APOLLOJAMS! > Mixtapes > Room K: Reggae & Dancehall!

MIXTAPES > ROOM K: Reggae & Dancehall & Classic Reggae Styles!! Either scroll down and enjoy the ride, OR: *Quick Jump* to the details by clicking on a mix number, (then hit "back" on your browser to return to this list): mixK.01: DJ Kid Capri: Dancehall 1991 + 70's Reggae Classics Mix! mixK.02: DJ Andre: Smooth Reggae Mix (1990's) mixK.03: DJ Corey: 33 Dancehall Jams (1990's) A compendium of reggae from the 60's to now. Choose: Skip to the first mix here OR.... check out the Devildoll's babble (read on).
I came in late. If you count 1973 as "late". But i credit two WHITE guys for my introduction into the stone cold funk grooves that Jamaica had to offer. How did Island Records founder Chris Blackwell KNOW that the time was right to release "The Harder They Come" soundtrack, and "This Is Reggae Music" Volumes One thru Three at JUST the right second between soul and disco??? Thank you. How did my East-side Buffalo homeboy Mitch Hejna KNOW to send his Jamaica- vacationing POLISH Aunt into the slums of Kingston to Randy's Records to buy ANY white label dub plate she could get her hands on for him??? Thank you. Reggae? Schmeggae! Millie Small & "My Boy Lollipop"! Johnny Nash (a TEXAN!) & "I Can See Clearly Now"! What the hell did *I* know? Until the Record Label Owner and the Funky Polish Boy influenced the HELL out of me. Opened up the floodgates! Rock Steady. Ska. Rudeboy. Spooge. Lovers Rock. Irie Political. Dub. Skank. Toasting. Raggamuffin. Dancehall. Studio One. Leslie Kong. Lee Perry. Duke Reid. Steely & Clevie. U-Roy! Sly & Robbie. Even the neo-ska coming from England in the early 80's. All reggae sounds the same. Like saying all hiphop sounds the same. Or all house music sounds the same. Gee, you know?.....you're right! You DO belong over at cdnow. I'd join you, but i'd only be passin'...... What we are groundworking here is a very small sampling of dj's and mixes that transcend the cliches. The mixes work as APOLLO mixes, meaning this: I am actively working to build this room beyond the small selection. But what i am NOT looking for is a deluge of the samey-samey sounding blather of hyper mile-a-minute cliches of reggae. NOR hip-hoppers whose closest bonding with Jamaica is the bag of frozen meat pies they buy at Safeway cuz they're "just as cheap as Tina's Burritos". What I've got here is less than a handful of SUPERB mixes, that transcend and uplift. I'm a picky muhfuya, and i believe that "10% of something is more than 100% of nothing at all", as Double Exposure sang back in 1976. These few mixes uber-rock, and i'm going to ADD to this selection, even if i have to do the kind of stellar mixing that's here, my OWN damn self. Don't tempt me...cuz i'll pull the SHEET off of it! In fact, i'm in the process of putting together a rather wicked little 'worldbeat' mix of island styles that never get a 'mixed' treatment: combining 60's ska with dancehall with an all Bob Marley mini-mix with Two-Tone 80's ska with soca and Latin Beat. You won't be saying you're bored with mixtapes after THAT little number gets posted!

mixK.01) DJ Kid Capri: Dancehall 1991 + 70's Reggae Classics Mix! (1cd only, no cassette) A reggae dancehall maxi-mix combining Jamaica and the U.S., with Ninjaman, Frankie Paul, J.C. Lodge, Cutty Ranks, Shabba Ranks, Red Fox, Fu-Schnickens and much much more. Side Two is a Reggae Classics 70's & 80's Megamix with Third World, Pioneers, Wailers, Black Uhuru, Max Romeo, Augustos Pablos, the Heptones, Desmond Dekker, Lorna Bennett, Junior Reid, Foxy Brown (the JAMAICAN one), Barrington Levy, Nardo Ranks, El General & much more!
mixK.02) DJ Andre: Smooth Reggae Mix (1990's) (1cd only, no cassette)
mixK.03) DJ Corey: 33 Dancehall Jams (1990's) (1cd only, no cassette) Corey's got his own room OVER IN ROOM C!. It's for a damn good reason, so check it out. And over here in Room K (on the sly), he rocks 33 (!) jams on this tape, inna dancehall stylee. Notice the patois of "inna" and "stylee"! Swoon at the online pandering to make you buy a tape that hardly needs a qualification beyond THIS track listing and Corey's skills! And LOOK at all those guys named "Ranks" (did they consult each other first?)! Jams include: > Scare Dem: Need More Chronic > Bajja: Cannibus Trees (Hot 97) > Lady Saw: Stab the Meat > Turbo Belly: Friend We > Yankee B./Black Mafia: Freak It > Bounty Killer: Who Send 'M (VP) > Ghost & Roundhead: Megamix (Hot 97) > Bounty Killer: Mama Ivy's Son (VP) > Ricky General: Skettle Combo (Hot Ice) > Beenie Man: Memories (VP) > Mega Banton: Graveyard Shift (Hot Ice) > Mad Cobra: Certain Gal (VP) > N. Sutherland: One Man (VP) > Beenie Man: Girls I See/ Old Dog (VP) > Hot Gal: Alleycat (Xtra Large) > Spraggabenz: No She Wrong (VP) > Degree: When I Hold You (VP) > Frisco Kid: M. Get Wild (VP) > Captain Barky: Anti Christ Pt. 2 (VP) > Paco Gee: Hell Know (VP) > Ninja Ford: Early Out (Fat Eyes) > Louie Culture: Homework (Fat Eyes) > Lady Saw: Daddy (East Coast) > Beenie Man: Girls (East Coast) > Mad Cobra: Evertight (East Coast) > General Lee: Book We Out (East Coast) > Supercat: Ghetto Red Hot (Columbia) > Chaka Demus: Murder She Wrote (Mango) > Shabba Ranks: Ting A Ling (Columbia) > Snow: Anything for You (East/West) > Ch. Franklin: Serious Girl (Mesa) > Merciless: Mavis (Big Hard) > Shaggy: Boombastic (Virgin)