Ragga

Ragga — short for raggamuffin — describes faster, often sample-heavy dancehall of the late 1980s and 1990s where deejays delivered rapid-fire lyrics on hard digital riddims that crossed over to hip-hop and pop charts abroad.

Why it matters: Ragga marked Jamaica's digital revolution going international. Shabba Ranks, Super Cat, and Patra showed how yard-born rhythms could dominate MTV-era global media without losing core deejay identity.