Before Sean Paul became the international mainstream's poster boy for dancehall music, those of you who grew up during the early to mid-90s may remember there was a dancehall king named Supercat that tore up the hip hop scene. He was loved by hardcore hip hop fans for his lightning-quick delivery, roughneck-rudeboy style, bombastic bass-heavy tunes, and by women for his boyish, gentleman-like looks. The deejay ("MC" in dancehall music) was a forerunner in a fleet of artists, including as Shabba Ranks, Inner Circle, Chaka Demus, Patra, and Mad Cobra, who were integral to dancehall and reggae music's explosion into the mainstream during the decade. Arguably, the careers of a then-upstart named Biggie Smalls and former-Uptown exec Sean "Puffy" Combs benefited tremendously and took off from Supercat's success in the hip hop and dancehall scene in the early 90s. In 1993, Combs had just started Bad Boy Records and was featured with then-upstart Biggie Smalls on the song "Dolly My Baby" (remix). (Side note: Diddy sounds really corny and weird with his attempted hardcore-raspy voice to match his fellow rap peers of the day)  Also, Biggie's verse also his one of his first few ever released on record.Combs used his and Biggie's verses to advertise Combs' new company. (Sidenote: the other rapper on the track is Scoob. Where's he been? Probably working with Brooklyn troubled teens and making gospel songs at the local A.M.E. church. Nuff respect Scoob!)   

If you are too young to remember Supercat from his heyday in the early 90s, then you may remember him from his collaboration with Sugar Ray in their 1995 smash hit "Fly." Ever since the success of that single, where has Supercat been? The last time I spotted the 90s "Don Dada" of dancehall was in a 112 video for a song in which they tried to ride the coattails of Sean Paul's success. They featured Supercat for their aimlessly attempted dancehall-style song in the early 00s (I can't remember the name of the song, which is a great example of how forgettable it was). If you saw the video and have music industry knowledge, you would have figured that perhaps 112 didn't have the budget money to pay for a top-selling dancehall artist to collaborate during their label contract dispute between Bad Boy and Def Jam. I guess they had to resort to the dancehall has-been for some credibility for their attempt to stay relevant in the game at the time. It's a shame that they had to get Supercat to resemble and sound like Sean Paul, and Sean Paul pretty much owes mounds of respect and artistic debt to Supercat for his own success. Yet, I digress. Just for that, for all you 00s-decade high school graduates that may have never heard of him, I'm giving Supercat the props he damn well deserves. So if you know about this man, and you're a Gen Y-er like me, then take it back to your junior high school dance days, have a ginger beer, and do the butterfly dance to Supercat's all-time banger "Ghetto Red Hot."  All o' the massive, Ahhhh rudebwooyyyyy SINNN!

Supercat:

Dolly My Baby

Ghetto Red Hot

[Editor's note: Unfortunately these youtube links are disabled so we couldn't embed them but they're classic and you should check 'em out]