An essential guide to the Dancehall Reggae/Hip-Hop clash that ruled New York in the early 1990s as Shinehead, Supercat, Mad Lion, Bobby Konders and many more rewrote the rules of Dancehall, Reggae and Rap. Killer heavyweight tracks, non-stop. Essential!

From Kool Herc onwards, Jamaicans who grew up in New York City have played pivotal roles in the development of the city’s musical identity. Hip-Hop, born in the Bronx, was always hot-wired to Jamaica and in the 1990s the two became inextricably joined when reggae met rap in New York City.

Dynamite NYC brings together the many artists who created this unique scene, linking together two of the world’s most important musical cultures – hip-hop and reggae.
In the early 1990s, Jamaican dancehall - including artists from this home-grown New York scene - became the subject of close scrutiny by the US major record industry who, having made vast profits from hip-hop, searched out Jamaican or Jamaican-descended artists who could potentially crossover into the vast US hip-hop market. Jamaican dancehall artists were signed to big US contracts (Yellowman, Supercat, Capleton, Shabba Ranks). And New York, previously a satellite town of Kingston for visiting Jamaican artists, but now with its own unique dancehall scene became a focal point as artists such as Shinehead, Red Foxx, Jamal-Ski, Mad Lion, and others were quickly signed up to major record companies.



100%Dynamite NYC features these and many other New York reggae/hip-hop crossover artists in this first album to feature the music from this scene.