My earliest memories of rap music was mixed with my earliest memories of reggae music. They were big sounds around the way, heavy bass lines, strong messages, definitely.
Reggae is vile.
Reggae, oh man. It's the ultimate music. The positivity. The musicality. The whole cultural expressionism of it. The danceability. Just the cool factor. The melody factor. Some of it comes from a religious place. If there were a competition of who makes the best religious music, it would definitely be the Rastafarian reggae.
The Florida sound would probably be best defined as heavy bass with high energy dance records. There's a strong Caribbean heritage in Florida which features a lot of uptempo music, and the music accents the sexy, body-oriented sound.
Reggae is definitely a natural influence. Even living in Southern California, near the water, you get that reggae feel.
I used to do this one club called New York Sound Factory where I played house, hip-hop, and dancehall. I was one of the first DJs in the South to play everything.
You know, my era of DJing was the 90s. I think that was one of the best eras of music, period. From dancehall to hip hop to rock to pop to R&B to everything. I just like that era of music, so I just listen to a lot of 90s overall but definitely 90s hip hop.
I've always been faced with all kinds of criticism. People were saying, 'Oh, Shaggy is pop. He can't do dancehall,' even though I came from dancehall.
My mom used to always play hip-hop around the crib, but moreso than that, she played reggae, and I grew up on reggae music more than I grew up on hip-hop.
I rap and I sing, so then you've got a bit of hip-hop in there. I'm Jamaican, so you got a bit of dancehall. And I'm from London, so there's a bit of London things in there... And at sometimes, it's a little bit Afrobeat.
A lot of people do records, and they get hit records, but we were blessed with a lot of monsters. 'Oh Carolina' was a very monstrous record in 1993; so was 'Boombastic,' 'Angel' and 'It Wasn't Me.'
Reggae was always a passion of mine. I used to say in interviews that I would love to do a reggae album. But it consumed my life being a hip-hop artist and being Heavy D, which I'm happy and proud of.
One of my favorite reggae songs is Wayne Wonder's 'No Letting Go.' And Sizzla 'Give Me A Try.' That's one of my favorite songs as well.
Suckle was the first West Indian DJ and he had this fantastic source of music.
I was trying to sound like some of the people I was listening to, like Mala and Coki.
Grime's always been big at festivals. Grime's always had an underground crew.
Reggaeton is a global genre.
I grew up in a house full of music. Everything from reggae and afro-beat to Zook and pop.
My dad used to play reggae and Afrobeats. Every Sunday, we used to have these records, vinyls. And he would just play all of them - Super Cat, Ninja Man, Buju Banton.
Obviously I am a huge Major Lazer fan.
I listen to a lot of reggae.
'Sorry' is unlike anything Bieber has made in the past. It has been classified as 'tropical house' and 'dancehall,' but everyone seems to agree on one thing: It's a banger.
In Jamaica, the music is recorded for the sound system, not the iPod. It's about experiencing music together, with other people.
I don't know nothing about no jungle and bass.
The music that I represent and helped to create and establish was born in Jamaica.
