For those of you that have never heard of Bashment Soca, it is one of the most divisive forms of Soca coming out of Barbados, and thus Crop Over; people either hate it or love it, or in some cases hate themselves because they love it.
Bashment Soca, like many other types of Soca, does not have a clearly defined date of creation, because as I have argued, a genre only happens when others start imitating the prototype recording.
In this case, the prototype recording was “Hard Wine” done in 1996 by Lil’ Rick, who at the time was known primarily as a Bajan Dancehall performer and DJ*.
From this recording a number of traits become clear:
- Rick’s prominent use of Bajan dialect.
- The lack of harmony.
As this prototype was copied due to its overwhelming popularity, artists too copied the subject matter (wukking up) and added another one of their pressing issues, drinks. Here is Fraud Squad:
We can once again see the strong use of Bajan dialect and the generally “odd” harmony. Here is another classic Bashment Soca hit, “Boom Tick Tick.” It sings about dancing, wukking up, which Hard Wine did and it is also mixed very raw in comparison with other professionally produced songs.
In summary, most of these Bashment Soca songs are from the early 2000s and it is my view that it is a sub-genre that is quickly disappearing as Bashment Soca artists get more “musical” (see Gorg ). However, for better or worse, it remains one of the clear sub-genres of Soca to come out of Barbados. **
* The input of Eric Lewis and his work with MADD was also important. Lewis employed heavy use of Bajan dialect throughout his compositions see “Tribute to Grynner.”
* * See my Stabby post to come for another example of Bashment Soca in action!!!
stefanwalcott.com 
Teach! It actually helps to crystallize my own reactions to the genre. Keep it coming.
Of course, more posts on the way.
very informative!!
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