Karol G knew she had a club-ready record when she included “BbY WOW” on her latest album No Me Arrepiento de Sentir Tanto. She admitted as much to Rolling Stone in August, expressing her desire for an emotional track with an infectious beat to make people want to dance.
The song, which also features Spanish acts Judeline and Rusowsky, has quickly become a viral smash since its release. “BbY WOW” currently sits atop the Billboard Hot Latin chart, Apple Music’s Global 100 chart, and Spotify’s Global Top 50 chart, racking up over 78 million streams on Spotify and 21 million views on YouTube.
A large part of this success stems from the song’s ingenious sample of an early 2000s Jamaican riddim, a beat that many millennial fans will instantly recognize.
Nearly 30 seconds into the song, listeners will notice the distinct drum pattern of “Coolie Dance Riddim,” the iconic instrumental dancehall riddim created by influential Jamaican producer Cordel Skatta Burrell in 2003. Two albums released that year, Greensleeves Rhythm Album #45: Coolie Dance and Coolie Skank, showcased several notable dancehall artists like Ce’Cile, Elephant Man, Sean Paul, and Bounty Killer each performing their own respective styles over the riddim. Other dancehall artists, like Beenie Man and Mr. Vegas, employed the riddim on their own albums.
But “Coolie Dance Riddim” may be more broadly known for helping catapult the careers of pop and Latin artists just a year after its release. Anyone listening to the radio or going to a party in 2004 simply could not escape Nina Sky and Jabba’s “Move Ya Body” or Pitbull and Lil Jon’s “Culo” — and its subsequent remix with veteran reggaetonera Ivy Queen.
That riddim quickly took off as other artists in the 2000s latched onto the popularity and danceability of that beat. Lumidee and Fatman Scoop released “Dance!” in 2006; it not only sampled “Coolie Dance Riddim” but also included Whitney Houston’s vocals from the chorus of “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Latin artists like Jr Ranks on “Dale Candela” and Angel y Khriz with their massive hit “Na De Na” also put their own spin on the riddim.
Though “Coolie Dance Riddim” had rare and sporadic use after 2009, artists like Karol G have contributed to a renewed resurgence of the riddim’s use over the last six years. This time, artists outside the Caribbean are the ones leading the charge.
Along with Karol G, fellow Argentine artist Ms Nina slowed the riddim down a touch and used it as part of the intro to her 2019 album Perreando Por Fuera, Llorando Por Dentro. Spanish rapper Cruzzi added a sultry lo-fi effect to the riddim for his 2023 song “Movezz en Silencio.” Kehlani, similar to Karol G, gave “Coolie Dance Riddim” an R&B vibe on her 2024 song “After Hours,” the lead single to her album CRASH.
The riddim has seen a heavy revival in Turkey since 2024, with four separate artists adding their own touches to it. Two of those songs, “Yerinde Dur” by Sefo and Demet Akalın and “DOĞUŞTAN BERİ HAKLIYIM” by Lvbel C5, have over 329 million views on YouTube and over 140 million streams on Spotify, respectively.
French DJs HUGEL and SOLTO sample “Coolie Dance Riddim” in their 2025 global house hit “Jamaican (Bam Bam),” which also uses Sister Nancy’s song of the same name.
And in just under a year, the riddim has been used four times in the Arab pop scene, with the viral “YAMA” by Moroccan singer DYSTINCT, “Baba” by Egyptian icon Amr Diab, “Wedding Riddim” by Palestinian Jordanian singer Dana Salah, and most recently “BOSA” by Palestinian Chilean artist Elyanna.
“I’ve always tried not to get stuck in a dancehall-only approach, instead drawing inspiration from global music that I’ve connected with and this can be from almost any genre,” Burrell says. “At the end of the day as a Jamaican, my creativity will always be heavily influenced by my culture. The next step was making it palatable for the world to appreciate.”
Katelina “La Gata” Eccleston, Latin music expert and historian, believes that the resurgence of “Coolie Dance Riddim” has a lot to do with artists chasing a nostalgic feeling — particularly for millennials who remember when the riddim first came out.
“Riddim culture thrives in artists displaying individuality and creativity over a common beat, so if an artist is able to invoke a sense of nostalgia by showing homage to another song with a bar or adding to the beat with lyrics that complement its soundscape, then I think the task is completed,” she says.
DYSTINCT recounts first hearing the riddim on “Move Ya Body” as a kid growing up in Belgium. At the first opportunity he could, the Moroccan artist knew he wanted to add his own flair to the beat.
“The riddim is usable in so many different styles and it’s so timeless,” DYSTINCT says. “Even if you heard the riddim sampled in so many songs, it still sounds cool and fresh every time.”
The proof of the riddim’s timelessness can be seen in “YAMA,” which has been DYSTINCT’s most successful song to date with over 212 million views on YouTube and over 73 million streams on Spotify.
“I was in the studio with [producers] YAM & Unleaded, and I had the idea of mixing up dancehall influences with my Arabic influences and we ended up using the sample,” DYSTINCT says.
Dana Salah, who worked with producers Michael Brun and Rami Afuni on “Wedding Riddim,” says she felt Arab dabke music when she first heard “Coolie Dance Riddim.” Its ability to travel and resonate with other cultures, Salah believes, is what allows Burrell’s creation to endure.
“It has such a strong identity: joyful, playful, and sensual, but it also leaves enough space for every artist to find their own melody and culture inside it,” Salah explains. “More than 20 years later, your body still understands that rhythm before your brain does.”
Burrell remains excited by the energy that “Coolie Dance Riddim” continues to create all these years later, and consistently shows love on his Instagram page to artists who have sampled the riddim in their music. He says Karol G “did a great job” with “BbY WOW,” calling the song a “child of the 2000s.”
And while Burrell knew he had a hit on his hands with this riddim, he does not take for granted the impact it would have on artists outside of Jamaica.
“From its birth, I’ve always felt its commercial viability,” he says. “However, witnessing its growth on an international scale is an experience I relish every time there’s another global release.”
