“The Dons of Caribbean Bass” Shamelessly Jack “54-46”
The latest Major Lazer heat rock comes courtesy of living legend Toots Hibbert, the man who popularized the term “reggae” on his 1968 song “Do The Reggay.” As such, you might think Toots would be afforded a certain amount of respect—perhaps even have his name mentioned in the song’s credits. Well, um, think again. The new release, attributed only to Major Lazer and Bad Royale (an L.A.–based crew signed to Diplo’s Mad Decent imprint whose PR reps call them “the dons of Caribbean bass”) is essentially a wicked dubplate of Toots singing his classic “54-46” over the original Leslie Kong–produced track from 1969. Then, in keeping with the time-tested Major Lazer blueprint, about 90 seconds in there’s a big, dramatic drop after which the whole song morphs into a tweaked-out EDM twerkgasm. Premiered by Ebro on Beats 1, “My Number” (whose title is borrowed from the chorus of “54-46”) went on to rack up over half a million YouTube streams in 24 hours and reportedly broke the Spotify view counter. There is no doubt that the song is a banger. Still, it’s hard not to feel some type of way that neither Bad Royale nor Major Lazer felt the need to credit Toots in some form or fashion. Audio After The Jump…
The press release accompanying the track says it features “samples from Toots & The Maytals that would have otherwise never been cleared but shine through in this mix thanks to the technology and deals industry players DUBSET bring to the table.” Which is a very nice shout-out for DUBSET, but not entirely accurate. As any minimally savvy listener can tell, this is a new vocal from Toots, who probably felt like he was singing a dubplate for some crazy white soundboys as opposed to laying down vocals for a song that would set the Internet on fire. It would sure be interesting to see the splits on this track.
Lick It Back From The Top… The Original Toots Cut
Subscribe to Boomshots TV
Follow Boomshots on Tumblr
Follow @Boomshots
