DANCEHALL and soca, derivatives of reggae and calypso, took off during the 1980s, appealing to a new generation of music fans in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

Both genres still maintain strong followings, something principals at Most Wanted Records are tapping into with their Inviting Riddim, a three-song EP.

Party Tonite by Najgee, Big Big by Razor B, and Yam Head by Delomar are songs on the fusion project.

“The rhythm is a nice blend of dancehall and soca; the three songs complement the rhtym we

ll,” said Dewayne Taylor, head of Most Wanted Record which is based in South Florida.

The Inviting Riddim was released on October 17 but its songs, according to Taylor, “have been floating around the Internet”. That pre-release exposure is a good sign for Most Wanted Records and Taylor, whose releases since the label launched in 2017 have targeted a dancehall audience.

He hopes to spread the company’s wings as wide as possible with the rhythm.

“I’m looking to reach all the Caribbean islands and people worldwide who are music lovers and love to dance and vibe to music, even if they are not good dancers,” he said.

Dancehall and soca have merged with great success in the past. Dancehall Soca by Byron Lee and the Dragonaires and Admiral Bailey is arguably the biggest marriage of the sounds.

That song was the theme for Lee’s Jamaica Carnival in 1993.

Six years later Trinidadian soca king Machel Montano was one of the acts on the Unda Wata dancehall rhythm alongside Buju Banton and Shaggy.

— Howard Campbell