Ele brings the Jamaican bling
Reggae dancehall’s Elephant Man will trample into Japan with a ton of Jamaican bling this week, showing audiences from Tokyo to Okinawa the evolutionary link joining the brashest strains of dancehall reggae and hip-hop.
Plodding a course that leaves far more fearsome tracks than fellow Jamaican deejay Sean Paul, Elephant Man nevertheless has benefited from the polished crossover sound of his compatriot, which has done much to adjust U.S. ears to the rawer sound purveyed by Ele. This culminated in the huge hit “Pon de River, Pon de Bank” from his 2004 long-player Good 2 Go, in which Elephant Man instructed young urban audiences outside the Caribbean how to do bizarre almost comical Jamaican dancehall grinds such as the titular “Pon de River,” the “Signal the Plane” and for those who don’t actually want to escape quickly–the “Parachute.”