Ryme Minista - Kumbaya

Topic: Dance Music
Dancehall music developed in parallel with hip hop from the same Jamaican roots: the sound systems, chants over drum rhythms, and technological innovations. Around 1980, the DJs who introduced records became independent recording artists. [1]

The emergence of dancehall as a separate genre coincided with political and economic changes that followed the election of Michael Manley in 1972. His attempts to improve the economic condition of much of the population [2] occurred in an extractive economy that deteriorated when aluminum mines closed. [3] The passage of restrictive immigration laws in the United Kingdom in 1962, and more open ones in the United States in 1976, meant the poor had more communication with people living in American cities than they had had before. [4]

Dance halls became places like discotheques where individuals could deny social realities that accompanied a poor economy by assuming exaggerated male and female roles that allowed them to demonstrate wealth with style and accomplishment with dancing. [5] The two became so linked, one artist remarked:

"one could be the best DJ or the smoothest dancer, but if one wears clothing that reflects the economic realities of the majority of the partygoers, one will be ignored." [6]

The accompaniment for Ryme Minista’s 2016 recording of "Kumbaya" was entirely electronic. Both the vocal and instrumental parts stayed within the range of four tones. The synthesizer set the beat when it played a single note four times that began on the base tone, then was repeated on the fourth, third, and second notes in a descending sequence. [7]

During most of the record, when Ryme Minista was chanting, a hollow drum sounded every few measures in a X pause XxX pattern. During the instrumental finale, the machine added hand drum sounds between the strong pulses of the primary drum. They were pitched two tones higher.

The lyrics were in Jamaican Patois, a creole that developed as soon as English and Scots sugar-plantation owners needed to communicate with their Akan-speaking slaves brought from the area that is now Ghana. [8] Akan was a tonal language with three pitches. Phrases either began low or high, and often moved from high to low in what was called tone terracing. [9]

Most of the time, Ryme Minista repeated an entire phrase on the low tone, and repeated it again on the high tone. For variation, he alternated between the low and middle tones; at one point in that section, he dropped to a note lower than his usual low note. That entire section was three notes, but within the context of the entire performance, it expanded the tonal range one note.

Ryme Minista began and ended with a chant that began "um ba ya ya ay um ba ya." I could not understand the rest. Even the pronunciation of English words was influenced by the patois. I assume they were positive. Dancehall, like Gangsta Rap, had a substratum of violence. When Crime Minista wanted to be booked for an important concert,

"Mr. Walker and Mr. Laing told me they were not promoting any crime ting and that I should change my name, and they changed the crime to rhyme and it just shot, everybody love it." [10]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Ryme Minista
Vocal Group: none
Instrumental Accompaniment: synthesizer
Rhythm Accompaniment: drum machine

Credits
Jamaican Mafia Riddim © 2016

Notes on Lyrics
Language: Jamaican Patois
Pronunciation: um BA ya
Verses: his own

Basic Form: opening and closing verse

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: own
Tempo: moderate

Basic Structure: ABAC where A and B were vocal and C was instrumental

Singing Style: rhythmic chant
Instrumental Style: electronic

Notes on Performance
Video graphic: photograph of Ryme Minster’s face with his forefinger thrust forward

Notes on Performers
Fabian Sawyer grew up in a tough neighborhood of Glendevon in Jamaica’s Montego Bay. He told an interviewer:

"Yes I lost everything, three brothers and my mother to crime and violence but I was not going to let that define me. For a while I had nothing or no one to turn to, then I turned to music and it became my strength. Today I can look back and say I am proud to have made a positive from such harsh realities." [11]

He began singing to beats in high school, but initially worked as a dancer. He told another interviewer:

"When I was in school, mi dance full time and deejay like half ah the time, but mi friends dem say mi can deejay and dance good so I should try deejaying and mi just do it one day." [12]

Following the advice of promoters allowed him to continue recording and having his videos promoted on YouTube. In 2015 he performed in Miami at the Best of the Best concert that celebrated reggae, dancehall, and soca music. [13] The next year, one of the event’s organizers indicated a "number of well-known Jamaican dancehall artists" had their visas cancelled. "Ninety percent of the artists who can’t travel" had performed for Jabba. [14] He added

"‘When an artist has a hot song and a radio station can’t promote it or get a show off that artist, it holds back the music,’ he said. ‘I work on urban radio, and my show used to be a full reggae show. Now it’s half reggae and half hip-hop’." [15]

Availability
Album: Jamaican Mafia Riddim. Darshan Recordz. 2016.

YouTube: uploaded by Akam Entertainment on 7 December 2016.

End Notes
1. Wikipedia. "Dancehall."
2. Wikipedia. "History of Jamaica."
3. Wikipedia. "Jamaica."

4. Dereck W. Cooper. "Migration from Jamaica in the 1970s: Political Protest or Economic Pull?" The International Migration Review 19:728-745:1985. The Immigration and Naturalization Law of 1965, but did not go into effect until 1976. The change contributed to the influx of Jamaican immigrants in the Bronx where Rap and Hip Hop developed. See posts for 3 April 2018 for more details.

5. Norman Stolzoff suggested "through dancehall, ghetto youths attempt to deal with the endemic problems of poverty, racism, and violence, and in this sense the dancehall acts as a communication center, a relay station, a site where black lower-class culture attains its deepest expression." Wake the Town and Tell the People. Durham: Duke University Press, 2000. 1 and 7. Paraphrased by Wikipedia, Dancehall.

6. Beenie Man [Anthony Moss Davs]. Quoted by Wikipedia, Dancehall. It paraphrased It’s All About Dancing," a 2006 documentary directed by Jason Williams.

7. The opening brass section of Winston and Rupert’s version of "Come by Here" began with four descending chords, then continued by rising before falling again. See post for 19 April 2018.

8. Wikipedia. "Jamaican Patois."
9. Wikipedia. "Akan Language."

10. Ryme Minista. "Ryme Minista Scores Big with Killas and Killas." Dance Hall Reggae World website. Isaiah Laing was a promoter. Delroy Willis discussed a similar need to separate reggae and dancehall music from its milieu in the post for 29 December 2017.

11. "Hometown Sensation Ryme Minister to Rock Reggae Sumfest." Headline Jamaica website. 1 June 2014.

12. Dance Hall Reggae World.

13. S. Pajot. "Best of the Best’s 2015’s Lineup." Miami New Times website. 2 December 2014.

14. Jacqueline Charles. "Top Reggae Acts Mark Memorial Day with ‘Best of the Best’ Concert." Miami Herald website. 28 May 2016.

15. Jabba [Steven Beckford]. Quoted by Charles. He founded the annual Memorial Day concert with Joey Budafuco.