The next edition of Jahtari’s highly collectable 7” series sees Maffi return with a big bad thing called Heidi Riddim. Built from the DNA of Sleng Teng – Heidi flips the scripts on this most classic of classics by taking it to the black keys, in a minor key style and fashion. With its thick deadly bass line at the fore, Heidi has been specifically engineered to kill tin pan sounds and discombobulate Babylonians.
First in line to ride this creation is special agent 001, Speng Bond, who comes correct to warn all those foolhardy enough to think it’s wise to ride the White Horse and ramp with cocaine. On the version, Jahtari’s chief dubologist, disrupt, investigates just how far this dangerous new strain of Sleng Teng can be mutated.
With the other 7”, also pon Heidi, it’s all about old meets new: On the A side, with Run Di Session, the 16 year-old Parisian phenomenon Junior Roy demonstrates exactly why he has been creating such a wave amongst discerning dancehall fans lately. His distinctive vocal style bears uncanny similarities to the likes of Little Kirk and Yami Bolo at their prime, circa 1987.
On the flip, the veteran thoroughbred Lord Sassafrass gallops across the riddim with the same panache that saw him rule dancehalls across Jamaica in the 1980s. Lyrically, the legendary Sassa offers a compelling case for why the Horseman style he and his crew pioneered stands head and shoulders above the overhyped slackness being peddled by many today.
