaggy, and Chaka Demus & Pliers.

Dancehall music is a genre of urban folk music which came out of Jamaica in the mid to late 1970s and is generally considered to be the direct predecessor of rap.

Dancehall music is, in its most basic form, a deejay toasting (or rapping) over a riddim. Dancehall is also known as bashment, a term which can refer to either the music itself or a large party where dancehall music is played.

We decided to go behind the dancehall culture as a form of research to help the Uganda dancehall fans. Dancehall music is by far the most popular music in Uganda today.

Reports out of Uganda indicate that there is strong opposition to this aspect of Jamaican culture being adopted by the country’s residents.

A Ugandan version of Passa Passa (dubbed Pilsner Passa Passa) started recently and had moralists up in arms against it.

Passa Passa is a weekly street dance held on Spanish Town Road in Kingston.

It’s said to be making a name for itself in Africa, but not all of it is positive.

Dancehall gets its name, predictably, from large halls or street spaces where deejays were setting up their sound systems. As the idea of toasting, rather than just playing pre-recorded songs, became popular, many of the best deejays became household names in Jamaica and eventually throughout the music world.

Some of the more popular early deejays were King Jammy, Shabba Ranks and Yellowman.

In actuality, this is more than just a “Sighting”.

Some may not realize it, but dancehall music has a tremendous following outside of Jamaica, and individual countries like Uganda have developed their own dancehall sub-cultures.

Dancehall is an international multicultural culture-its take Japan by storm- dancehall loving japanese are for real.

img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2643/4027427582_1f7e2d704b_o.jpg” width=”600″ height=”913″ alt=”African contemporary” />

Dancehall Training session is normally painful

In Uganda, the dancehall world plays an interesting role in day-to-day politics and governance.

1. 

   kelly says:

   April 19, 2010 at 9:07 pm

   Nice ladies
2. 

   Roman Jeziorski says:

   July 17, 2010 at 11:11 am

   I like this blog…great info. Will save it as a favorite. Do you have a facebook page?