Greg Doherty

Jamaica's hottest producer didn't exactly set New York on fire during his last visit. After sharing some studio time with Wayne Wonder, Donovan "Don Vendetta" Bennett found himself lost when he drove through Brooklyn during a record-setting cold snap and there wasn't a helpful pedestrian in sight. "Is it possible...

The first time I spun at a reggae house party, I brought two armfuls of records with me. One was full of roots, ska, and rocksteady, for warming things up. The other was filled with dancehall -- mostly single riddim compilations that were easy to mix -- for when the...

If there was a Dow Jones average for reggae, last year's numbers would have gone through the roof. "Boom! Boom! Boom! year" couldn't begin to describe the surge. International demand, especially for dancehall, grew exponentially. Somehow, the supply side kept up: Artists with cross-cultural star power turned out enthralling, authentically...

The line for crossing over from ragga star to rap market millionaire crawls along in a single file. But it's picking up speed. It took Sean Paul a couple of years to follow Beenie Man through the velvet ropes at the front, but within a year the security dude is...

As a onetime Bounty Killer protégé and Scare Dem Crew member (alongside Harry Toddler) from Kingston's rough Seaview Gardens district, Elephant Man likes to gruffly bark radio-unfriendly lyrics over the ruggedest ragga riddims available. When he calls himself a "bad man" every minute or so, it's tempting to believe him...