The 1990’s are usually referred to as the ‘Golden Age of Dancehall’, given the success of Jamaican artists on the North American Billboard chart. Christopher “Dubb Master Chris” McDonald cut his teeth as a radio DJ in New York City during that decade, and was part of its glory.
On November 17, he celebrates his 30th year on radio at the annual Blue & Bougie Party, scheduled for Rye Golf Club in Rye, New York.
Dubb Master Chris, who hosts The Movement program on Irie Jam Radio, plans to take fans down memory lane by spinning hits from an era that helped shape his career.
“We took a lot of the culture and the vibe of the dancehall to American audiences, and that was definitely one of the highlights of my career. Being on 98.7 Kiss FM, they were still not exactly knowledgeable of reggae and dancehall music, so it was definitely a good place to be at the time to move that along,” he said.
98.7 Kiss FM and Hot 97 FM were mainstream radio stations that embraced dancehall music in the early 1990’s when acts like Super Cat and Shabba Ranks began making inroads in the lucrative hip hop market.
That scene was tailor-made for Dubb Master Chris who is from Kingston, Jamaica. He got his start in broadcasting at WNWK 105.9 FM where he found a mentor in Clinton Lindsay, one of the leading names in West Indian radio.
He moved to Kiss FM when dancehall was on the verge of taking off in the United States.
“One of the highlights at the time was seeing the dancehall elevate to a whole new level in the mid-‘90s. Major record companies were signing our dancehall entertainers, and I was a big part of that at Kiss FM,” Dubb Master Chris recalled.
His playlist at 98.7 Kiss FM included hit songs from Super Cat, Shabba, Beenie Man, Buju Banton, Bounty Killer, Terror Fabulous, Ini Kamoze and Mad Cobra.
At Irie Jam FM, Dubb Master Chris is part of a team he says is committed to not only playing music from Jamaica, but homegrown sounds by producers like (the late) Phillip Smart who produced some of Shaggy’s early songs.
Also appearing at Blue & Bougie Signature Soiree will be Kevin Crown, a DJ whose credits include hosting shows on Shade 45 (Eminem’s hip hop music station on Sirius XM radio), New York’s Power105 and Link Up Radio.
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