Well-known entertainment consultant Maxine Stowe has teamed up with businessman Kenneth “Skeng Don” Black for the re-release of several key singles to mark what they dub the 40th anniversary of “Digital Dancehall”.

“The 40th Anniversary of Digital Dancehall is a phrase that was coined by us. Skeng Don’s catalogue is the icing on the ‘digital cake’. The historical significance of the Skeng Don era is its convergence and significance of the Digital Dancehall Era and being a leading and significant label, and a sound system platform with the synergistic launch of Stereo Mars with ace selector and producer Danny Dread,” Stowe said.

She highlighted the work of Stereo Mars sound system as being one of the first digital sound systems as well as Skeng Don’s collaboration with the SSL Studios in Miami and prior collaboration there with Inner Circle Studios and Roger Lewis as major fulcrums on which the era’s influence blossomed.

“The re-release of the catalogue amongst other stellar catalogues of the era is immediately set apart by this amplified investment in studio and equipment technology with ace engineers like Chunnie Palmer and Bunny Tom Tom from Channel One,” Stowe said.

Some of the singles which have been re-released include Junior Delgado’s Stranger on November 21, Gregory Isaacs’ Talk Don’t Bother Me which was released on November 28th and Echo Minott’s  Familiar Face which was released on December 5th.

Upcoming releases include Leroy Smart’s Musical Don on December 12th, and next year, Tamlins’ Love Divine on January 6th and Tony Tuff’s Wha We A Go Do on January 30th.

Black and Stowe are two seminal figures in the history of dancehall music and their collaboration runs the gamut from politics to music to community organisation and mobilisation from Jamaica to the diaspora.

Meanwhile, Maxine’s work in New York carried these same communities’ voices into international markets. Politics gave the framework, music carried the message.

Kenneth and Maxine rose through partisan and identity politics and do not deny the reality of those commitments. Their political base has shaped who they are and continues to ground their work. That foundation gives them the discipline, vision and responsibility to lead.

Their diaspora experiences — in New York, Miami, and London — added another layer. In the diaspora, politics and culture converge differently. They encountered how Jamaican creativity was commoditised internationally, and how communities abroad organised to protect and celebrate their heritage. This experience taught them the importance of building institutions that could hold their own in global systems.

In 1985, Black launched the Stereo Mars sound system and Skeng Don Records, bringing organisational discipline and community vision into the digital dancehall arena. Stereo Mars’ debut dance at Skateland featured Super Cat, Tenor Saw, Nicodemus, and others, while Skeng Don’s catalogue soon showcased Cocoa Tea, Gregory Isaacs and Junior Delgado.

These ventures were more than business— they were continuations of Kenneth’s teenage role as a community organiser, only now amplified by speakers, studios and vinyl pressings.

For Maxine Stowe, the move from political science to music was equally natural. After Barnard, she merged academic grounding in politics with cultural entrepreneurship. Her work with Sugar Minott’s Youth Promotion and later at Studio One reflected the same instinct for mobilisation and representation she had honed in activism. By the late 1980s, she was working with VP Records and Columbia, where she signed Super Cat, bridging the grassroots of Kingston with the international music industry. Her political training— reading structures of power, advocating for voice—was now expressed through record labels, contracts and catalogues.

“The release of the catalogue at this time is strategic as it spans our musical relationship and my focus on the dancehall genre and museum project where his seminal relationship with George Phang and his Powerhouse label and Sugar Minott’s Youthman Promotion Sound and artists converge as an anchor, artistically and as a music community linked to Jungle/Trench Town and the Maxfield Park Division,” she said.

Stowe explained the dynamic of their relationship which “is uniquely built around the collaboration with Sugar & Youthman Promotion and extended through VP & Columbia Records”, where Stowe’s first artist signing was Super Cat.

The era was defined by the rapid embrace of new technology as the music crossed over from analogue to digital powered by the use of digital synthesizer drums from Sly Dunbar and the Casio linked to the defining Sleng Teng Riddim.

“Tenor Saw and then Super Cat as an artist epitomised the collaborative and synergistic relationship with Youth Promotion, Jammys & Techniques with Skeng Don where Ring The Alarm and Sleng Teng and Super Cat with Boops are defining tracks. The roadmap of those successes are reflected in the catalogue,” Stowe said.

Outstanding productions from that era by Skeng Don include the Mud Up Riddim from Super Cat that also had Chakademus’s Young Gal Business, Little Harry Anorexal Body, Super Cat’s Sweet For My Sweet and Nicodemus’s Suzy Wong. Skeng Don’s  impressive anthology also includes hits from artistes such as Yami Bolo, Cocoa Tea, Hugh Brown, and Cutty Ranks.

Stowe is determined to reposition the Skeng Don brand in this new dancehall era.

“I would have to say the label catalogue is equally led by producing great albums by hit artists that have been streaming well and equally relaunching the Skeng Don brand as a value in the brand development era. As you know a major artist has emerged also using the name in this new trap dancehall era, so we can clearly see the continued relevance in our own creative industry,” Stowe mused.