Bam Bam
Sister Nancy voiced the Stalag riddim in 1982 and made a dancehall record with an afterlife nobody could have predicted. Decades of samples turned “Bam Bam” into a global echo of Jamaican deejay culture.
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Sister Nancy recorded “Bam Bam” in 1982 over Winston Riley’s Stalag 17 riddim. The track came from the early dancehall world of reusable foundations, deejays and sound-system performance, but its second life became almost as important as the first. Later artists and producers sampled the recording repeatedly across hip-hop, R&B and pop, making Nancy’s voice familiar to listeners who may never have known the original riddim or session. That global sampling history is worth following back to the source: a Jamaican woman deejay riding a foundation that was already nearly a decade old.
How they stand with the others
Shared the riddimBam Bam is a voicing of the Stalag 17 riddim, not the origin of that musical foundation.
Crossed overIts later sampling history carried Sister Nancy’s performance far outside reggae and dancehall audiences.
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Last checked 1 September 2026