Page 17 - BOX SET BOOKLET _ Down In Jamaica _ 40 Years Of Vp Records

singular territory in Jamaican music after the passing of Dennis Brown in 1999. His 1990s
success was exceeded over the next decade with two of his all-time biggest records, the self-
produced “Rockaway,” and Donovan Germain’s production “I Feel Good.”

As Beenie Man and Bounty Killer rose to the top of the dancehall scene by the end of the
90s, the new millennium would see VP Records on the cusp of its greatest commercial
success. While Mr. Vegas kept the hits flowing from the street level to the dancehall and
beyond, Sean Paul and Wayne Wonder would find the magic formula for mainstream
‘crossover,’ thanks to VP’s distribution and marketing partnership with Atlantic Records.
This era also marked the beginning of VP’s successful Riddim Driven series of albums. These
featured dozens of artists each riding a single backing track, a staple of dancehall DJ mixing
culture.

VP’s hit recordings from the early 2000s are among the company’s greatest commercial
achievements and among the most successful recordings the genre has seen to date. Sean
Paul’s Dutty Rock was a multi-platinum success in 2002 and won the Grammy Award
for Best Reggae Album in 2004. Also via the Atlantic partnership, Wayne Wonder enjoyed
similar success with his No Holding Back album in 2003, another 2004 Grammy nominee.
These albums were linked by Steven Marsden’s enormously popular “Diwali” riddim (Sean
Paul’s “Get Busy” and Wayne Wonder’s “No Holding Back”). Elephant Man emerged in the
same period with a string of massively successful tracks, highlighted by “Pon De River, Pon
De Bank,” distributed by Atlantic.

The next phase of Jamaican dancehall, post-2000, was marked by the emergence of Vybz
Kartel and Mavado, and the Gaza versus Gully rivalry that dominated the tabloid media’s
coverage of the Jamaican music industry. Longstanding garrison-based conflicts were
reflected directly in the music and spread to loyal fans. Vybz Kartel rose to become the most
influential Jamaican artist since Bob Marley, holding an almost singular position in the
dancehall for nearly 15 years (despite receiving multiple life prison sentences for murder and
conspiracy). VP released Mavado’s full length album, Mr. Brooks, A Better Tomorrow, in 2009
with a signature hits “So Special” and “On The Rock.” Down In Jamaica: 40 Years Of VP Records

As with any period where Jamaican dancehall seemed to hold the island’s musical attention,
there has been room for a pure reggae singer to step up and reaffirm old standards. As
Garnet Silk and Luciano had done in the early to mid 1990s, Jah Cure and Richie Spice
kept the reggae fire burning with two solid contemporary reggae full length LPs, Ghetto Life
and Spice In Your Life, respectively, as Kartel started to dominate the scene. At the height of
Vybz Kartel and Mavado’s popularity, Tarrus Riley, the son of reggae veteran Jimmy Riley,
emerged as a new force, recording an enduring LP, Parables, in 2006, with the musical
supervision of veteran saxophonist and producer Dean Fraser. The record stands as one of
the genre’s finest full length works ever recorded and possibly the most complete artistic
work in the VP Records catalog.

Another singer with traditional reggae leanings, Gyptian, emerged with “Serious Times” in
2005. Four LPs would follow including Hold You, in 2010, featuring the smash hit title track,
one of the biggest in the VP catalog in the last 20 years.

During the same span of time, VP released the seminal work of singer Romain Virgo, whose
breakout single “Mi Caan Sleep” in 2008 rode the same inspired Donovan Germain-produced
riddim as Beres Hammond’s smash hit “I Feel Good.” Three full-length albums from Romain
Virgo would follow, and he remains a core VP roster artist.

Initially propelled by reggae and dancehall’s brush with the major labels in the early 1990s,
Morgan Heritage moved from MCA to VP for a successful series of six albums beginning
1997. Morgan Heritage is the most prominent self-contained group in VP’s history, as well
as one of the highest profile acts internationally. Their success in the American market
prior to and alongside new artists such as SOJA, Rebelution, and The Green, led to VP’s
establishment of the Dub Rockers imprint in 2013 and the signing of Jamaican group
Raging Fyah and the US-based Simpkin Project.

The VP Records truck with Spragga Benz, Red Rat, Beenie Man, Sean Paul, Merciless and friends at the West Indian American Day Parade, Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York City, 1999.

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