Baby Wayne’s Mama still relevant
In late 1991, the Giggy ‘riddim’ by Wycliffe “Steely” Johnson and Cleveland “Clevie” Browne was released but it was not until several months later that the project took off, producing a massive hit in Baby Wayne’s Mama.
A song that warned youth to stay out of trouble or face imprisonment, Mama topped the RJR and JBC Radio One charts in April 1992.
Browne recalls how Baby Wayne got involved with the Giggy.
“Steely is the man who was always kinda in the streets more than I was. He told me about this artiste [Baby Wayne] who a gwaan good, but I had never heard of him before. He brought him to the studio and the rest is history,” he said in an interview with the Jamaica Observer.
The Giggy riddim and its songs were recorded at Mixing Lab studio in Kingston.
“The song Mama just connected with the riddim perfectly. Both were compatible. The storyline of the song was descriptive that you could visualise life in prison, things I wasn’t aware of, so I learnt a lot. It was like a culture exchange,” said Browne.
He was not surprised when the song took off.
“Being that we didn’t put any foolishness on the riddim, and we also went for drums to play melodic bass. How the riddim came about was I got to the studio ahead of Steely and while I was waiting, I turned on the machine and started programming a drum beat. And I started playing a bassline with a unique sound. I then started playing melodies with the sound,” said Browne. “And when Steely came in, he said, ‘what you doing Clevie?’. So, I said, ‘mi a gwaan programme a riddim till yuh come’. Steely has a way to get excited when something is really good. So, he ran around the room at Mixing Lab and said ‘wicked, wicked’! And that was the birth of the Giggy riddim.”
Some of the other songs on the Giggy include Shabba Ranks’ Ting-A-Ling, Stone by Powerman, Shot A Talk by Mad Cobra, and Matey by Penny Irie.
Mama was the breakthrough hit for St Catherine-born Baby Wayne, whose real name is Wayne Parkinson. He scored a follow-up hit in 1993 with singer Leroy Smart on Money Friend.
Baby Wayne died on October 29, 2005 from pneumonia. He was 37 years old.
