Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Riddim Twins, Sly (right) and Robbie (right) sit with Sinead O'Connor at the launch of her album 'Throw Down Your Arms', at the Liguanea Club, Knutsford Boulevard, New Kingston, in August 2005. -Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

In the world of music, Sly and Robbie are legends. For more than 30 years the partnership of drummer, Lowell 'Sly' Dunbar, and bass guitarist, Robert 'Robbie' Shakespeare has produced some of the most innovative beats.

Well recognised for their efforts, the duo has been a frequent visitor to the Grammy awards and this year they have done it again, nabbing a nomination for Rhythm Doubles at the 49th Grammy Awards in the reggae category. Competing against them are Buju Banton, Ziggy Marley, UB40 and Matisyahu Miller.

The prolific duo won the very first Grammy in the then newly created Best Reggae Recording category as part of Black Uhuru for the ground breaking album, Anthem. They also worked on No Doubt's Grammy-winning songs Hey Baby (featuring Bounty Killer) and Underneath It All (featuring Lady Saw), and they were nominated in the category of Best R&B Instrumental Performance for Bass and Trouble from the album, Language Barrier. They nabbed four other nominations and won the Best Reggae Album in 1998 for Friends.

45th album

The Riddim Twins have played on a staggering 200,000 songs, not counting remixes, versions, and dubs. Rhythm Doubles is the duo's 45th album released to date, yet they never let the fame get to their heads. Sly says, "Most albums nominated for us we never expected; we never tried making albums for Grammys. The first time we won we were in New York. Someone told us we won, we felt good. For years we have been looking at the little gramophone thing."

Yet, according to Sly, it always feels good to be consistently remembered for their work. Robbie also comments "It's always a good feeling when we get nominated for something. The Grammys is something where they go through a portion of work and they recognise only a few from the category".

Rhythm Doubles, which was released in September 2006, features a mix of older and new artistes such as Chaka Demus and Pliers, Maxi Priest and Lady Saw thrown in with numerous new artistes. Sly Dunbar testifies that he is most happy for the new acts featured on the album, who will get a lot of exposure from the nomination. "On the album there's a lot of young artistes; we feel good for them. You have Mitch, Alaine, a girl from Miami, Conrad Crystal as a DJ and more," he said. The combination of old and new led to the very sublime combination of veteran Beres Hammond and a songstress for Love Sound.

There is also an international flavour with the very Cuban sounding beats, as well as spots from Wyclef John and Ali Campbell from UB40. Rhythm Doubles shows an easy variety, with fairly simple beats. "Musical influences is just moving around, putting reggae in different areas. There's a Cuban effect with El Cubancherio. We've been playing reggaeton before it was called reggaeton. It got the name we call it latreggae, Latin and reggae mix. Reggaeton got it from that. We're just making music for people to enjoy, take music to the people in a simple format for them to understand. I don't worry about album sales; I look at the people in the room listening to us. We kept on playing for the people. If it sells it's cool, if not it's cool," Sly said.

unperturbed

Not many can sound so unperturbed, but Sly and Robbie have proven that for them it's simply music and nothing more. As such, if they don't win it's not a loss, Robbie testifies that his other competitors are all talented individuals. Sly says "the others are great and we're supportive of them. I like Buju as a person, all the persons I check for them. I like their music. If we win, we're the same people, if you don't win we're the same. We produced two tunes on Matisyahu's album and we played on it. He got in touch with us to do two tracks. One of the singles released is called Jerusalem".

Sly and Robbie are also recognised on Buju Banton's Too Bad, also nominated for the Grammy, for their production work on the smash single, Driver. As Robbie laughingly states, "anyway you tek it our presence is there."

Being one of three Jamaican acts nominated in the category, Sly welcomes the presence of the foreign acts in local music. "Reggae is wide, they cater to different followers, they get an idea of reggae music out to the world. All it can do to reggae is develop it. Music is going to the era where it is accepted by everyone," he said. Unfortunately the duo will not be in attendance at the ceremony as they will be in the studio working with UB40.

The two also commented on the bashing of the choices of the Grammys from critics claiming their needs to be separate categories for dancehall and reggae. Sly and Robbie both explained that there was a need for Jamaicans to have their own awards instead. "Grammy award is not Jamaican. To put in a reggae category is showing respect to us; they can easily take it away. It is not about reggae or dancehall, it's Jamaican music. What we need is to create our won awards," they said,

Having worked with the best in international and local acts, Sly and Robbie intend on going nowhere, but plan on always making good music.