Ward 21

The rise of dancehall collectives like T.O.K., ARP and the Innocent Crew prompted the launch of Ward 21, a unit the press quickly branded ‘the mentally disturbed ones’. Throughout the late 90s these crews commanded the live scene yet struggled to translate that dominance inside the studio. The impasse ended once Rumblood, Mean Dog, Suku and Kunley aligned with King Jammy. Their first outing, ‘Haters’, rode the crew’s own ‘Bada Bada’ rhythm; its insistent hook—“Ah Ah - Enough of dem a freak - dem know dem wan come class me when a part a dem a leak ? a 21 a speak”—announced an inventive approach and climbed specialist charts around the globe.

Ward 21 also thrived behind the boards, placing Zebra’s ‘Selassie Warning’ and Beenie Man’s ‘Mi Nuh Walla’ on the identical rhythm and guiding it to further Jamaican Top 20 entries for Sean Paul’s ‘Faded’, Mr. Vegas’ ‘Di Position’ and Bushman’s ‘Send Dem Come’. Use of ‘Bada Bada’ sparked a brief feud with the Shocking Vibes Crew, who had also cut versions on the track. Once that conflict cooled, the members proved themselves skilled engineers and producers, with King Jammy serving as executive producer. The group’s internal chemistry surfaced immediately on the debut and sustained a run of successes that included ‘A Fassy Dem’, ‘Volume’, ‘Da Joint Rhythm’, ‘Judgement Day’ and ‘Model And Pose’. Controversy arrived with the explicit ‘Vagina’, yet the hits continued. Entering the new millennium they issued ‘Y2K Stylee’ and the eccentric ‘Shake It’, whose odd flavor oddly recalled Toni Basil’s ‘Mickey’.