What is Bashment Soca?

According to Jesse Serwer’s The Essential Guide to Soca, Bashment Soca is a dynamic blend of Soca and Dancehall. It merges the energetic, piano-driven riddims of late ’80s and ’90s Dancehall with the pulsating rhythms of Soca, capturing the vibrant soundscape favored by Barbados’ youth. Characterized by its upbeat tempo (100-160 bpm) and often featuring instructional yet assertive chanting lyrics, Bashment Soca reflects a re-emergence of Bajan Dub from the 1990s, which was re-branded and introduced into the Crop Over Festival as a competitive genre.

A significant milestone in Bashment Soca’s history is the mid-1990s song “Hard Wine” by Lil Rick, a Crop Over giant and Bajan cultural icon. This track gained prominence due to its raw production and Lil Rick’s chanting and singing in Bajan dialect. “Hard Wine” played a pivotal role in shaping the genre, giving rise to a sub-genre known as Bashment Soca. This form of Bashment Soca, characterized by its raw production and use of Bajan dialect, remained popular for another decade and became an integral part of the Crop Over soundtrack in the early 2000s. By 2016, Bashment Soca had gained formal recognition in Barbados, solidifying its role in the island’s musical landscape and its appeal among the younger generation.