"Naughty Dread" is a hip-hop

Hip hop music

Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...

 song by Kardinal Offishall

Kardinal Offishall

Jason D. Harrow , better known by his stage name Kardinal Offishall , is a Canadian rapper and record producer. He is often credited as Canada's "hip-hop ambassador", and is best known for his distinctive reggae and dancehall-influenced style of hip-hop.-Life and career:Harrow was born in...

. Its his debut single, released in 1996 on Knee Deep Records, before being featured on the Rap Essentials Volume One

Rap Essentials Volume One

Rap Essentials Volume One is a Canadian hip hop compilation album, released in 1996 on Beat Factory Music. Its considered a landmark hip-hop album, and it was very influential....

compilation album. The song contains a sample of "Natty Dread

Natty Dread

Natty Dread is a 1974 reggae album by Bob Marley & The Wailers. An important transition in Marley's discography, Natty Dread was the first album released as Bob Marley & the Wailers and the first recorded without former bandmates Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer...

" by Bob Marley & The Wailers

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Bob Marley & The Wailers were a Jamaican reggae, ska and rocksteady band formed by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer in 1963. Additional members were Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, Cherry Smith and Aston and Carlton Barrett...

.

Background

Kardinal wrote the song during a high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 class. He recalled, "I came up with it one day when I was in class. The teacher was talking and I wasn't hearing anything. All I was feeling was, 'I have this song to write'." Kardinal recorded the song later that day.

The song blends dancehall

Dancehall

Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...

 with hip-hop, and at the time, it didn't sound like anything else. It received airplay at Canadian campus radio

Campus radio

Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...

 stations, and some in the U.S. In December 1996, Kardinal signed a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music Canada

Warner/Chappell Music

Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company, and a division of the Warner Music Group. The company traces its origins back to 1811 and the founding of Chappell & Company, a music publishing company and instrument shop on London’s Bond Street that, in 1929, began a rapid...

, after one of the company's creative managers heard the song. The song also earned him a Juno Award

Juno Award

The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...

 nomination for Best Rap Recording

Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year

The Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year has been awarded since 1991, and is awarded for the best rap album in Canada. It was awarded under the title Best Rap Recording from 1993 to 2002....

 in 1997.

12" single

A-side

1. "Naughty Dread" (Eglinton West
   Eglinton West
   Eglinton West, also known as Little Jamaica, is a neighbourhood and retail district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada situated along Eglinton Avenue West from Allen Road to Keele Street, in the former borough of York. There are a large number of Jamaican businesses along this strip. There are also...
   
    Clean Mix)
2. "Naughty Dread" (Eglinton West Mix)
3. "Naughty Dread" (Eglinton West Instrumental)

B-side

1. "On wid da Show
   On wit da Show
   "On wit da Show" is a hip-hop song by Kardinal Offishall. It was the only single from his debut album Eye & I. The song also appears on his second album, Quest for Fire: Firestarter, Vol. 1. The original version of the song was released in 1996 as a B-side of "Naughty Dread"...
   
   " (Clean Mix) (featuring Saukrates
   Saukrates
   Karl Amani Wailoo , better known by his stage name Saukrates , is a Canadian rapper, singer, and record producer of Guyanese descent. He is the co-founder of Capitol Hill Music, and lead singer of hip-hop/R&B group Big Black Lincoln...
   
   , Jaden, and Mali)
2. "On wid da Show" (Instrumental)
3. "Naughty Dread" (Remix) (featuring Marvel and Ms. Nici)

External links

• Single credits at Discogs
  Discogs
  Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...