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Dembow is an urban musical genre and cultural movement popularized by the Dominican Republic. Achieving widespread acceptance by the youth of the Caribbean nation, the relatively new genre has triggered a musical, cultural, language and identity shift in the country. Rapid expansion starting in 2009 helped the homegrown movement move beyond it's borders. It is currently the primary musical export of the country, surpassing the autochthonous genres of Merengue and Bachata which previously represented the musical contribution of the country, primarily in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Etymology
The term "Dem Bow" was popularized in 1990 by the Shabba Ranks's dancehall record of the same name. The phrase itself is homophobic Jamaican slang intended to demean members of the gay community. Latin American countries use the words as a misnomer, originally reserving it to identify various percussive patterns which were influenced from the original dancehall record of the same name.

The slang term has faced much change and translation over time, causing it to lose much of its original meaning, including the spelling of the phrase which was shortened and went from "Dem Bow" to "Dembow" or even just "Dembo".

Shortly after the release of the Shabba Ranks record, Nando Boom, a Spanish reggae artists from Panama, would go on to recreate the song as a Spanish translation, naming the Spanish version of the song "Ellos Benia". Experimenting with a reggae infused style of rapping over short sampled loops of various percussive patterns, he would go on to distribute his musical offering to Latin communities in New York Area. This body of work would eventually reach Caribbean islands and create the rhythmic foundation which would spawn various genres.

In Puerto Rico, aspiring rappers would go on to sample riddims of the Nando Boom version of the Shabba Ranks anthem. In the early 90's, the set of riddims would go on to be used as a key ingredient in the formation of early Reggaetón prior to evolving to it's own distinct sound and being classified as one of the islands native genres. Puerto Rican musicians are credited with labeling the set of riddims Dembow, recycling the name of the original source of inspiration to label one of the key elements in Reggaetón music.

In Dominican Republic, aspiring rappers would also go on to use the same set of riddims released in the Nando Boom record. Using these samples as a key ingredient, in the formation of their own genre prior to developing its own distinct sound and being classified as one of the islands native genres. In contrast to their neighboring island of Puerto Rico, Dominicans named the entire genre Dembow, instead of an instrument in their musical composition.

Origins
The origins of the Dembow genre is a hotly contested topic with Panama, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic all claiming it as their own. This is a direct of result of sharing the same dancehall DNA.

All 3 countries started separate movements, with separate names in the early 90's, prior to each country evolving into different genres.


 * Panama named its effort "Reggae en español" which translates to Spanish reggae.
 * Puerto Rico's movement was called underground before it evolved into into what we know today as Reggaetón.
 * Dominican Republic republic called its movement Dembow due to the set of riddims being used.

The percussions (or Riddims) popularized by the record are a series of a total of 5, 2 bar loops which were collectively named Dembow by Puerto Rican rappers in the early 90's.

However, the set of loops which were categorized as Dembow are a variation of the original tracks percussive pattern recreated by Panamanian and Jamaican producers collaborating at Phillip Smart's HC&F Studio based out of Long Island, New York. The resulting instrumental was created for Panamanian vocalist Nando Boom who would record the record Ellos Benia, a Spanish translation of the original Dem Bow by Shabba Ranks. This modified variation of the recreated rhythmic pattern for the Nando Boom record's 2 bar loop would eventually be highly sampled, serving as stepping stone instrumental of multiple genres during their infancy, with the Puerto Rican genre Reggaetón being the most notable and successful.

Like early Reggaetón, early Dembow records sampled the same 2 bar loop of the the 1990 dancehall record to serve as the base instrumental, therefore categorizing it as a dancehall subgenre. The most widely accepted counter argument is that the riddim has been recycled by different genres in their early stages before evolving their own musical sound and structure.

1990s
What is now considered as the first Dembow offering was released in 1994 by DJ Boyo who released the song "Mujeres andadora" to little fanfare. DJ Boyo is considered a founding member of the movement which would eventually evolve into Dembow.

The dembow1 (Symbol of an audio record Click here to listen to dembow) is a musical rhythm2 originating in Jamaica that was developed in the mid-1980s. It is used in various musical genres such as dancehall, reggaeton, moombathon and others of Caribbean origin. Although this type of rhythm has boomed since the mid-1990s and early 2000s, its origins date back to the influences of rap and hip hop.3 It later spread to the Dominican Republic in 1990.

influenced by West African, European, and native Taino influences. The Dominican Republic is mainly known for its merengue and bachata music, both of which are the most popular forms of music in the Dominican Republic

This homegrown style is characterized by tracks that hurtle along, sticking close to the ground and emitting short, sharp samples like a submarine sending out sonar. The rapping in dembow is often drilling and repetitive — like an answer to the instruction “say this 40 times fast” set to blistering instrumentals that can push past 135 beats per minute.

