Wayne Smith, the digital dancehall revolutionary of reggae, dead at age 48

Wayne Smith, a Jamaican reggae vocalist influential in the shift from instrumental to digital within the genre, has passed away at the age of 48. He entered Kingston Public Hospital on Friday after experiencing stomach pains, according to his son, Tidel.

Smith would always be known for "Under Mi Sleng Teng," a track from his album Sleng Teng. The track was made as a spin off of Barrington Levy's "Under Mi Sensi." Smith and collaborator Noel Davey finished the track by adding a Casio MT-40 keyboard preset version of Eddic Cochran's "Somethin' Else." It was the first dancehall track made strictly using digital technology, and its impact was immediately obvious.

Other reggae performers, such as Tenor Saw and Johnny Osbourne, began using the same beat. The instrumental is still in use today, going by the title "the Sleng Teng riddim." Many accordingly point to Smith as the godfather of ragga reggae, a subgenre of dancehall music consisting entirely of digital instrumentals.

"Under Mi Sleng Teng" revolutionized reggae, but as with all revolutions, some people got hurt. The demand for digital production took popularity away from traditional instrumentation in the music, and many of Jamaica's session musicians were put out of work. Author David Katz argues that the movement caused the shutdown of several prominent reggae labels, including Channel One.

Smith never found success such as "Sleng Teng" again. He relocated to New York City in 1989 to work on his own label, which he named after his most famous track. He moved back to his homeland during 2012.