Ragga  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Raggamuffin music, usually abbreviated as ragga is a sub-genre of dancehall music or reggae, in which the instrumentation primarily consists of electronic music; sampling often serves a prominent role in raggamuffin music as well.

Wayne Smith's "Under Me Sleng Teng" was produced by King Jammy in 1985 on a Casio CZ-series synthesizer and is generally recognized as the seminal ragga song. "Sleng Teng" boosted Jammy's popularity immensely, and other producers quickly released their own versions of the riddim, accompanied by dozens of different vocalists.

Ragga is often used as a synonym for dancehall reggae, but more typically, it is used for dancehall with a deejay chatting rather than singing on top of the "riddim". The term ragga is not used in Jamaica according to some sources. In Europe and the US, it is however more popular than dancehall.