Approximately a decade ago when Joseph Bogdonavich started his career as a producer of dancehall music in Kingston, he was convinced that the rhythm was the thing.
Now, Bogdonavich says that he has learnt that it's not all in the rhythm, but that talent and direction are equally important ingredients in hit-making.
"We have always had good rhythms, but the thing that is important now is that we have better talent. You gotta have good artistes, not superficial ones, because the public knows who is real and who is not. You can't fool the audience," says Bogdonavich, a white American film writer/director who so loved dancehall music that he settled in Kingston in order to master it.
Now the California Institute of Arts master's graduate is being hailed as one half of the hot dancehall production team, Black and White, the black being his able engineer/producer Andrew Prendergast, and everybody is suddenly looking up to Downsound Records as the label setting the latest trends in the dancehalls.
Downsound owns two of the "baddest" current rhythms, Invasion and Maroon and some of the hottest new acts on the local scene, including Fantan Mojah, whose Hungry is reportedly the number one selling single in the island, and the deejay/dub poet DYCR, whose Misunderstanding, a song about an ignorant countryman whose intentions to chop bush to earn a living is misinterpreted by US immigration personnel as a terrorist threat to George W Bush.
Downsound's hit factory has been churning out dancehall hits like mad since 2004 and Bogdonavich, who made his wealth producing low budget films in California, has finally seen his huge local investment and confidence in Jamaica paying off.
The hits include the aforementioned Hungry and Misunderstanding plus Capleton's Invasion, Norris Man's False Pretence, Vybz Kartel's When Last and Bashco Mix's Praise Him, all of which are on the Invasion rhythm. In addition, there are also Jah Cure's Congo Man, Sizzla's Free, Fantan Mojah's Hail The King, Luciano's Jah Is Greater, Richie Spice's Motherland Calling, Jah Mason's Teach and Perfect's Talk Black Marcus on the Maroon rhythm.
Downsound's sudden emergence has been attributed to a vision.
According to Prendergast, after they fired the last crop of useless acts, he got a vision and decided to seek new directions. He saw the late Emperor Haile Selassie telling him to record different stuff.
"He said that I needed to be more Rasta," Prendergast explained. He called Joseph and told him about the dream. They interpreted it to mean that they needed to move into message music and produce more serious songs dealing with issues like poverty and injustice.
Prendergast said that the same day he saw Fantan Mojah appearing on a show on cable and felt that he was type of artiste they needed for this new direction. Days later who would walk in the door, but Mojah in search of a new rhythm to record on.
Prendergast said that he and Bogdonavich listened intently to a number of Mojah's songs before deciding on Hungry. They helped him to perfect the lyrics. Prendergast dug into his boyhood memories and came up with the idea of a rhythm based on Beres Hammond's super hit, One Dance.
Capleton wrote a song titled Invasion, based on a raid on his home by the police, which gave the rhythm its name.
When DYCR heard it, he was moved to record his now famous Misunderstanding (sometimes called Chop Bush).
This led to a flow of top acts, all militant lyricists with strong messages, as well as lovers rock artistes, turning up at the studio to do recordings like Harry Toddler's I Am Sorry, George Nooks' Call On Jah, and Len Hammond's Put The Tab On Me. Prendergast then created his own original rhythm, Maroon, to fit Mojah's Hail The King.
"The vibes of Fantan Mojah's song caused me to vision a Maroon town where people played music with African drums like the congas and the ketteh," he explained. The result was an African-flavoured rhythm which has spawned a number of hot new singles - Jah Cure's Congo Man, Sizzla's Free, Anthony B's Bun Dem and Ultimate Shines' Don't Blame Me.
Prendergast says that he is currently working on a third rhythm, Sammy, based on a Richie Spice/DYCR duet of the same name and which also includes Elephant Man's Crash De Prom, Harry Toddler's Simmer Down and DYCR's Dilly.
"We discuss matters deeply before making decisions and one of the things we found was that we were producing records the wrong way, previously. It has to be very meticulous and you need to have an idea of the results you want and how to achieve it, because it is such a competitive industry," Bogdonavich explained.
"Right now the difference between the past and now is that we now have artistes with real talent," he added. "And it is all about the music, that's where our focus is right now."
"Music is not a wagon thing, you need to create and develop and we have been sitting down with the musicians and creating the exact rhythms that we want," Prendergast interjected.
"I am not very old, but I grew up listening to the authentic acoustic sounds of Channel One and I think that the music is returning to the days of the 'one drop'."
"And we are into music for poor people because that is the serious issue right now, the culture not the politics," Bogdonavich concluded.
