Yellowman’s ‘Zunggunzungguguzungguzeng’ turns 40
Published:Monday | June 19, 2023 | 12:35 AM
Yellowman’s classic, Zunggunzungguguzungguzeng — the dancehall song with arguably the longest title — turns 40 this month.
Forty years ago, in June 1983, Greensleeves Records rode the wave of the hottest emcee in reggae and dancehall, Yellowman, to issue an enduring LP. The lyrical artiste, born Winston Foster, had broken out in 1982 with the hits, I ’m Getting Married, Duppy or Gunman, and Lost mi Love. The single Zunggunzungguguzungguzeng was an instant sensation when it hit the streets, further defining the early dancehall sound on record.
The massive and still instantly recognisable track sits firmly in both the classic reggae and classic dancehall cannons. With nearly 37 million streams on Spotify alone, it leads his catalogue in the streaming universe.
In an interview with The Gleaner five years ago, Yellowman explained the meaning of the song title.
“It can mean anything, you know. Mi can look pon somebody and say, ‘if you don’t leave me alone I will zungguzungguguzungguzeng you’. It’s just a slang that came to me when me go inna the studio and hear the riddim. I didn’t sit down and write it, me just rhyme up the words and mek the verse,” Yellowman said.
The LP, Zunggunzungguguzungguzeng, was the natural follow-up to the single for the global market. With the biggest producer of the era, Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes at the helm and the Roots Radics band holding down the instrumental duties, the 10-track album includes rub-a-dub workouts (many with collaborator Fathead) that are the essence of dancehall, referencing the familiar songbook of the early reggae and rocksteady years. The whole album is a clinic in the combination emcee tradition and a version excursion for the ages.
“I feel it is a unique song because generation come and love it up to this day. That is the biggest dancehall song in the world, so every time people hear it, it sounds new like they just hearing it for the first time. I still doing it on tour, it’s a signature song onstage for me,” Yellowman said on the 35th anniversary of Zunggunzungguguzungguzeng.
He also noted that it was the most requested song for dubplates and that it would be impossible to put a number to the dubplates that have been cut for that song.
“It’s one of the favourite dubplate songs in the dancehall ... everybody and every sound want it for dubplate all over the world,” he said.