For artists like Isiah Mentor, making music means getting people to dance together. Concerned at the lack of partners on the dance floor, the singer wrote and produced ‘Dance with Women Again’, which was released in January.
The song is done to Toots and The Maytals’ ‘54-46’, one of reggae’s most enduring dance tracks. ‘Dance With Women Again’ is done for the veteran artist’s Village Roots Records.
“From the late ‘90s to 2000, I noticed that people stopped dancing together. The evolution of dancehall music and the psychological evolution of this generation is on a self-destructive trajectory. The old days can definitely be revived because the world is begging for authentic dancehall and reggae music,” Isaiah Mentor reasoned. “It was my idea to redo this iconic riddim because of its demanding rhythmic power and comfortable keys.”
‘Dance With Women Again’ is different in tone and feel from some of his previous songs, including the ominous ‘Demons Among Us’, which he also produced.
Originally known as Lilly Melody, Isiah Mentor cut his teeth in Waterhouse, a community in Kingston known for producing roots acts like The Wailing Souls, Black Uhuru and Junior Reid.
He came of age as an artist during the 1980s, when ‘rub-a-dub’ reggae was fashionable, thanks to riddims like the ‘Sleng Teng’, which was created in Waterhouse. Back then, it was customary to see partners locked in on the dance floor.
