South Rakkas Crew
w/ Small Town DJs, T-Power. Apr 19 (9pm). The Starlite Room (10030-102 St). Tickets: $20, available at Soular, Foosh, Blackbyrd, Colourblind, and Ticketmaster.ca. 

Florida-based expatriate Canadian dancehall remixers South Rakkas have taken what they learned from living in Canada’s multicultural make-up and developed an eclectic, open-concept brand of electronic music that is gaining attention from artists worldwide.

“Growing up in Canada, it is just as multicultural as everybody says it is,” says Dennis “Dow Jones” Shaw. “I grew up in a school that had every kind of ethnicity and every kind of music: The house music, the rave stuff, the jungle, the hip-hop. We went through all of those phases up there. You can kinda hear it in the music that we do now, I think, and that’s natural to us. A lot people say we’re trying to do crossovers and stuff, but we’re doing what we think is dancehall.”

Up until six years ago, Shaw and fellow South Rakkas member Alex Greggs called the diverse Toronto suburb of Mississauga home. As teenagers, the two spent most of their time collecting records, dwelling in local clubs, and setting up their own sound systems for basement parties. Eventually dissatisfied with the lack of industry support for domestic artists, the two friends moved their base of operations to Orlando, Florida.

“[As a Canadian,] you live so close to this giant, you buy into everything that is U.S.-made,” Shaw says. “Canada doesn’t buy domestic product when it comes to urban music. There is a market for it: you can sell platinum records by 50 Cent and all of these other hip-hop artists but, as far as domestic artists go, to really get respected in Canada, they still have to excel in other markets. I think that things could be done a little differently as far as how the government gives money away. They should really focus on trying to break artists internationally rather than domestically.”

Since moving stateside, South Rakkas no longer rely on domestic support; instead, they’ve thrived by exporting their heavily processed mixes to audiences in the U.K. and Australia. “My goal has always been to broaden the market for dancehall artists, dancehall music—anything related to dancehall and reggae,” Shaw says. “It’s dance music. It makes people feel good... but a lot of people in these other types of markets that we tour to won’t go to the dancehall scene. So what we’re trying to do is bring it to them by fusing music and making it a little bit palatable.” 

And so far, the fusion is working. “Response has been great. I’ve been in places that you’d think would have no knowledge of reggae and dancehall music. I play these songs and people are singing the stuff.”

Besides working with dancehall stars like Elephant Man and Bounty Killer, Shaw and Greggs have also created remixes for the likes of Beck, DJ Shadow, and Lily Allen. “The more different the artist is from us, the better the remixes come out,” says Shaw, who’s especially excited about an upcoming project slated for a summer release: a remix for California art rockers Deerhoof. “[Florida producer] Diplo was freakin’ on that song. He was lovin’ it. That’s the kind of stuff that I want to be called on. Once in a while, we get a call from the representative of an artist who has nothing to do with anything that we do. For them to call us for a remix, that feels really good. You open it up for more fans. You can bring their fans into your world, and we can bring our fans into their world.”  

When Shaw talks about the new music inspiring South Rakkas to continue expanding the definition of dancehall, he starts sounding like Marshall McLuhan celebrating the global village: “I like the fusion that is going on,” he says. “I’m liking the fact that people are mixing different languages, different vibes. In Germany you’ll hear stuff from Brazil. Technology is bringing the world closer together. The world is getting smaller and people are accepting music for what it is. If it’s good, if it makes them feel good, they’re down. People want to get together.”