Mo’ Wax — Where Are They Now: Lenky (2000)
Mo’ Wax was a record label started by James Lavelle in 1992, which closed about ten years later. Initially they released 12" singles and licensed a compilation from Japan of Japanese Hip Hop, until 1994 when they began releasing albums of their artists original work. While some of these artists such as DJ Shadow, DJ Krush, and Money Mark continued releasing music after Mo’ Wax closed, others have seemingly disappeared from the music scene. In this series I will look at each artist on Mo’ Wax and try to find out where are they now…
In 2000 Mo’ Wax created a spin-off label called Vecta. It put out four 12" singles by Beans, Divine Styler, Lenky, and Atmos. Only Divine Styler released anything further on Mo’Wax, but each artist continued releasing new music elsewhere too.
Lenky is the alias of Steven Marsden, a musician and producer who was born in Jamaica and became known for his Diwali Riddim, which has been sampled in over 20 songs.
Growing up in east Kingston, Lenky would later recall hearing the Sleng Teng riddim in 1984. The computerised beats were first heard on Under Mi Sleng Teng by Wayne Smith, and would influence many within the dancehall scene, including Lenky.
After spending the late 80s playing at tourist resorts on the north coast of Jamaica, Lenky joined Lloyd Parks and We The People, and the Bloodfire Posse as a keyboardist.
During the 1990s he hit the studio and performed on songs by Judy Mowatt, Beenie Man, and Japanese musician Sayoko, with many of these works also including Danny Browne, and Sly & Robbie.
In 1997 Lenky appeared on several releases from Sly & Robbie’s Taxi Gang project, and would later highlight the production duo as mentors for him, as he explained:
I have learned a lot from them and a lot about them. They are both big fans of rocksteady. Sly loves Studio One and Robbie, Treasure Isle — both of which were cornerstones in the production of the music from that era. While on tour with them, they would always school me on the drum patterns and bass rhythms unique to that time. Sly would always say, ‘listen to Jackie Mittoo from Studio One’ and Robbie would say, ‘listen to Aubrey Adams from Treasure Isle.’
In 1998 Lenky created Diwali Riddim, named after the Hindu festival of light and inspired by the music heard at Punjabi folk dances. Although he offered it to several vocalists at the time, no one wanted the song and he put it away for a few years.
The following year Lenky released the 7" Z2010 Instrumental in Jamaica, before it appeared as a 12" on Mo’ Wax in England as Z2010.
Released on 16 October 2000, Z2010 was of the Mo’ Wax Vecta series, and it would appear again on Mo’ Wax as part of the Now Thing compilation, released 24 September 2001.
The Now Thing compilation featured several songs from Lenky, including the previously released Now Thing song, alongside music by Richard Browne, Slam Productions, and Steely & Clevie, among others.
Pitchfork enjoyed the compilation, giving it 8.9/10, and were fans of Lenky’s Z2010. Now Thing was one of The Wire’s records of the year in 2001, and was highlighted by The New York Times in their Best of the Obscure Among 2001’s Albums roundup. While Resident Advisor would later refer to it as an album that “provided — and still does — a crucial gateway for house and techno fans to discover Jamaican music, particularly dancehall.”
At the start of 2002 Mo’ Wax announced a second volume of Now Thing was in the pipeline, but the label shut down soon after and the project was left abandoned.
While Now Thing had its fans, Lenky was about to blow up thanks to another of his songs, the Diwali Riddim. In 2003 he told Muzik he began reappraising his older music after the Now Thing riddim’s success, which had appeared on a b-side in 1998.
“When I started going through my tapes, I heard [Diwali] again and started voicing it,” he told Muzik. Initially Lenky worked with less well known artists like Assassin, and Zumjay, before Wayne Wonder heard it in June 2001 and recorded his own take. Beenie Man, Elephant Man, Buju Banton, and Danny English all recorded their own versions too.
These were then released on the Diwali compilation album on Lenky’s Greensleeves Records in May 2002. It sold 40,000 copies in four months, and The New York Times wrote about the “extraordinary rhythm album named after a beat”, which led others within the industry to seek out Lenky and his riddim. By 2003, both Wayne Wonder and Sean Paul’s versions had soared up the Billboard charts and Lenky was as surprised as anyone by the success, as he told the Jamaican Observer in 2017:
No, not even in my wildest dreams. I never thought it would’ve been as big as it became…My life was changed of course financially, but it created opportunities through the exposure on Billboard and has allowed me to make music for a much wider audience, with fans of my sound across the world. I am very grateful
Since then Lenky has continued working on new music, releasing his own and contributing to others’, including his son’s Q Marsden, and more projects with Sly & Robbie.
In 2019 Lenky teamed with Sly & Robbie for the collaborative instrumental album Project 1966, and more recently contributed to their 2021 album Red Hills Rd.
Also in 2021 the second volume of Mo’ Wax’s Now Thing finally saw release, and featured Lenky on one song. While we’ll never know what the original plan was for 2002’s Now Thing 2, the new compilation made number five on Quietus Reissues etc. Of The Year 2021, DJ Mag’s top compilations of 2021, and was reviewed favourably by Resident Advisor.
Lenky continues to run his record label Diwali Records from Kingston, Jamaica.
