More Artist Details

Most artists yearn to be recognized and admired by the public. But in the cutthroat world of Jamaican dancehall, fame can lead to serious trouble, particularly if you happen to be a member of the thriving Miami collective Black Chiney.

"Back in early 2003 someone called me," says Supa Dups (a.k.a. Dwayne Chin Quee), Black Chiney's 29-year-old founding member. "And it said if we were to come back to Jamaica they would kill us. Naturally I took a break after that incident."

Formed in 1999, Black Chiney became known for remixing dancehall reggae tunes with elements of modern hip-hop. Its bootleg compilations proved an instant hit with fans and helped forge a new Americanized sound of dancehall, an offspring of reggae distinguished by breakneck rhythms and a rapid-fire singing technique known as toasting. But back in Jamaica the traditionalist reggae community didn't take kindly to Black Chiney's new sound collage. What's more, the Miami collective was remixing songs and selling them without permission from the record companies in question.

"In the beginning the Jamaican record industry thought our remixes were going to hurt their album sales, so we couldn't tell people who we really were," says Supa Dups. "But then things started to turn around for us. Our mixes were making artists more popular, so eventually [the artists] began looking for us, asking for a Black Chiney remix."

Black Chiney is made up of four Jamaicans of mixed Chinese and African heritage (and takes its name from the slang term for this ethnic combo). To call the group a "band," though, understates the breadth of what it does. In addition to creating remixes, the group acts as a production team and tours as a DJ collective.

In recent years the foursome has taken to participating in highly spirited DJ battles known as "soundclashes." Several years back they captured the winning spot at Fully Loaded, Jamaica's premier soundclash festival, dethroning local dancehall hero Tony Matterhorn.

On the production side, Black Chiney has become famous for incorporating the thump of Miami bass music into dancehall songs. In reggae parlance, a riddim is roughly equivalent to a beat in hip-hop: the instrumental accompaniment that provides a musical bed for the singer. If a riddim is considered hot, multiple artists will sing over the same one. These recordings are usually bundled together and released in street compilations known as "riddim mix tapes."