While dancehall has undergone many changes, one of the most significant is how entertainers got recognised by the public.

"A DJ had to be in the dance for you to hear his song. It was hard vocals, a dance, and men and women dance together, wid each other. The selectors played what we called version one, which was a singing version, so the DJs used to be at a dance and deejay the lyrics over the song. Now you rarely see a DJ in the dance, we used to go onstage to DJ from like 7:00 p.m. straight till morning," Admiral Bailey said.

According to Bailey, to make it big in the dancehall involved being in the dances; if an artiste weren't out in the dances his music was not going to be heard, as a selector could not play a song without the artiste being there to do the dub section. "Before your music took control, what made you big was the dancehall; you had to be in the dance. We neva buss on the record scene yet. We had to be in the studios, build a vibe and work. Nowadays DJ's dem don't come into the dancehall. Dem just go into the studio and get lucky. If you ask DJs now to go into a dance and DJ without using the lyrics from their albums, dem couldn't seh nutten," Bailey said.

Community thing

The union between sound system and DJ being live in a dance, performing for the crowd, was how most early dancehall acts got their start. Josey Wales describes entertainment as being a community thing. "I was deejaying from the '70s, but I never got recorded till 1982-83. Most persons then didn't go outside of their communities for entertainment, as you had local sounds playing. Every sound had a designated DJ; every system had a single amplifier," he said.

A DJ had to prove his or her talent every night. Burru Banton says, "DJs used to come and DJ around the sound. For instance, Beenie and Bounty don't have to show their talent every night; dem come to a stage show now and again and that's it. Me used to DJ around Kilamanjaro, all of we used to work round a sound, from like 9:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. One record now can mek you big," Burru Banton said.

It was difficult to stay on top of the game, for without music being recorded, songs could not stay on rotation among selectors or on radio and, hence, entertainers lacked longevity. Admiral Bailey says, "This is the first time you have artistes like Beenie Man and Bounty Killer being around for so long and consistent. We used to do it on rotation. There was U-Roy, Big Yute, Josey Wales for a while, me for a couple of years, Shabba and so on."

- KH