Herbalize-it is a reggae/dancehall sound system rooted in The Netherlands in town called Enschede (EnSka-Day). In 1998, Stef and Sultan officially started the
sound out of their love for reggae music. Between 1998
and 2005 Herbalize-it saw a few members come and go,
but from 2006 after the addition of D-One, followed later by Souljah, Fyah Monk, Carlito and Dave, the sound
has been blessed with a solid team and dedicated family, all with the same goal of keeping the ship smoothly
sailing forward. Sultan, the MC of this sound, explained
to us all about the culture of sound systems and sound
clashes.
Although many musical compositions for what we do comes
known as riddims with first, the rest is then easy.
have seen a Dj
and Mc on stage, text performed by artists We find a way to always
people still might usually saying how big entertain and educate;
wonder: what ac- and bad your sound is. the two most importtually is a sound These tunes are called ant things for us when
we step onto that stage.
dubplates and if done
system?
Well, nowadays there
are different definitions
and varied opinions of
what a soundsystem is.
We can only say what a
soundsystem is to us and
what our vision is for
our sound. Firstly, we try
to stay true to the original idea of the Jamaican
soundsystem culture,
which is basically a DJ or
selector playing reggae
music and an MC complementing the music
with relevant speeches to
further entertain, entice
and “hype” the crowd.
A real soundsystem has
its own unique tunes,
recorded on known
right are exclusive only
to your sound. Then a
real soundsystem clashes. Competitions where
different soundsystems
enter a musical battle.
A battle where strategy,
tune selection, quality
dubplates and a unified attack of selector
and MC are essential
elements for achieving
victory. Then there is the
party side. And here it is
also very important for
us that we can perform
and satisfy any crowd regardless of their musical
preference and knowledge about reggae music
or soundsystem culture.
This is where our love
Creating memories, satisfying that quench for
good music and quality
entertainment.
Tell us a bit more
about sound
clash culture.
What makes it so
popular?
We are seeing an international resurrection
of sound clash culture
and this is fantastic. The
scene was getting a bit
boring and clash fans
lost their excitement and
motivation to go witness
clashes. In the last couple years things are slowly turning around and