Bouyon is a genre of Dominican music that originated in Dominica in the late 1980s mainly with the group "WCK", with names such as Derek "Rah" Peters on vocals, Cornell Phillips keys and vocals among others, while bands such as the "Triple Kay" are very popular with "Carlyn XP" being the undisputed MCs for having won numerous contests. Dominican singers such as "Asa Banton", "Suppa" and "Gaza Girl" became popular years later. "Gwada-Bouyon" is an imitation of the original Dominican genre which began through musical collaborations between citizens of Dominica and Guadeloupe, who both speak Antillean Creole. The term Bouyon means something akin to "gumbo soup" or "coubouyon poisson" in Antillean Creole. Bouyon music is a mix of traditional and modern music, and is popular across much of the Caribbean.
The band made its debut in 1988 with an album titled One More Sway, which coincided with the Reunion Year Independence celebrations. The next album, released in 1990, titled Culture shock was a defining moment for the band. The album included tracks such as "Culture Shock" and "Dance Floor". The band toured the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean from 1995 to 1998, releasing the albums Original Hold Dem, Too Many Cooks and Marathon, which led to wider international recognition for both the band and Bouyon music.
Newer offshoots
Jump up
In 1987, Exile One recorded a Chanté mas and Lapo Kabwit song, "L'hivenage", commonly referred to as the yo. The French Antilleans referred to the beat as "jump up music" because of its carnival style sound. This jump upbeat was later modified to become bouyon or modern soca music.. In Guadeloupe and Martinique, "Jump up" refers generally to bouyon music.
Bouyon Soca
is a fusion-genre that blends bouyon and soca music.
Bouyon-muffin
A modern offshoot of bouyon is bouyon-muffin. Bouyon-muffin combines elements of Jamaican raggamuffin music, hip hop, and dancehall. The most influential figure in the development of bouyon-muffin is "Skinny Banton" who from 1995 collaborated with the WCK band, using ragga influenced vocals to chanton top of bouyon rhythms. Songs like "party" ft Joanne with Bucktown sounds' DJ Cut gave the products of bouyon muffin like "Bushtown clan", a further inspiration to incorporate more hip-hop and dancehall into the Bouyon-muffin genre to create "reketeng".
Reketeng
Reketeng is a hybrid of bouyon, hip hop, and dancehall. Like dub music, reketeng consists predominantly of instrumental remixes of existing recordings and is achieved by significantly altering the recordings, usually by removing the beat from an existing music piece and emphasizing the bouyon drum and bass parts. This stripped-down track is sometimes referred to as a 'riddim'.
Alternative bouyon
The Ncore Band produces an alternative twist to the bouyon genre they call "rhythm core" a fusion of rock, heavy metal and bouyon. They have released a single Riddum Nation.
Bouyon gwada
Due to the popularity of Triple K International, Ncore, Asa Bantan, and the new generation of bouyon bands who toured the French Antilles, a popular offshoot of bouyon from Guadeloupe is called bouyon gwada. The jump up had its heyday from the 90s with songs such as Met Veye WCK but remained labeled as background or carnival music. Over the years, thanks to inter-trade with the Dominicans and the mass participation of Guadeloupe at the World Creole Music Festival, groups like Triple kay and MFR band began to democratize and local artists were introduced, including the remix "Allo Triple kay" with Daly and "Big Ting Poppin" Daly alone. A popular offshoot within the bouyon gwada is called bouyon hardcore, a style characterized by its lewd and violent lyrics. Popular bouyon gwada musicians include Wee Low, Suppa, Doc J, Yellow Gaza, and Ph-suicide and Edday.
