riddim

plural riddims

1. countableuncountableAn instrumental version of a song in Jamaican or Caribbean music, usually with a drum pattern and a prominent bassline, meant to be reused as a backing track in other productions.

   Artists from 50 Cent to the Prodigy have worked Sleng Teng into their oeuvres. To date, more than 200 versions (vocal interpretations) of the riddim (the instrumental backing track) have been released.

   2014 February 20, David Katz, “Wayne Smith's Under Mi Sleng Teng – the song that revolutionised reggae”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

   1 more example

   From very early on ‘riddims’ have been the core of reggae music, and been seen as reusable. But deejay and later dancehall has taken this tendency to what some people consider an obsessive extreme. The apotheosis, or nadir, of the recycled riddim came in 1985, the year of ‘Sleng Teng’, which gave birth to the hard, modern dancehall sound of the computerised, digitalised, drum machines.

   1998, Kevin Chang, Wayne Chen, Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music, Temple University Press, →ISBN, page 77

2. countableuncountableA subgenre of dubstep known for its heavy use of repetitive and minimalist sub-bass and triplet percussion arrangements.