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DANCE INVADES JAMAICA
INTERVIEW WITH KAMAL BANKAY OF THI3D DIMENSION SOUND
When most people think of the island of Jamaica and it’s musical heritage they immediately conjure up thoughts of Bob Marley’s classic Roots Reggae or more urban-centric Dancehall artists from Buju Banton to Vybz Cartel. The one thing people don’t think of immediately is Dance music. Despite being ruled over by the British for a couple of hundred years, it’s direct influences, entertainment wise, have always been American. Similar to Motown’s influence over the original Reggae artists, in 2011 when you go to any Kingston or Montego Bay night club it is just as likely you will hear Lady Gaga or Nicki Minaj as you are likely to hear the new banger by Movado.
Changing things in a major way are the latest Soundsystem to run the island, Thi3d Dimension Sound (Kamal Bankay & Mario C), who have tackled live DJing, music production for major artists including Beenie Man, and a string of major corporate sponsored events throughout the island. 3D’s sets have always featured a healthy dose of Hip-Hop and Pop but Dance was never on the forefront or the in the background of Jamaican culture. Kamal explains how House music broke into Jamaica: “It started in the late 90's with an insurgence of the original kind of 90 Dance music (“What Is Love”, “I Like To Move It”, “Show Me Love”, etc) and those became party staples up till now.”
Kamal was born in the states by Jamaican parents, was raised in the Islands but later moved to Miami where the South Beach night life opened his eyes to the current Electronic Music scene. “In the early 2000's I moved to Miami and fell in love with Trance (Alice DJ, etc) then after that Tiesto's mixes and then later on Progressive and Electro House music. After this love affair with EDM I decided that i wanted to start a movement in Jamaica for people to be exposed to this, the global sound of music! This was achieved at first by playing a 30min-1hr set of dance/house/pop music in our sets for a 4-5 hr club night. This started off a bit awkwardly but then we became RECOGNIZED in Jamaica as the persons who play EDM. We found ourselves in a position where the persons who like EDM would come out to a club or party just to hear us play on a given night. Then based on the listener demand, the radio stations started playing the really big House songs.”
The growth of the scene came slowly but thanks to the weekly BNM party (Brand New Machine) at Fiction Lounge in Kingston there was a venue willing to invest in the same goals that 3D had in mind. The promotion team not only hired 3D as resident DJs, but also has consistently booked big names such as Bob Sinclar, Major Lazer, Dubstep producer 12th Planet, as well as HipsterOverkill editor d.painter. “In terms of recognition for EDM artists, David Guetta is leading the way there along with Kaskade, Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5, Chuckie, Major Lazer and of course Bob Sinclar. The songs these guys do always get a great response and we always try to do mashups and remixes to have a great set overall. EDM music has embraced remixes from Adele and Tiny Tempah and these have proved to be big cub bangers here as well.” Every major Dance DJ dreams of international acclaim, especially in Europe, and Thi3d Dimension are no different despite already having earned major success by locking down JA. “We have done a few events in 2011 in Kingston that have been House music only events, these will be the gateway for EDM to really create a following here. We have been working on a few songs and hope to put out a few this year and maybe even a full [Dance] album in 2012.” - The Big Ragu
What Happens in Vegas (mixed by Kamal Bankay Thi3D) by 3rddimensionmusic
Classic Jamaican tourism poster |
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