The first first fully computerized riddim in dancehall music known as “Sleng Teng” is featured in Meta’s new ad campaign released November 4 on YouTube. The ad made its international Television debut during the America Music Awards on Sunday night.
The ad starts in a museum then takes a journey into the “dimension of imagination” with 3D animals dancing in the jungle to a mix dubbed version of the ‘Sleng Teng Riddim’ ending with the words “This is going to be fun”.
The version of the Sleng Teng Riddim use in the ad is “Way In My Brain (Remix)” off SL2 3rd E.P with XL Recordings which was released in December 1992 with added Drumbeats, Aftershock and S.L.ECTRO. I
The DJ Slipmatt & Lime produced track reached No.26 on the Official UK Singles Chart in 1992. Recorded at New Age Studio in Whetstone, North London.
The original King Jammy and Wayne Smith riddim, is titled “Under Mi Sleng Teng” made in 1984.
Matthew Nelson A.K.A DJ Slipmatt said “I actually re-recorded the sound digitally and replaced it exactly the same as the original audio”
Facebook announced a name change to Meta late last month, after a former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen revealed herself as the whistleblower who leaked all the documents with tens of thousands of pages of damning internal company research, per Washington Post.
On the day of the announced named change reggae legend Ziggy Marley chimed in on Facebook’s branding and social problem with some advice;
“Hey @zuck get your algorithm to push the conscious s#!t”. He also tagged Zuckerberg @instagram, @Facebook and #agorithms.
The ‘Sleng Teng riddim’ is based on a pattern found on the Casio MT-40 home keyboard.
Producer King Jammys told The Guardian in a 2014 interview,
The initial stage of this rhythm was like a buck-up,” Jammy says. “They brought a small Casio keyboard to me and started to play around, but it sounded crazy. It was too fast, no rhythm section, just drum and bass going at 100 miles per hour. So I said: ‘I like the sound, but it’s not the right tempo for reggae music.’ I slowed it down to dancing mode, then we overdubbed some piano and percussion, and that was the beginning of Sleng Teng. I knew it was going to be successful because of the sound of the rhythm, but I didn’t know that it would be so much of a big hit.”
Sleng Teng is one of the most rerecorded Jamaican riddims, with over 450 versions.
The initial reggae hits on the riddim were Tenor Saw’s “Pumpkin Belly”, and Johnny Osbourne’s “Buddy Bye”.
Among the international uses of the riddim are British group SL2 sampled the bass line for their rave track “Way In My Brain” in 1991 and British musician M.I.A. references Sleng Teng in the track “Pull Up the People” on her album Arular.
“Under Mi Sleng Teng” has been used in the promotional trailer on British TV Channel 4 show This Is England ’86.
The bass line of “Caress Me Down” by notable American reggae rock group Sublime features the original Sleng Teng riddim.
Swedish electronic artist Robyn references “Sleng Teng” in the track “Dancehall Queen” on her album Body Talk.
Cypress Hill recorded a cover version of this song with them providing new verses of rap, and UB40 covered it on their 2018 album, A Real Labour of Love.
Meta is one of the few trillion dollar companies in the world with more than 2.8 billion monthly active users, including more than 195 million in the U.S. and Canada.
In a release Meta said “The Metaverse is the next evolution of social connection. It’s a collective project that will be created by people all over the world, and open to everyone. You’ll be able to socialize, learn, collaborate and play in ways that go beyond what’s possible today.”
