2 months ago
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Dancehall legend, Super Cat, got a nice surprise last week when his iconic hit song, Dolly my Baby, soared to number one on the US iTunes Reggae Music Video chart.
The iTunes chart posting late last week had the song’s resurgence happening decades after its initial release in 1993. The track, which blends reggae, R&B, and hip-hop, has seen a revival thanks to the Bad Boy Extended Mix featuring Mary J. Blige, Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs, 3rd Eye, and a cameo from The Notorious B.I.G. However, Mary J Blige doesn’t appear in the famous video which has 8.1 million views on YouTube.
Well-known music executive Maxine Stowe, who signed the ‘Don Dada’ to Columbia during her time at the record label in the 1990s, hailed the achievement.
“One of my first signings to Columbia was Super Cat where the Don Dada album release included the remixes and collaboration with the burgeoning hip hop era, from Kriss Kross to Biggie Smalls and the now embattled Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs and his Bad Boys’ stars such as Mary J Blige and Third Eye who are featured on this Dolly My Baby remix video,” Stowe stated.
Stowe opined that the resurgence of the songs showed the timeless appeal of music from that era of hip hop and reggae-dancehall.
“That this track and others from that project are now number one, two and three on the iTunes Video Chart is auspicious as I’m currently engaged with the Skengdon/VP Records reissue campaign. When I first met Super Cat he demonstrated his star potential on the classic recordings of the first album released for Skengdon ... Vineyard Party, Mud Up and Sweets For My Sweet,” Stowe said.
Super Cat also holds the number two and three positions with Ghetto Red Hot and Dem No Worry We.
The hip hop-reggae track, Dolly My Baby, was released as a single in early 1993, with the original version featured on the Don Dada (1992) album. The song was a major success for Super Cat, reaching number 64 on the R&B singles chart and number 21 on both the rap and dance charts.
“I have been experiencing the resurgence of Ini Kamoze’s Here Comes The Hotstepper and Diana King’s Shy Guy in the market and was also on the lookout for Super Cat. Overall, I have been lobbying Columbia for a retrospective of my works at the legacy department during this period there so if this isn’t the reason, then it further helps my efforts and makes this ‘Skengdon reissue/40th Anniversary Digital Dancehall’ an authentic platform for Jamaican music,” Stowe explained.
Reggae artiste Trevor Sparks wrote and produced the original version of the song and also provided a chorus as well as backing vocals and ad-libs to the song.
The remix sampled tracks like Eric Donaldson’s Cherry Oh Baby and Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man.
English (US) ·