Kabaka Pyramid Jumps Into Production With First Juggling Riddim

Having established himself as an advocate and a voice for equal rights, especially for people of color, reggae singer Kabaka Pyramid has made the leap into production. The singer introduced his debut production, titled Victory Rock, and it is fittingly a juggling riddim. The first single on the project is She Nah Give It Away by D-Major.

Just last month, renowned Jamaican Dancehall producer Jordan McClure called for a renewed focus on Dancehall’s riddim juggling culture.  McClure called on other artists in the genre to return juggling to its former glory.  Both renowned producer NotNice and veteran deejay/producer Red Rat have also called for a resurgence of that aspect of the culture.

Kabaka Pyramid seems to be one of the many artists expected to rally around his call. The Never Gonna be a Slave singer’s juggling riddm, is expected to be released on March 26. Stonebwoy, Bugle, Alaine, Chris Martin, and Romain Virgo are all expected to drop vocals on the beat.

He spoke with the Jamaica Star about his motivation behind the riddim as well as how long it took him to bring the project together.

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“Production is something that I have been doing throughout my career but this is the first time I am doing a project where all the songs are tracks which I have produced on a riddim that I created,” he said.

He added that this was his first time dropping a riddim and he kept it quiet because he wanted all the focus to be on the artistes.

“This is my first riddim and I never just wah drop a riddim and nobody nuh know ’bout it. I wanted to make sure the songs get the attention they deserve. Different from the composition side and the creative side, the producer side has to do with promotion and really getting the music out there and I feel like I have a really good handle on the promotional aspect of releasing music,” he said.

He admitted that having a good reputation as an artist helped him to get his colleagues to jump on the project. He also said that when he sent out the riddim it was loved and that he was very grateful for that. Kabaka also revealed that there is a lot of behind-the-scenes complications that often make it more difficult for a producer to release juggling riddims.

“The juggling culture is very important in music. This is how up-and-coming artistes get on big riddims wid big artistes. But I feel like not enough of that is happening today,” he continued.

He added: “A lot of the producers dem can’t get the artistes to voice on jugglings fi dem because some artiste nuh wah voice pan a riddim weh a nex man deh pan and dem thing deh. I do feel like generally producers want to do more juggling.”

While he had high praises for other juggling riddims, like the Buzz rhythm that produced Sean Paul’s Gimme Di Light, he added that there were just not enough producers doing the same. This he said is necessary because “when yuh think of it, once the riddim hits, everybody has a hit.”