El DJ Topo fue uno de los que se apuntaron a esa nueva línea, quien por invitación de Dj Boyo, entra a formar parte del concepto que denominaron CIA Volumen I, logrando notoriedad con canciones como “Apaga la luz” y “Las chicas están en el aire”, este último quedándose con los créditos de ser el primer dembow que sonó en la radio.

“Cuando aquí nadie hacía dembow yo lo hacía. Cuando yo decido hacer la agrupación La CIA, el dembow no estaba llegando a la gente como debía en el 2003 salió “Dale menor” que se pegó bastante”. Pero tal y como nos cuenta Dj Bollo el dembow al igual que otros ritmos urbanos se pegó en la calle y son “Los Pepes” que le dan un despliegue internacional.

2000s
Early iterations of Dembow, were quickly rejected by the urban population, which at the time primarily consumed underground Spanish rap primarily produced in Spain. A smaller subset of the population consumed Reggaetón being produced out of the neighboring island of Puerto Rico, a urban genre which was still in its infancy at the time but would eventually become the biggest urban genre within the Latin American community.

In 2006, The group 'Los Ando Locos' released the track “Ando Loco Manito”, quickly spreading from the cities to the suburbs and rural areas.

In 2007, local DJ (DJ Scuff), created the first widely accepted Dembow "Tengo un bajo". The song repetitively sampled phrases from the rap song "Que yo fumo llerba" of local rap star Lapiz Conciente. The offering spread quickly in the streets of the capital of the country (Santo Domingo) and communities of younger generation Dominicans living abroad, primarily in The Bronx and Washington Heights area of New York City. The localized hit became responsible for influencing the interest of aspiring artists to become Dembow artist instead of rap artists, which at the time was the only source of locally produced urban musical content in the country. For the next 2 years musical offerings with the new sound were primarily produced by DJs remixing vocals of spanish rap songs over the same recycled instrumentals, rarely creating original lyrical content or instrumentals.

From 2007 to 2009, still in its infancy, the new sound grabbed the attention of unknown up-and-coming artists and producers. During this era, these individuals concocted the musical formula which paved the way for the newly born movement to exit its experimental phase, leading to the creation of a new native musical genre. At the time Dembow was an underground art form which was only consumed in urbanized lower income neighborhoods. Radio play, music videos, established artists and monetization were non existent within the artistic community, with the only source of new material being found on internet forums and blogs.

The existing musical establishment at the time of Merengue and Bachata quickly dismissed the new sound, with established artists publicly showing disdain for the sound, with many stating that it was not real music. Artists in the locally produced rap movement, which at the time was the only urban content being widely produced in the country and in the middle of a growth spurt, also rejected Dembow. Siding with their Merengue and Bachata counterparts, the dismissive stance by local rappers, many of whom unwillingly were the first voices on early Dembow tracks, would eventually lead to a years long feud between the only two urban urban cultures in the country. This created a divide where both artists and consumers alike, started to identify as either a "Rappero" or a "Dembowsero".

In 2009, unknown music duo "Doble T Y El Crok" would release the song "Los Pepes", quickly becoming a local hit and for the first time expanding outside of Dominican circles to other Latin American communities in the United States. The release of this song is considered the tipping point which would profoundly impact the cultural and native musical sound of the Dominican Republic, which for decades was recognized internationally for its exports of Merengue and Bachata.

Identity war
During its early days, the new sound antagonized an identity war between Dominicans who created other forms of urban music and the quickly growing population of consumers and musicians of the new sound, which was quickly outpacing the growth of all other autochthonous and foreign urban musical offerings in the Caribbean island with a population of roughly 11 million citizens.

During the first decade of the new sound sweeping the island, it was not an uncommon to see bumper stickers boasting either distaste or love for the genre.

It was also common for locally renowned rap artists to express their dislike of the genre, with local rapper Lapiz Conciente releasing a song titled "No al dembow" which translates to "No to dembow".

During this time, many urban artists pledged to never to a do a song in the genre.

- note: add something about the merengueros and bachateros having issues with the genre.

Though on a much smaller scale, this discord is still playing out today.

Milestones
(often sharing the credits of pillars of the genre).