Getting to Know Genre’s: Dembow
The fast paced dance-oriented genre is an exhilarating sound on the rise
Dembow has a shared origin among two Caribbean islands. Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. Although its founding song was “Dembow” by Jamaican star, Shabba Ranks, Dominican artists from Santo Domingo ignited its growth. It had a slow start in the 1990’s and didn’t receive greater regional and later international recognition until the late 2000’s. One of the earliest Dembow hits was the 2006 track ‘Ando Loco” by Los Ando Locos. Producers Bubloy and DJ Plano also started to include additional elements to the production. Dembow has historically been criticized as being too simplistic and repetitive.
By the mid 2000’s Bubloy and Plano’s experimentation was starting to pay off. Other innovators included DJ Scuff. He would play popular club songs over the fever pitch Dembow beat. This allowed partygoers to become familiar with the genre. Furthermore, when Latin Trap (see our article) started to gain traction in the 2010’s Dembow artists like El Alfa started to incorporate 808’s and…
