How X-Rated Lyrics and Digital Beats Delivered Dancehall to the Masses

The success of “Sleng Teng” had dramatic and far-reaching effects on Jamaican popular music during the mid-1980s. Previously, singers initiated most reggae songs by bringing lyrics and a melody to a producer, whose session players would construct a musical arrangement. After King Jammy and Wayne Smith’s “Under Mi Sleng Teng,” most music was constructed by technically proficient keyboard players, or non-musical technicians clever enough to build a basic computer…