by Howard Campbell
[HAIFA, Israel] – It may not be as visible as major markets in the United States and Europe, but dancehall music has a growing presence in Israel.
In recent years, acts like Sean Paul, Popcaan and Stylo G, have performed in the Holy Land, helping to raise the genre’s profile there.
Jordan Schultz, a leading audio engineer based in his hometown of Haifa, a port city in northern Israel. He has worked with several top Jamaican acts since 2018. According to him, “The reggae/dancehall scene in Israel is booming, it’s unbelievable.”
The 36 year-old Schultz has mastered and mixed songs and albums for top Israeli pop artists for nearly two decades. But two years ago, he made his dancehall debut by mastering Stylo G’s song, Under Construction.
Since then, Schultz has done similar duties on the Stylo G EP, Ten Years Later. As well as songs like Dumplin by Stylo G, Sean Paul and Spice; Conspiracy Theory by Serani, Bounty Killer and Agent Sasco); and Let Her Out by Konshens.
“The dancehall scene is getting a lot of attention and support from the media as well. The scene has grown so much and so fast that even some amazing artists from Jamaica are coming to perform in Israel all the time! The crowd here embraces them,” said Schultz.
That’s quite a change from 15 years ago when most of the visiting reggae acts were from the roots vein, such as Ziggy Marley and Israel Vibration. Older dancehall acts like Yellowman, Lone Ranger and Shabba Ranks have also performed in Israel.
In the last three years, Stylo G, Sean Paul and Masicka have done shows in Tel Aviv which is the hub of Israel’s dancehall movement.
As for Jordan Schultz, the collaborations with Jamaican artists continue. He has projects in the works with Stylo G, Busy Signal and Safaree.
