Sasco celebrates the timeless Diwali rhythm

As the dancehall genre continues to grow, rhythms are produced on a consistent basis. Still, only a handful of those specially crafted sounds manage to make it to the level of classics - that transcend time and geographic boundaries. One such rhythm is the Diwali. Last Thursday, during a special live discussion hosted by seasoned artiste Agent Sasco, the Lenky Marsden masterpiece was celebrated.

For more than an hour, a discussion driven from Sasco's Instagram live platform saw members of the entertainment fraternity paying their respect to Marsden for blessing the genre with what is arguably one of the biggest rhythms in Jamaica's musical history. Bounty Killer's Sufferer, Sean Paul's Get Busy, Wayne Wonder's No Letting Go, and Sasco's Ruffest and Tuffest are a few of the hits that came from the Diwali rhythm. It saw much success locally, but also translated on to the international scene with a few of the songs landing on the coveted Billboard charts.

History lessons were taught during the live session as it was revealed that though the rhythm was released in 2002, Marsden created it back in 1998. It was also revealed that despite its massive global success, the rhythm was frowned upon in its initial stages. "See, Lenky tell yuh say when him just forward wid him riddim, people a say is a noisy riddim and man a say dis and man a say dat, and den it come do what it do and became the success that it has. It's always just powerful to understand how greatness unfolds and to understand that is not aliens doing it, is people like yuhself, so you can achieve greatness, too," Sasco said. "We can learn from our successes and have them be a feature in what we doing now and how we can move forward."

INSPIRATION

Speaking of moving forward, Sasco told THE STAR that he was inspired to revisit some of the old rhythms as part of a series because he wants young music professionals to learn and adopt some of the tactics so dancehall's legacy can continue to grow. "When a riddim can score multiple Billboard number ones and several top 100 entries, there is no argument against [its success], and I think it is important to examine the successes we've had as a genre in order to learn, and hopefully employ the lessons to create new classics," he said.

Wayne Wonder, Wayne Marshall, BBC 1Xtra's Seani B and Marsden himself were among the persons who joined in on the streaming session, each dubbing the rhythm a manifestation of musical genius.

For the next session, Sasco revealed he might take on the Stepz rhythm, which featured songs such as Tami Chynn's Hyperventilating, his own single Idiot Ting Dat, and Capleton's Or Wah.