Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Less than ten days after being released from prison in the US, dancehall star Busy Signal has returned to Jamaica and asserted his presence with “Come Shock Out,” a real uptempo feelgood song that pays tribute to 80’s sound system deejays, and a time when it was just one turntable playing in the dance. Shouting out his peers and his elders alike, Busy channels the sound of some of dancehall’s greatest rhythm riders from the 80’s, including the late Early B, Lord Sassafrass, Burru Banton, General Trees and even Sancho, as producer Shane Brown plays bits and pieces of Dennis Brown’s “Revolution” bass line—and which Busy Signal rides like a professional disc jockey in the Jamaican sense of the word.

A song that will definitely find favor with older dancehall heads and school a lot of young fans, “Come Shock Out” will likely have many current deejays imitating Busy’s throwback style very soon. The only thing missing from “Come Shock Out” is Joe Lickshot with some verbal gunshots: “Peeoow Peeoow Peeoow!”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

That first tweet when he touched back down on Jamaican turf was nice. Last night’s press conference was sweet. But nothing beats the feeling of hearing Busy Signal’s first new release since his own release. No surprise he sounds like he’s got a lot to get off his chest. “Me just jumped out and me ready, go tell the whole world say me ready.” His fans are ready for sure. Hope the whole world is ready too.

You’ve gotta love the new Elephant Man video from Terminal 4 Media. Not just because it’s hilarious seeing Elly and Ding Dong and Keiva and the Ravers Clavers crawling in the primordial ooze like a bunch of swamp creatures. And not just because they so clean up in the second half of the video, trash and ready and bush to the bone ready to floss around the world in yet another dancehall version of Psy’s runaway hit “Gangnam Style.” And not just because it’s great to hear Elly singing a ridiculous dancehall instructional video all hoarse and off-key and not giving a frack like in the good ol’ days. It’s a little bit of all those things, actually. “How dem say Ding Dong stop dance?” Elly asks, outraged. “A lie dem ah tell!” As silly as these songs are—and make no mistake, they’re pretty silly—there’s a serious subtext behind the whole thing. “Mek we bring back the dancehall,” Elly sings on the delightfully ear-splitting hook. “Mek we show dem how it used to be.” Which means you’ve got to come with a new style. Even if it means making up your face like a reptile and crawling in the mud. And of course “Badman Style” isn’t exactly new. Psy did it first. Then Mega Banton, Singer J, and G-Loc brought it into the dancehall. But theirs was more of a bad man badman thing. And you already know Elly’s thing is a dancing thing. As in not taking oneself too seriously. As in embracing the inherent silliness of the whole thing. As in having fun again. Just like it used to be.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Tunes pon top a tunes each and every week. Listen to a top notch special courtesy of Mojo Morgan, multiple brand tunes from Sean Paul, new Mavado, new Busy Signal plus riddims like China Rave, Dog Bite, Bad Bounce, Kickdown, Good Formula, 90′s Bubble and the V-Town Sound.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Kenny Meez laced #276 with nuff new tunes, riddims and remixes. Listen to new Vybz Kartel, Mavado, Chino & Kardinal Offishall, Aidonia and toppa top new riddims like Radio Active, Dead End, Back Pocket Rag, Lawless, Back Way, 90′s and more.

Jamaica’s greatest living singer has a new album, and it is one of his strongest records in years.

We’re still letting it sink in but One Love, One Life, Beres Hammond’s 26th studio album, is sure to go down as one of the best reggae albums of 2012, and maybe even the last decade. Produced by Beres himself (with co-production from Donovan Germain, Collin “Bulby” York and Michael Fletcher), the double-disc LP shows the diversity of the singer known as the “King of Jamaican Lovers Rock,” encompassing dancehall (“Prime Time”), ska (“Can’t Waste No Time,” “Don’t You Feel Like Dancing”), gospel (“I Humble Myself”) and even dub (“The Truth Will Live On”)…