Contributed photos - Stephen McGregor

Sadeke Brooks, Staff Reporter

Remaking a rhythm or duplicating it does not necessarily mean that a rhythm was not good enough but it might be a testament that the first was exceptional.

There have been some memorable dancehall rhythms over the past two decades, and recently, there have been remakes of these older rhythms on the airwaves.

One of the most popular and recent rhythms to grace the dancehall is Unfinished Business by TJ Records, which features several songs like Serani's No Games, Mavado's So Special and Assassin's Jah Guide And Protect Me.

Unfinished Business is actually a remake of producer, Dave Kelly's popular 1998 Showtime rhythm. TJ Records also did another variation of the Showtime called Show-off last year which featured Bounty Killer's Bullet Proof Skin and Beenie Man's Bullet Proof.

This is no surprise because Dave Kelly provides musical inspiration for owner and producer of TJ Records, Linton 'TJ' White.

Prolific producer

In a story published in the THE WEEKEND STAR titled 'TJ's Unfinished Business', TJ said, "From I was growing up, I've been listening to Showtime riddim, his music. Mi learn a lot from him. He's the only producer where you can listen to like five or six songs on a riddim."

TJ is not the only producer to use parts of Dave Kelly's rhythms. Popular producer Stephen McGregor made the Bees Hive rhythm off Kelly's Stink rhythm.

"I was trying to get dat same type of vibes. I didn't duplicate it. I just used most of the same type of sounds like the ones he used in the original one, like most of the stops and phrases in the rhythm," McGregor told THE STAR.

Although he has redone parts of the rhythm, he said he had no problems if another producer should remake one of his rhythms.

"Dem doing it already, and you can't feel any way 'bout it. People in the industry and people listening will know them but I don't want to identify anybody," he said.

Rum*lo** of Ward 21 said he had no problems redoing Shocking Vibes' 1994 Corduroy rhythm for his own Tear-up Jeans rhythm, which features artistes like Bugle, Serani, Konshens and Elephant Man.

all remakes

"It was the original bad man rhythm back in the days and it used to run di place wicked. Everything you hear now is from things you used to hear back in the days," he said while noting that in the next five or 10 years, other people will be remaking current rhythms.

While some producers are using elements from other people's rhythms, Producer Cordell 'Scatta' Burrell remade his popular 2001 Martial Arts rhythm and called it Self Defence, which was released earlier this year.

"Martial Arts was one of my favourites from the get go, so I thought it was only fair to remix it. I wanted to do something to remind me of how hot I was as a producer," said Scatta who has produced other rhythms like Coolie Dance, Chiney Gal, Famine, Dancehall Rock and Double Jeopardy.

He added, "I want to go out and make some more hits. I want to get as much success as I got off the Coolie Dance rhythm."