ORBIT: AMPLIFY Playlist— Major Lazer's Walshy Fire highlights his most influential black artists

by: Rachel Narozniak Jun 9, 2020

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Whether your electronic listening experience dates back several years or several months, it’s inevitable: you’ve moved to a record that touts Walshy Fire‘s touch. Through his own solo endeavors, his efforts in Major Lazer, and collaborations alongside other artists, the Grammy Award-winning, Jamaica-born MC and DJ has infused reggae, Afrobeat, soca dancehall, and other genres with African and Caribbean influence.

His chameleonic production capabilities have not only treated dancers and listeners around the world to tastes of other cultures’ sonic accoutrements, but have also framed traditional sounds in a contemporary framework, allowing Walshy Fire’s genre-melding inventiveness to shine through. Looking for an example? There are many, and Walshy Fire: ABENG, the producer’s solo debut album, released in 2019, represents a fine starting point in its engagement of intercontinental sounds.

Over the course of Walshy’s continuously developing career, his diverse sonic sensibilities have led him to take inspiration from many different artists and musical forms. In homage to the black artists who have influenced him, past and present, Walshy Fire has partnered with Dancing Astronaut to share selects from the artists whose releases have helped light Walshy Fire’s own creative sparks and kept him grooving over the years.

Stream Walshy Fire’s new ORBIT: AMPLIFY playlist, exclusively on Dancing Astronaut.

Make no mistake—dance music is born from black culture. Without black creators, innovators, selectors, and communities, the electronic dance music we hold so dear would simply not exist. In short, dance music is deeply indebted to the global black community and we need to be doing more. Black artists and artists of color have played a profound role in shaping the sound and culture of dance music and now more than ever, it is necessary for everyone in the music community to stand up for the people that have given us so much. Dancing Astronaut pledges to make every effort to be a better ally, a stronger resource, and a more accountable member of the global dance music community. Black Lives Matter—get involved here:  

Black Lives Matter

My Block My Hood My City

National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Program

Black Visions Collective

Colin Kaepernick’s Know Your Rights Legal Defense Initiative

The Bail Project

The Next Level Boys Academy

Color of Change

Committee to Protect Journalists