Leftside and Kunley relishing roles in ‘dream team’

Accomplished producers Leftside and Kunley (of Ward 21) - dancehall's latest super-production duo - believe that the newly combined music collective BadCompany-DSR is a "dream team".

"Dream team, magic team, miracle team ... . Me and Leftside main focus is just fi create music. We just a make music. Every day, we make music," Kunley told THE WEEKEND STAR recently.

In addition to the production pair, Elephant Man, Ce'Cile, Skatta Burrell, Bulby York, Ikel Marvlus, Shelly Belly, Joe Bogdanovich, and others form BadCoMpany-DSR.

Find It, the first release from the collective, has enjoyed a hype campaign thus far. Earlier this week, fans spotted Elephant Man dancing through New Kingston to the new song.

Leftside described his approach to this new, all-encompassing, ongoing project as taking a leap of faith.

"Everything just fall in after dat. Ce'Cile a di genius weh call everybody and put this together. We don't know the result. We just a put in the work. We never know we did a guh work together either," he said.

Kunley added, "We nuh really have nuh set ting weh we say we a guh do yet." But certainly, the 'dream team' does know the approach it is going to take.

"What we always try to do in our creations is keep the core sound of dancehall. We nuh wah lose the sound outta di culture. So wah we do, we make the new ting dem, but we keep some of the original sounds, patterns, and styles so that the music can remain Jamaican, it can remain dancehall," Kunley said.

"We've always done that, but sometimes it doesn't get highlighted. Now, it's more powerful. We have to take charge with fi wi tings. It's ours," Ce'Cile said.

With some social media users commenting that Find It sounds like something that would be popping in the dance in 2004, Ce'Cile acknowledged that the throwback sound was deliberate.

"Two thousand and four and beyond that was when dancehall had that level where it reach international - it go all over the world. So that is what we a bring back right now, with a touch of newness," Leftside continued.

With nostalgia at the fore, what about contemporary iterations of dancehall music?

"We love everything that's happening with every other artiste. There are people out there we admire. We nah try subtract anything. We just want to put back what is necessary," Ce'Cile said.

"And make our ting the way we love it. If we nah try fi make our work transcend Jamaica, then we nah've nuh ambition," Kunley concluded.