It’s no secret that we are big Dre Skull fans here at HDD HQ and this extra cut on loudspeaker riddim which features Purity Ring’s Megan James and Popcaan on vocals is just divine. We are still debating what Megan says in the opening line but her vocals are haunting and soothing at the same time. Another reason to love the tune is that it was created as part of a Dre Skull/Puma collaboration to launch their dance dictionary project and the video features some of the world’s best dancers communicating some of the lyrics through dance. How could we not love it – especially the girl in the green disco pants!
As 2012 comes into its last few days we decided to repeat last year’s near- impossible task of picking our top 20 tunes of the year. Based on the tunes we have been playing out and the tunes we have been listening to at HDD Headquarters, in no particular order, here are our top hip hop, dancehall and tropical tunes of 2012.
Picking just 20 tunes that summed up the year in music for us was extremely difficult so here are the tunes that came close but did not quite make the top 20.
The video for Beenie Man’s Hot Like Fire dropped last week and it is a visual treat! Its the second video to be released from the Loudspeaker Riddim package and like Popcaan’s The System video it was shot in Jamaica by Dayo. Check out some of our favourite video stills over on the HDD tumblr.
We are big fans of Dre Skull at HDD HQ and could barely contain our excitement when we heard that Mixpak was due to release a brand new riddim from him featuring some of our favourite artists on vocals. The riddim has hints of groovy soca mixed with that special Dre Skull sound and features dancehall artists Beenie Man, Natalie Storm, and Popcaan alongside Soca’s biggest artist Machel Montano. The riddim will be available from Mixpak on May 22nd, and you will definitely hear us playing some of the cuts at our events this summer.
