Stylistic features
The core of Rekenteng involves creating instrumental remixes by sampling and significantly altering existing international recordings. Descriptions of the style emphasise remixing existing dancehall and hip-hop tracks over Bouyon-style rhythm sections and basslines, effectively replacing the original backing while retaining vocals or other melodic elements. [5] [7] Similar to how dub music manipulates recordings, Rekenteng often strips down the source material to emphasise high-tempo drum programming and heavy bass, with the resulting backing track sometimes referred to in a Caribbean context as a riddim . [5]
The style, associated in particular with DJ Cut, marked a significant period of experimentation within the music of Dominica. Writing about Bouyon, Nago Seck describes “reketeng” (or Bouyon-dancehall) as a sampling-based style created by DJ Cut that remixes dancehall and hip-hop recordings over Bouyon instrumentals, and notes that this experimentation encouraged Dominican DJs and producers to explore broader fusions between Bouyon and external genres. [5] This wave of remix-driven production is often cited as a precursor to what is now grouped under the umbrella of “New Bouyon”. [8]
Key pioneers and examples
Within Dominica, DJs and crews such as Bushtown Clan, Klockerz Krew and Nursery Krew Inc. have been associated with early Bouyon–hip-hop and Bouyon–dancehall hybrids that are now described as Rekenteng. [9] [10] Online mixtapes and DJ sets explicitly market Bushtown Clan material as “reketeng” or “bouyon, reketeng”, indicating the close association between the crew and the style. [9] [11] In a discussion of Bouyon substyles, Dominican media producer Jael Joseph similarly notes that “music by Bushtown clan or anything mixed in with heavy hip hop/rap would be under Rekenteng”, reflecting local usage of the term for Bouyon–rap hybrids. [12]
Producers linked to the wider Bouyon scene, such as Krishna “Dada” Lawrence, are credited with forming Nursery Krew Inc., whose mid-2000s releases combined Bouyon rhythm sections with dancehall and other urban styles and “took Dominica by storm”, according to Lawrence’s own biography. [10] [13] Klockerz Krew are likewise documented as a Bouyon-connected rap collective active in the late 1990s and 2000s, collaborating with Bouyon-muffin vocalist Skinny Banton on tracks that already mixed Bouyon with hip-hop and dancehall elements. [14] [15] These collaborations, together with DJ Cut’s sampling-based Bouyon experiments, are cited by writers and practitioners as part of the lineage that led to the codification of Rekenteng as a named Bouyon subgenre. [5] [8]
The fusion-oriented approach of Rekenteng has continued to influence later Bouyon offshoots. Contemporary and Influential Dominican producer Smokiller markets his work explicitly under labels such as “Rekenteng (bouyon + rap + trap + drill + hip-hop)” and “RnBouyon (R&B + bouyon)”, framing these as modern Bouyon fusion styles that extend the sampling-heavy template pioneered in Dominica. [6] [7] [16] In his public profiles he describes himself as a “Rekenteng specialist”, further underscoring the continued use of the term for Bouyon–rap and Bouyon–R&B hybrids. [17]
This lineage of Bouyon fusion has also intersected with developments in the French Antilles and mainland France. French media outlets have highlighted singers such as Fallon and Denden as part of a new wave of Bouyon-influenced pop and R&B. Konbini, for example, describes “Fallon et son RnBouyon, Denden et ses titres insolents et sensuels, Theodora et sa BAD BOY LOVESTORY”, situating them together within a contemporary Bouyon-derived scene. [18] A long-form article on the newsletter platform WAF WAF and subsequent interviews present Fallon as the creator of the style called RnBouyon, explicitly blending R&B vocal approaches with Bouyon rhythms, [19] [20] while playlists and promotional material group Denden’s tracks alongside “new bouyon” and “rnbouyon” artists, indicating that her work is heard within the same hybrid field. [21] [22] Together, these sources illustrate how Rekenteng’s sampling-based Bouyon fusion has fed into newer hybrid labels such as RnBouyon and into the broader internationalisation of Bouyon-derived sounds.
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