Ini Kamoze
A lean, cool voice from Sly & Robbie’s Taxi laboratory, then an unexpected worldwide No. 1 a decade later. Ini Kamoze connected roots-minded writing, dancehall economy and hip-hop-era sampling without chasing one fixed lane.
Ini Kamoze’s self-titled 1984 debut was produced by Sly & Robbie and introduced “World-A-Music,” a spare, prophetic recording whose bassline and opening phrase would keep returning through dancehall, jungle and hip-hop. His early work carried roots language over the cleaner, more digital edge of the Taxi sound. In 1994, “Here Comes the Hotstepper” reached No. 1 in the United States, built through a dense sample-and-interpolation chain that included the “na na na” chant associated with Cannibal & the Headhunters and Kamoze’s own dancehall persona. The crossover looked sudden from outside Jamaica, but it drew on a decade of riddim craft already inside his records.