Why Stylo G's Soundbwoy is set to light up the summer
Stylo G's biggest fan is Usain Bolt and his new track Soundbwoy is already a club classic – despite not yet being released. So what drives the dancehall star?
It's Friday night in a Brixton club and Rinse FM DJ collective The Heatwave are playing a record so hot right now you wonder if it might just melt the speakers. Red Stripe fizzes through the air, whistles are blown and clubbers wind up their waists. Despite the cold outside, jackets are tossed across the floor. This, it seems, is what musicologists might just refer to as the Stylo G effect … and it's reserved for the moment that his latest track, Soundbwoy, gets played.
A pulsing dancehall track that marries that genre's tropes – high energy, a huge chorus and thick patois – with the bassy echoes of dubstep and R&B's slick glossiness, it's already set to be one of this summer's anthems. Thanks to the popularity of dancehall on mainstream radio outlets such as Kiss and 1Xtra, the crowd sing along word for word ("Tell dem call the fire brigade/Because we smell some speaker burning") despite the fact that it's not out until later this month.
"When I see a crowd react to it, I know that it means people are ready for something fresh," says Stylo G, aka 27-year-old British dancehall star Jason McDermott. "I took a risk with it because it sounds like British reggae and British dancehall coming together. It has some garage and jungle in there. I'm bringing fresh fire to light up the dance."
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Stylo is part of a new generation of Jamaican-born artists gaining recognition outside their niche. When he was 12 years old his father – the artist and producer Poison Chang – was murdered, which acted as the catalyst for his family's move to England and Stylo's musical journey. From here his relationship with both Jamaican and British underground music has resulted in a thrilling crossover of influences which include elements of grime, dubstep and garage.
"I used to go to garage raves, and that's when I first heard Glamma Kid," says Stylo. "He was the only artist at the time that was getting real love doing bashment. I wanted to make sure that I can get the message that dancehall in the UK can work on a big scale."
The message is being heard. Stylo's breakout hit from 2011, Call Mi a Yardie, merged the energy of grime and the pounding rhythms of bashment, and became a staple at dancehall raves while elevating him to the status of Notting Hill carnival royalty. Since then he's worked with Wretch 32, Chipmunk and fellow dancehall star Gyptian.
His list of admirers includes Idris Elba, David Rodigan and Usher, but top of the list is a certain Jamaican athlete with a penchant for "quick times and quick beats". Stylo smiles and shakes his head as he recalls the story of Usain Bolt turning up to a club in Brick Lane from the Olympic village to introduce him.
"He had heard my music, and came down to support. Everyone was going mad! Most of the Jamaican athletes went to the same school as me – Calabar high school in Jamaica – and they were telling me that he loved my stuff. Anyway, I called him up during the Olympics and he was like: 'Nah, I can't leave the village, I can't leave the village, let me win this race first, let me get it out of the way.' Then it was the final day and the Puma people called me and told me Bolt was coming down. They said: 'He's coming because of you!'"
Stylo G: 'I got to turn the heat right up.'
Now based in south London, Stylo G first made his name playing clubs in Jamaica, including the infamous weekly night Hot Mondays in New Kingston, and the Sting festival. This year he will be at Glastonbury and Reading and Leeds festivals.
"It's a different experience everywhere, from playing in diehard clubs like Club Da Boss in South London, where guys are dancing with two bottles of champagne in their hands to performing at a carnival after party to the hipster crowd," he says. "But culturally, the main differences are that UK parties are so much shorter … ours go on for hours after you've gone to sleep, because our sound systems are usually outside. Oh, and the girls – in Jamaica the girls wear batty riders and belly tops like it's a dancehall uniform … over here they have to fling on a jacket."
Stylo considers himself to be "a Jamaican artist who makes reggae and bashment records with a different style … that's why Soundbwoy sounds like the parties we have here, not the ones in Jamaica. People think reggae and dancehall have to be in two camps but they need each other to exist. It's like house; you have deep house and funky house … just different versions. You need reggae to slow you down at the end of the night."
So where next for Stylo once Soundbwoy has slayed the summer? For starters, he's earned the rights from Bob Marley's family to sample Marley's music in future tracks.
"Soundbwoy is the development of me as an artist," says Stylo. "At some point you have to stop just spitting 16 bars and you have think about the hooks, the chorus, the power of the tune. I'm still learning but my mind is always open to trying new things. Look at Gangnam Style, look at Pharrell and Daft Punk."
He grins when contemplating the future: "I got a lotta little things to tick off this year, and the first is to turn the heat right up. We gonna smell some speakers burning."
• Soundbwoy is out on 26 May.
