Dean Mundy at the controls in his studio. - Contributed

by Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Landing his riddim on itunes, Jamaican producer and songwriter Dean Mundy is set for success.

Though fairly unknown on a local level, Mundy is making strides internationally with his first independent 'riddim' album, Suicide.

With music available literally at your fingertips, itunes is one of the latest forms of digital music players, where persons can access thousands of songs via the Internet.

The CD, which is distributed by Mundy's own label Vigilante Records, is now available on itunes, accessible to millions of persons across the world. The riddim features the voices of artistes such as TOK, Delly Ranx, among others. According to Mundy, the CD was originally to be distributed via the Internet site www.cdbaby.com before reaching an even larger and worthier site such as itunes. "It's a good means of music distribution, reaching places I wouldn't normally reach and hear my music, " he said.

"Ipod is taking over the music industry and persons will be able to access my album on it. There are not a lot of reggae or dancehall music on itunes, we haven't bomb, rushed it as yet. Although there has been a lot of Sean Pauls and Shaggys. This is something our industry should contemplate getting into in a big way. I don't think we should wait till it's out the door," Mundy said.

Interestingly, while the 'Suicide' riddim has been released on an international level, locally the riddim has not hit the dancehall.

"The sound of the riddim is different, its a fusion of dancehall, classical and hip hop. The album took shape through writing, where every artiste on the album should say something totally different from each other. So it should appeal to everyone. Most of my work has been done for an International market. Locally people are more familiar with me as a songwriter than a producer," he said.

Mundy began his career in music at a tender age, learning from producer Tony Kelly. He moved from working with Penthouse records to Shocking Vibes Ltd, until early 2000, when he branched out and eventually formed his own label, Vigilante Records. Mundy has worked with some of the biggest names in music locally and internationally, including Super Cat, Bounty Killer, Buju Banton, Beenie Man, Lady Saw, Luciano, hip hop guru Jermaine Dupri among many others.

At present he is working on a new riddim called 'Blood Pressure', which he describes as rock, funk and dancehall fusion. The new riddim features a variety of new artistes. "I don't classify my music, I explore a lot. I'm happy people are now experimenting with dancehall," he said.