South Rakkas Crew (DJ set) with MC Trixx @ Get Riddim launch
ALSO FEATURING BONJAY, BRANDON SEK, SYNTONICS, MORE. SUN, MAY 17. THE DRAKE ROOFTOP (DAY) AND UNDERGROUND (EVENING), 1150 QUEEN W. $5.
“One of the reasons I left Toronto was because we loved producing urban music, and, at that time, it just didn’t make sense to do it up there,” says producer Dennis ‘Dow Jones’ Shaw. “The Canadian market didn’t support its own acts.”
Through the ’90s, Shaw and his frequent collaborator and co-producer Alex ‘Alex G’ Greggs balanced day jobs with crafting dance remixes for acts on labels like Quality and Popular Records, producing Latin hip-hop and dance act Papichulo Crew, and landing whatever commercial work they could.
In 2001, Greggs went to Orlando to do a remix for Miami-bass group 95 South, stayed to do more remix work for a newly formed ’N Sync, and never came back. It took him a year to convince Shaw to make the move, but the commercial and pop remix work was plentiful. By late 2002, the production partners also started a project of their own, South Rakkas Crew, with their love of dancehall at its core.
“On a personal note, we wanted to do something that we thought was cool, and, to me, ‘urban music’ was what was played at basement parties in Toronto, Mississauga and Scarborough,” says the Jamaican-born Shaw. “We just had to create another identity to do that and gain respect.”
South Rakkas Crew have since become one of the hottest production teams in dancehall today. They understand the electronic roots of dub and dancehall, and merge that with the know-how that comes from their years of producing dance-club and pop tracks.
“We would make beats and I would travel down to Jamaica and they loved our stuff,” Shaw says, recalling South Rakkas’ early days. “You would kind of think, ‘We’re going to Jamaica; this is where they make dancehall so people are going to be this way or that way about it,’ but they love different-sounding stuff.
“Our production is very clean and they appreciated it. Right from the first record that we released, the ‘Clappas’ rhythm on [the popular dancehall label] Greensleeves, it took off. It was instantaneous.”
South Rakkas Crew are responsible for some of the most explosive electro-dancehall rhythms of the past five years, with “Red Alert,” “Bionic Ras,” and “Chinkuzi” all forming the basis of many hits. They’ve worked with loads of the biggest vocalists in reggae, including Beenie Man, Capleton, Mr. Vegas, Lady Saw and Ce’Cile, and have remixed everyone from Britney Spears, Beck and Alicia Keys to Bounty Killer, M.I.A. and T.O.K..
The clubbers also came calling. After M.I.A. introduced South Rakkas to Diplo, they exchanged tunes and he asked whether he could release some of their music. The South Rakkas Mix Up EP dropped on Mad Decent in 2007 and further bridged scenes, with positive press coming from the likes of Reggae Vibes and Pitchfork and requests for South Rakkas appearances coming in from clubs around the world. Shaw brushed up on his DJ skills and got out there, playing intimate dancehall parties and big-name clubs alike.
These days, South Rakkas Crew have many projects on their plate. They’ve just completed remixing Tricky’s entire Knowle West Boy album for a 10-track release on Domino later this year.
“We wanted to give it heavy mixes and more of an electronic sound,” Shaw reveals.
They’ve also recorded with two Australian acts — new-wave/pop band Grafton Primary and female hip-hop/dancehall duo KillaQueenz whose rhymes over South Rakkas’ infectious “Double Up” rhythm will be heard on their debut album. (Shaw tells me we’ll be hearing many more artists toasting over “Double Up” later on this year.)
Both bands will appear on the South Rakkas album due later this year, as will the Crew’s surprising remix of San Francisco indie-rockers Deerhoof’s “+81.” Shaw explains there are many reasons for stretching their sound beyond what we’ve come to expect.
“Money-wise, [making singles] doesn’t make sense because you can’t sell vinyl anymore — the DJs have pretty much switched over — so record sales are affecting the way we produce and do business,” Shaw explains.
“I used to go to Jamaica and record artists four or five times a year and now we’re trying to take a step back. Right now, we’re looking more into developing up-and-coming artists, and we’re also reaching out to artists who aren’t necessarily dancehall. We like to mix it up and work with unconventional sounds. Put us with an artist where you would just never expect it to work, and those tracks come out the best, in my opinion.”