[via steady bloggin]

Enjoy this hour long Jamaican radio rip from 1988 with Richie B in the mix doing a top 40 countdown.

It works well on several levels. On one hand it’s just a good compilation of late 80s dancehall, pretty much as good as most others you can buy or download elsewhere. If you wanna get a little deeper and a bit more pretentious, beyond its simple entertainment value this tape rip also makes for something of an immersive experience vaguely bordering on amateur cultural anthropology. Hearing the tracks via singles or albums is great in of itself, but within this context you also get a small glimpse of the music in its original setting as it was played for its original intended audience. Granted, the insights to be gleamed here are a bit slim and the prerequisite ingestion of collie will likely make them even slimmer. But it’s still fun as shit any way you look at it.

This radio countdown was recorded to cassette and is divided into two 30 minute sections…sadly, the tape ran out before they got down to number one, but still, this is a very nice listen. Respect is concrete!

Radio Jamaica top 40 SEPT88 – PT1

Radio Jamaica top 40 SEPT88 – PT2