Dancehall drum patterns.

1. 1980s

   1. 1981
      

      Wa-Do-Dem

      Eek-A-Mouse

      Early sing-jay hit on slow, sparse drums and heavy bass; the stripped-back sound that followed roots reggae
   2. 1982
      

      Landmark

      Bam Bam

      Sister Nancy

      Voiced on Ansell Collins' Stalag 17 riddim; one of the most sampled Jamaican records and a riddim-culture cornerstone
   3. 1983
      

      Zungguzungguguzungguzeng

      Yellowman

      Yellowman's signature deejay hit; its riddim and hook became a much-borrowed reference in hip hop
   4. 1984
      

      Here I Come

      Barrington Levy

      Jah Screw production; the punchy pre-digital dancehall groove just before computer riddims took over
   5. 1985
      

      Landmark

      Under Mi Sleng Teng

      Wayne Smith

      Built from a Casio MT-40 preset with King Jammy; one of the first all-digital riddims, it moved dancehall to programmed drums
   6. 1985
      

      Ring the Alarm

      Tenor Saw

      Sound-system anthem on the Stalag riddim; shows how one rhythm track carried many dancehall hits

2. 1990s

   1. 1990
      

      Landmark

      Dem Bow

      Shabba Ranks

      Bobby Digital production on Steely & Clevie's Poco Man Jam riddim; the boom-ch-boom-chick loop that named dembow
   2. 1992
      

      Ghetto Red Hot

      Super Cat

      Hard early-90s ragga from Don Dada, an early major-label dancehall album; heavy digital drums under rapid deejaying
   3. 1992
      

      Landmark

      Murder She Wrote

      Chaka Demus & Pliers

      Sly Dunbar on drums for a re-cut of the Bam Bam rhythm; Sly & Robbie's digitized dancehall, re-used for decades
   4. 1992
      

      Flex

      Mad Cobra

      Columbia Records single that reached No. 13 on the Hot 100; ragga crossing onto US radio
   5. 1994
      

      Here Comes the Hotstepper

      Ini Kamoze

      Salaam Remi's remix laid a Taana Gardner sample over a dancehall groove; a US No. 1 for ragga hip hop
   6. 1994
      

      Champion

      Buju Banton

      Mid-90s dancehall anthem on a bouncing digital riddim; also remixed for the jungle scene the same year
   7. 1997
      

      Who Am I

      Beenie Man

      Voiced on Jeremy Harding's Playground riddim; late-90s dancehall's lighter, syncopated programmed drums went international

3. 2000s

   1. 2002
      

      Landmark

      No Letting Go

      Wayne Wonder

      Biggest vocal hit on Lenky Marsden's Diwali riddim, whose handclap-led pattern crossed into US and UK pop
   2. 2003
      

      Pon de River, Pon de Bank

      Elephant Man

      Dance-craze bashment: a hit built around a named dance, typical of early-2000s dancehall energy

4. 2010s

   1. 2010
      

      Clarks

      Vybz Kartel, Popcaan & Gaza Slim

      Gaza-era hit on a minimal, bouncy riddim; it drove a Clarks shoe craze in Jamaica
   2. 2013
      

      Everything Nice

      Popcaan

      Dubbel Dutch production for Mixpak; airy, melodic 2010s dancehall with clean, spacious drums
   3. 2016
      

      Work

      Rihanna feat. Drake

      Cross-genre root: Boi-1da's dancehall-pop production took a Caribbean bounce into mainstream pop
   4. 2016
      

      Bruk Off Yuh Back

      Konshens

      Party-dancehall staple on a crisp programmed riddim; later remixed with Chris Brown

5. 2020s

   1. 2021
      

      Protocol

      Skeng & Tommy Lee Sparta

      Dark, trap-inflected 2020s dancehall: sparse, heavy drums under hardcore deejaying

Press play to loop each record's busiest two bars. Patterns are machine-detected from the recordings, not verified transcriptions.