Wayne ‘Sleng Teng’ Smith (5th December 1965 – 17th February 2014) was born and raised in Water House, a notoriously rough part of Kingston, Jamaica. He began singing from a young age and by the time he was 14 he was working closely with his next door neighbour Lloyd ‘Prince Jammy’ James. This link up lead to his highly conscious and beautifully carved debut album ‘Youthman Skanking’, released only in the UK on ‘Black Joy Records’ in 1982. This album laid the foundations for what was to follow. Alongside ‘Prince Jammy’ he helped to pioneer one of the most groundbreaking production techniques in reggae music, which would change the face of reggae forever. The pair introduced the world to the digital era, which is considered by many as the birth of ragga. The child that built the bridge between reggae and hip hop music, which paved the way for future generations.
The track responsible for this is called ‘Sleng Teng’ and came to life in 1984 after Wayne Smith borrowed a Casiotone MT-40 keyboard from fellow musician and friend ‘Noel Davey’. He wrote a song to the rhythm preset labeled ‘Rock’. The original preset sounded similar to Eddie Cochran’s ‘Somethin’ Else‘ and the song he wrote to it drew influence from Barrington Levy’s hit song ‘Under Mi Sensi’. Wayne Smith took this idea to Prince Jammy, who was dubious about the concept to begin with, as he felt it was too fast and lacked some of the fundamentals that a reggae track needed. After sampling the preset, slowing it down and working alongside musician ‘Tony Asher’ to give it the missing qualities of percussion and piano, they unleashed the Sleng Teng to the general public at a sound system clash with Black Scorpio in 1985. The response was massive and Wayne ‘Sleng Teng’ Smith’s name was permanently carved into the history books. This music created a wave of unstoppable energy and at least 400 versions have been recorded on the Sleng Teng riddim since.
After the success of this release both Wayne Smith & Prince Jammy went on to both release a string of hits. By 1989 Wayne Smith wanted to build his own record label and did so at the same time as relocating to America, where he established ‘Sleng Teng Records’. He collaborated with many producers and artists and toured extensively before returning to live in Jamaica in 2013.
Sadly, not long after he had resettled in Jamaica he was admitted to hospital with stomach pains and died at the age of 48 years old. Wayne ‘Sleng Teng’ Smith will always be remembered as a groundbreaking revolutionary.