What’s a riddim, you ask? Well really it’s the Jamaican Patois pronunciation of the word “rhythm,” but in dancehall/reggae it refers to the instrumental of a song. Contrary to sampling wars in hip hop and copyright claims in po(o)p music, any given riddim, if popular, may be used in dozens of songs. Believe or not, if you listen to a Sean Paul song, the instrumental might be more famous than the song itself! And if you don’t know, now you know!

A lot of people feel the 90s brought forward a lot of timeless riddims that even 20 years later people still rock out to. On the following pages we want to revisit some of our favourites from this era.