Louie Culture “Gangalee” (1995)

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I filmed this video in Louie Culture’s home parish of Portland and in Central Kingston, namely, Wildman Street, the base for The Spoilers gang, and also in Southside, the base of the now-deceased don, Chubby Dread, who briefly appears in the video. This song is a dancehall anthem in Jamaica.

Here’s the history of the word and the man called Gangalee. Follow mi! “Gangalee” is an old Jamaican rural term for an unruly, uncontrollable, bad person. As old people would say, “A soon cool yuh ’cause yuh a gwan like yuh a gangalee.”
Well, Louie Culture, born Lewin Brown in rural Portland (Windsor Forest to be exact), on May 9, 1968, took that old rural term and gave it a new meaning and lease on life in 1993. To Louie, a “gangalee” is a freedom fighter. One who fights for and never gives up on his beliefs, and what he wants and dreams of, no matter what the circumstances, obstacles or difficulties may be. Even if it means going or fighting the battle alone, with God by your side.
He started out DJing while still at school in Portland. He took the name of his mentor Bobby Culture and fused it with his pet name “Louie,” to come up with the name Louie Culture. Like his mentor, Louie DJayed a lot of Cultural tunes. His first recording was “Rat a Bother Me” (with fellow DJ and friend Waynie Ranking) for producer Red Man in 1986.
The song was a flop. Waynie Ranking got fed up and migrated, so Louie then teamed up with the singer called Positive. They recorded a few songs together, but they too were unsuccessful. Positive
thought what was happening was negative, so he also migrated, leaving Louie alone, hanging on to his dreams of becoming a DJ.
Louie Culture decided there and then that he was going to make it on his own. He was now determined to go “through the hills and valleys” to the mountain top of the music industry. After recording some songs for Colin Fatta, Louie met DJ Terror Fabulous. Terror introduced him to the “Mad House” crew. That’s when his career took off.
He recorded and scored with songs “Live and Learn” (with Wayne Wonder), “Excellent,” “Bogus Badge,” “Revolution Song,” “No Gal” (on the Pepperseed rhythm), and then the monster hit and title track “Gangalee”, that gave him his first LP, produced by Stone Love (Released 1994/ Available at VP Music Group).
Louie is very happy about his growing success, and he thanks Jah for making his dream become a reality.
He remembers when he used to go to producers with reality tunes, and they’d tell him, “Them sound good man, but give me gal tune or gun lyrics.” So, what he did as a gangalee was to give the producers what they wanted until they had to take “whey mi want to give them, and that is Culture.”
Louie, a Rastafarian, is glad to see that Culture songs are now on the upswing; but he’s a little concerned about the sincerity of the many DJs who are recording songs based on the Rastafarian belief. “‘Nuff man a say things them don’t know ’bout because them want to be under the light,” he explained. “A lot of them will soon have to stand up and be counted, then we’ll know who sincere from who wearing ‘the Bogus Badge.'”
He’s also aware that some Dancehall fans have been misinterpreting the word “gangalee.”
“When mi go abroad, some man a say, ‘Whoah, mi a gangalee,’ meaning a badman thing, so, mi haffi go pon stage show them how I interpret it. But them still hold fi them view.”
Mr. Gangalee made his debut appearance at Sunsplash in 1994, where he performed a great set. Here is a story about Louie and Sunsplash that he shared with us:”A great feeling and a great experience. The only thing I never like is how they put me on so late when the people dem weary.”
Louie’s big songs in the late 90s are “Don’t Get Weary Gangalee,” “They Lied” and “Ole Before Them Young.” From early 2000 and the following years Louie Culture continued to mash up the
dancehalls with songs like „Grap your lass and come“ feat. Mickey Spice & „Scandalina“ for Digital B Records.
In 2004 Louie Culture released his second album entitled “The
Uprising“ (Available at VP Music Group).
The title track of this album was the next massive hit thru-out Jamaica, the US, and Europe. He toured the album extensively together with Freddy McGregor for a 5 week Europe tour followed by individual shows in the US.
Over the years Louie Culture has performed countless shows in Jamaica, Japan, the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, and all over the Caribbean.