Urban Vine Media

Welcome to Urban Vine and some of our daily dialogues as Jamicans who are lovers of culture and music. Today we sparked a convo about productions and great producers that have graced our radio waves and sound systems.
First of all. Let’s define what or who a producer is. “Someone who is considered the architect of the I.P.” As you know I.P. is really just an idea. It’s about taking that idea and turning it into a reality.
Some producers are within music are very versatile and they also specialize. This is the part that had the conversation all over the place. There are music producers who are trained musicians. Where note by note, bar by bar everything has to be 100% correct. Then there are producers who are ear trained and have this fire burning within that allows them to put sounds together and get the right people in the room to curate that sonic that is needed to get the idea out of his/her head. Producers are not engineers and engineers are not producers, even though the talent can often intertwine.

Now let’s do the names. There are names in Jamaican entertainment circuit that is associated with great productions. One easy one that is in the grammy chat every few years is Lee Scratch Perry. With albums like Bob Marley & the Wailers Exodus we can see why hes always in the great convo. There is the King Jammy label that spawned so many styles and hits. (1st digital Dancehall instrumental, Ward 21, Shabba Ranks, Bounty Killa, Wayne Marshall). There’s Tubbys and his style (maybe a better engineer than producer, the GodFather who opened the door for most independent producers). Donovan Germaine famous producer from Penthouse Records (Buju Banton, Tony Rebel, Garrett Silk). Mikey Bennett and the Grafton team has long line of hits and students. Super brothers Toney Kelly (in the guiness book of records, one of the most decorated producers numbers wise) and his brother Dave Kelly (Bounty Killa, Baby Cham, Bug Riddim, infamous songwriter). Now if we jump a decade forward and Timeliness. We looking at Demarco, Stephen DiGenius, Anju Blaxx, Teetimus, Teflon, Wynter James and so many more.
Point is this these are nice debates and  dialogue when you’re aware you come from a rich culture of musical minds. From Byron Lee days till now the landscape of Jamaican life and all has always been reflected by the producers & productions that make us move.

So cudos and Blessings to all the producers who have kept the sound scape of Jamaica going.