‘What a Bam Bam’
Sister Nancy rolling into 2023 with skateboard line
Published:Sunday | December 25, 2022 | 1:44 AMStephanie Lyew - Sunday Gleaner Writer
Sister Nancy looks like she is taking up a new hobby to keep her active – skateboarding.
A trailblazing dancehall entertainer, she is certainly one of the genre’s pioneering females who capitalised on her music and has kept the lyrics of her iconic 1982 single, Bam Bam, on tongues worldwide. To mark the 40th anniversary of its release, Sister Nancy partnered with popular Caribbean lifestyle brand LargeUp to release a limited-edition skateboard deck, and while she admits she knew nothing of the action sport, the musical icon is enthusiastic that her supporters will be just as intrigued as she is.
“Back in my days in Jamaica, the only kind of skate I knew of, was a roller-skate, those with four wheels … my skate was like a bike that you could sit on. In this time, after so many years, having a Bam Bam skateboard, is just different [so] I’m trying to learn to do this. I want to do this. I have to do it,” Sister Nancy told The Sunday Gleaner.
She continued, “You know what though, my skateboard does not have wheels on as yet but I really want one with wheels right now. I have kept it in my home to showcase, I have had it about six months since DJ Gravy (Dave Susser, the co-founder of Large Up) handed it to me.”
The New Jersey-based Sister Nancy, who was born Olphin Russell in Kingston, Jamaica, worked for approximately two decades in a bank, but is now devoted full-time to music once more and finally enjoying the fruits of her contributions to music culture, after a long battle for nearly 35 years of unpaid royalties. She is regarded as the first female star in the male-dominated world of dancehall and she continues to see her popularity soar, four decades after the release of her solo album. Bam Bam has been sampled, quoted and referenced well over 100 times by international recording superstars such as Lauryn Hill, Kayne West, Lizzo and Jay-Z, among others. It has also been used in numerous film soundtracks, most recently, in the fourth and final season of the Netflix hit series Ozark.
In 2007, Bam Bam was featured in the soundtrack for the Electronic Arts (EA) Inc., in its skateboarding video game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which made it a cult favourite among skaters and gamers worldwide. This partially inspired the idea for the skateboard and it takes design inspiration from the ‘90s-era reissue of her first and only album One Two, on which the track is featured. The deck is the latest addition in LargeUp and Sister Nancy’s Bam Bam capsule collection.
She shared, “When the idea was put to my attention, it puzzled me. I initially asked, are you crazy? There is already a T-shirt, a baby onesie and a Bam Bam pin. Now, a skateboard? I can say I’m happy we went along with it because truth is, whenever I travel I find skateboarders hail me up and tell me how much they love my song. It means a lot to me. I know that there is no reggae artiste who have a skateboard out there, now or before now.”
Hence the reason why learning to skateboard is one of those things Sister Nancy has added to her bucket list for the new year. Sister Nancy said outside of merchandising, she has been celebrating the success for the past five years with performances including several major festivals in Europe such as Portugal’s Festival Iminente and she also performed for the first time on national TV in the US on BET for DJ Cassidy’s Pass The Mic ‘Dancehall Special Edition’.
“I’ve been celebrating from 2017 – since its 35th year until now – this year is special to because I also have my Bam Bam documentary slated for release in 2023 and I’ve been working tremendously on this, travelling with the producers of it,” she said, adding that, apart from having my daughter, Bam Bam is the greatest thing that came into my life … it’s like my dreams, everything that I ever hoped for.”
She described her journey through the song as phenomenal and also highlighted that her fan base has grown and is still growing, but that it is not people of her age group. “One month from now I am 61 years old and my fan base is people, whom, I could be their grandmother.”
“I don’t know what it is about me; maybe it is some of them were in tune with me while they were in the womb or it’s like their parents were instilling things about Sister Nancy and Bam Bam. I know it’s not just me, because Bob Marley gets this reaction too, and the older generation of reggae and dancehall listeners continue to pass on these treasures. I appreciate this, I appreciate them and I hope they don’t stop, because I will not stop either,” Sister Nancy continued.
Sister Nancy praised LargeUp for its innovativeness and expressed gratitude for their support. With the release of the skateboard, there are also plans in the making for a donation to be made to female skaters at the Freedom Skatepark established in Eight Miles, Bull Bay which was officially opened in October this year.
According to Susser, Sister Nancy’s impact is second to none and her audience keeps expanding, which has motivated him and the LargeUp team to remain dedicated to connecting her with audiences through original content, exclusive and large-scale performances, collaborations, merchandising and publicity. Sister Nancy is at a very unique phase in her career, he said.
“I work with a lot of artistes in reggae-dancehall community at various levels but the effect she has on people I’ve never seen that. It’s different, the way people respond to Nancy and women specifically is out of this world because I could bring the artiste with the biggest hit on the radio now, it just wouldn’t be as great. Her crowds keep getting younger and bigger, the shows keep selling out and the screams keep getting louder for her,” Susser shared.
“No one has a song like Bam Bam that is constantly getting sampled, interpolated and adapted and placed in video games, movies and TV shows. Sister Nancy participating with LargeUp in every aspect of our multi-tiered platform has been an honour and a transformative experience for all parties. Other artists and fans alike can now see what’s possible for an authentic legend, being more relevant and in demand than ever, four decades after her only album,” he continued.