Baha Men
Home: NASSAU, BAHAMAS
Now Jamming: “Night & Day”
Currently: Ride with Me (Available Soon)
Once upon a time, a band from the Bahamas stepped into the public light by asking a simple question that is still asked to this day. It’s crazy to think that the Grammy-winning crew’s biggest hit is now 15 years old and the group is still going strong with the upcoming release of their 12th album, Ride with Me.
When discussing the band’s story with Dyson Knight, a member of the group, he said their main struggle was to be seen as something other than their biggest hit. “There’s a history behind the band and there’s a future ahead of it and we love the song.” Knight added, “We don’t mind it, but we don’t want to be fully, I guess, to be drowned by the song.” With that said, he couldn’t deny that he’s proud of the song’s string of success over the past decade. Because of that song, they were the first band from the Caribbean to win a Grammy for Best Dance Recording and they’re still making money off the song through licensing from commercials and movies. “We know the song is huge. It’s an amazing song,” Knight stated, “but we want our fans to enjoy from the different aspects of the band.”
This doesn’t stop them from bringing the house down when they play it live, though. In fact, they add a special twist. According to Knight, the man behind the rap occasionally gets lost in his own lyrics. “To catch up with what he’s doing he’ll improvise, make up new lyrics on the spot and uses the crowd like, if he saw a group of girls dancing in a circle, he would throw that imagery into the song during the rap portion, and everyone else that sees it will connect to it.” This typically works in their favor for keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats. Knight also made it clear that nothing has to be recreated perfectly to be effective. “Lyrics are very important but they’re not absolute, especially not for Leroy because they’re so quick, too. Do you know the words to a rap song? I don’t,” Knight explained. And I agree, because when he asked me to attempt the rap part I failed miserably, but Knight was glad I got the “Wooooooo!” at the end.
Knight also mentioned that their biggest hit almost never happened. The head of the group’s label, Steve Greenberg, was on vacation when he heard the original version of the song, which written and recorded by Antoine Douglas. Greenberg believed that this song would be perfect for group but had to do some major arm-twisting to get Isaiah Taylor, head of the band, to record the song. Knight says that compromises had to be made, “They made a deal and the deal went something like, ‘If you record this song for the label, you can have full creative right to do whatever it is you want to do with the rest of the album.’”
This is fairly typical (minus the arm twisting and negotiations) for the group since part of their writing process is taking song submissions from producers. Knight made the group’s selection criteria out to be fairly simple, “We’d listen to them and see if it has the type of sound and energy that we can use, mainly for our stage performance because Baha Men is mostly about stage. We are most effective and most enjoyed when we are live performers, so we try to choose songs that work well, and make it easy to interact with an audience.” Not to say that they don’t either rewrite their submissions or write their own material now and then. “We do a lot of re-writing,” Knight added, “and if we do anything original, an original piece we pretty much start in rehearsals, where we have just a jam session and we just go off on a tangent.” Overall, the group’s original content comes together naturally.
Needless to say, the group loves doing their live shows and touring. “It’s a rock surrounded by water and every time we come off this rock to perform for large masses and crowds, it’s always amazing to see how many people are fans of our music, fans of our sound,” Knight explained. “When it’s home, it’s just us. It’s just us guys. Nine fellas, and to see thousands of people rocking to what we do in our backyard, it is amazing.” Knight also mentioned that no place particularly stood out from previous experiences but that he is really excited about the possibility of going to places he’s never been, such as Australia.
In addition to seeing the reach of their music, they have a ton of pride in their work and love seeing the impact it has at home as well as abroad. “We try to keep ourselves localized and grounded, which again is why when we leave this rock, and venture into the big cities and states, we’re so amazed at how far-reaching our music has gotten.” But this doesn’t mean that the impact isn’t felt at home. When I asked what the best moment of his career is so far, he described a recent experience where he visited a primary school in his hometown. “The kids came out and they had already arranged a choreographed number for that song. It was unscripted, I didn’t expect it, but it was the most beautiful thing to me to see.” He elaborated further by adding, “That will forever be etched in their lives and it’s moments like those that are forever etched in my life and that keep me going and wanting to do more with this music. Yeah, the Grammy was great, but it’s these small connections, more personal connections.”
At the end of the day this group is all about being creative and having fun. Knight said he hasn’t done the best job of keeping up with popular music, but he’s heard other artists doing really cool things with their work. “But it’s not the same type of energy that Baha Men is going to bring to the table. Dyson described their style as, but “Geared towards clearing your mind. Forget about all the hardships and exercise more selfish time but in a positive way. That’s what we want listeners to take away from Ride with Me.”
With all this in mind, I wanted (and I’m guessing you all want as well) an answer to the question that started it all. Who really let the dogs out? Knight responded, “Maybe it’s on the new album [Ride with Me] but personally, I don’t know.”
Words and Interview by: Bailey Zeigler
