- A glorious ode to sound system culture.
- If you've lived in New York for the past five years, there's a good chance you've heard Ayanna Heaven on the radio. Since 2020, the Brooklyn-based DJ has held down two shows on the city's most popular stations: the monthly Sounds of Heaven on The Lot and biweekly Across 110th Street on WKCR (an ode to the titular 1972 thriller and Bobby Womack's seminal title track).
That's roughly 72 hours of radio every year. Light work for Heaven, however, whose sound traverses the limitlessly fertile ground of reggae, dancehall, funk, soul and beyond. Raised in the golden age of Jamaican dancehall, she's an ethnomusicologist by training and platforms Jamaican music and culture through Good Ting and other events. It speaks to her artistic raison d'etre: that dancehall is as much about the music as the culture that surrounds it.
For her RA Podcast, Heaven celebrates vibrations echoing down the ages, connecting seven decades of trailblazers and trendsetters. It's a soundtrack we've timed with an eye to that golden late-summer run of Notting Hill Carnival, Brooklyn's West Indian Day Parade and several crucial dates in the Jamaican calendar.
From Sly & Robbie, Aswad and Vybz Kartel through contemporary heaters and re-skins of platinum-plated standards like "No Games" and "Sun Is Shining," RA.950 is a story of a thriving culture, grounded in the past yet with intentions set firmly on the future.
What have you been up to recently?
I really feel as though I'm putting in my 10,000 hours this summer. I’ve been given some opportunities I could have only dreamed of, which have really stretched my skills as a selector.
A highlight has also been the Summer Soundsystem Series (formerly known as Coney Island Reggae on the Boardwalk), which platforms Jamaican music played on vinyl at various public parks across New York.
How and where was the mix recorded?
I recorded the mix at my desk in my apartment in Flatbush, Brooklyn. I used my trusty Pioneer controller which has been my ride-or-die for several years (no Serato slander shall be tolerated)!
And can you tell us the idea behind it?
The idea behind this mix was to celebrate Jamaican music in the many forms it has found itself over the last 60-plus years.
As Jamaican Independence Day, Jamaican Emancipation Day, London's Notting Hill Carnival and the Brooklyn West Indian Day Parade all land around this time of year, I thought it would be fun to celebrate these sounds as well as the locations they have found their way to through migratory patterns over the last half century.
What's one social or political cause you want the world to pay more attention to?
Like so many others, watching what has unfolded in Palestine over the past ten months has been extremely disheartening and sickening.
I really appreciate that in the advocacy that has occurred for Palestine, we've also begun to shed light on the violence enacted upon disenfranchised people across the globe, including in, but not limited to, the Congo, Sudan and Haiti.
I think sometimes witnessing these tragedies unfold in real-time from the comfort of our own privileges can lead to paralysis, which helps no one. My reflection and one that I hope my peers, fellow artists, and people living in the West can tap into as well is how can we make an impact on the world starting within our communities.
Are we getting to know our neighbours? What are the ways we can give back locally? Do we have skills that could be shared more widely with those in need? I wish for us all to not only focus on the zoomed out vision of the darkness that surrounds us, but see how we can be sources of light in the smaller worlds we inhabit.
What's one club or party that had a major impact on you as an artist?
This is a tough one because there have been so many! I would have to say it's a venue, Lovers Rock, in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, which is an institution for Jamaican music in New York.
It has been a home base for me, and somewhere where I have been given the opportunity to grow tremendously as a DJ, and to deeply learn dancehall music.
トラックリストJackie Mittoo - Henry the Great
Lennie Hibbert - Village Soul
Lennie Hibbert - Chinese Beauty
Beverley Road All Stars - Murder She Wrote
Shelly Thunder - Boops
Vybz Kartel - Yardman Style
Busy Signal - Bad Gyal
DJ Cheem - Ba Ba Ben (Wine & Ben Pt. 2)
Jabair - No Games
Reload Sound x Snoh Aalegra x Projexx - Whoa
M-Dubs, Lady Saw - Bump 'N' Grind (Sunship Edit)
Main Phase - Treat Me Right
IZCO, P Wavey - Beauty Inside
Solange - Beltway (S!RENE Edit)
Azul - Black Rose, Pt. 1
Jerry Johnson - Zion Rock
Prince Fatty - Dub Is Shining
Aswad - Dub Fire
Gladstone Anderson, Mudies' All Stars - Mudie's Groove
Jah Batta - Hold On Pon the Woman
Sugar Minott - Betcha by Golly Wow
Sugar Minott, Victor Axelrod - One Step Ahead
Monty Alexander, Sly & Robbie - People Make the World Go 'Round