Bogle is perhaps the most famous dancer to ever come out of Jamaica. Currently spending his time between Brooklyn and Jamiaca Bogle says he’s been dancing “from eye deh a mi knee”.  I caught up with him one afternoon and had this very informative and entertaining discussion:

Montana:”Where are you from?” 

Bogle:” From Kingston, Jamaica (Jungle)”I grow in the ghetto, but we did done know that ghetto means, ‘get out’ Everything you can think of that’s bad, we went through.  It’s in the heart of everything that you hear about in Jamiaca.  A jungle me born and grow and trust me, me never grow with the the jungle inna me.  My mother school me and grow me officially in the ghetto, and my mother was never rich…” 

Montana:” So, what is the latest dance?” 

“The latest dance up here (meaning in America)me do it right now.” He says that Elephant Man came to Miami and already made a tune about this dance but no one in Jamaica has seen him actually do it in person yet.  It’s called the ‘wave’, but Bogle says ‘they call it super bowl in New York”.  “All the dances I create were created in Jamaica, but I always had a hope and a dream that I create one here (in America) and it goes straight to Jamaica, and that’s what I’m seeing right now so it’s like a dream come true.”  He has asked Bounty Killer and Beenie Man, when he saw them in the states to show Jamaica the new dance until his return.  “Every dance mi start it and tell mi friend dem before mi even do it”. 

He mentions Carlene the dancehall queen, “you ever heard of Carlene creating a dance in Jamaica?”  No “Who create all of the dance in Jamaica?”  You. “You ever hear them crown me king?” nope. 

Montana:” What’s going on with the Black Roses Crew?” 

“Hear about my likkle bredren who get killed a year ago, Willie?”   Bogle talks about how he used to par with slain Black Roses Crew Willie Haggart and how “dem time there before anything ever happen… when mi a bus the ‘log on’ and the ‘zip it up’ and the ‘pop it’, mi a teach Elephant man, mi a teach Keiva, mi a teach the whole a dem seen, and at the end of the day my bredren get killed…mi a go to funeral and things and just go to America and come cool up”  “Elephant man wait til me gone, him a do the tune, him no call MY NAME, him call Keiva name”  everyone in Jamaica knows that is his dance, he says.  “that is why Beenie Man don’t listen to that tune…” Bogle says that Beenie told him, “YOUR name him fi call because you are the only one mi ever see do that dance”  

“It’s only dance I dance, I don’t DJ.  I wanted to dj, I’d a dj because nuff a dem lyrics  whe ya hear dem talk are mine”  for example, he says that Beenie Man got the lyrics “toyfriend for a boyfriend”, but  Bogle says that he is the one to originate that phrase “and Beenie man hear it and do tune”.   “Nuff a dem hear me and do this and do that and Bogle have something to do with it”.  “if you are in Jamaica and they make a new riddim, they know it ago bus because Bogle ago dance to it”.   

He further says that all dances that are out that weren’t directly made by him like the ‘drive by’ are really the same as his own, “they only move their hands a different way, but it is the same dance.  But every time mi show you the wave, you ago say ‘wait! The dance just change!”  

On dancing:  “I love what I’m doing.  I don’t go above it or beneath it.  I just one level to another level and at the end of the day, I know what I’m doing.”   

Montana:” How do you create a new dance?” 

“whenever I create a dance, I always have one up my sleeve… dancing comes to me like sleeping and waking up.  For example even if Lou Rawls or R Kelley or whatever, every dance that you see me doing,  I can do it on that tune….nuff time when I dance, I don’t listen to the music, I listen to my foot bottom.  Most people don’t know that.” 

Montana:” What’s your favorite song of all time to dance to?” 

Bogle: “Me’s a man whe always respect my Bob Marley, and my Barrington Levy and my Dennis Brown.  Really still, me’s an r and b type of person. Pure soft music mi listen to.” 

Bogle has been in several movies, including Hype Williams’ ‘Belly’.  He tells me the story of how he was standing on the corner when the woman picked him up to take him to the Wyndham Hotel to sign the contract for ‘Belly’.  Hype gave him the script and Bogle replied, “Hype Williams, you know I don’t work off script. If I want a script, I go to Sunset Strip, and I give him back the script...”  He says he just acted natural and talked the same way he normally talks and when Hype Williams heard him speak he said “Oh man, that’s just what I want you to say in the movie!”    He says he was talking w/Hype the other day about the Part II of Belly and that they are just waiting on the budget. 

Montana:” What’s your favorite dance?”

Bogle:” The bogle dance. I buss it about November, December 91.  92 Buju Banton did the tune.” 

Montana:”How do you feel about the censorship of artists that is going on in Jamiaca now?” 

Bogle:”You can’t just brute force and do this thing here.  At the end of the day you notice it’s from one level to another level…True me’s a different type of youth cuz dance me a dance still. I rarely have anything to say. Anything I have to say, I say it through my feet.   You can’t make a man feel like he is targeted. The way they’re doing it now, he’s gonna feel that way.  Mi naw go say it’s good and me naw go say it bad… Don’t make a man feel like you’re putting him down. I don’t really like that part of it…Don’t make a man feel like he’s being targeted.” 

On what else he’s doing besides dancing now: “All of my life a dance me a dance.  If I would think a different way, Me’d a mix up bad.   Right now I couldn’t even be so creative.  For me to create so many dance and have all type of things on my mind, me’d a mix up, very very bad. You don’t think so?” 

Montana:”Yeah. I think so.” 

Bogle:” A must dance alone mi think bout all these years to create so many dance.  Mi couldn’t think about nothing else, a lie?  What else could I think about?  The dance wouldn’t come good. The dance wouldn’t come clean! “ 

Around this point in the interview, Bogle took a break to take a call from DJ Future Troubles.  He ended the call with “Like wow, but a weee” and wanted to make sure that “the latest dat we a give you, so remember when you hear it or see it pon the internet, remember that Bogle done tell you they say it’s ‘like wow but a weee’.”   

Montana:” Who is your favorite sound system?” 

Bogle:” Stone Love.  Let me tell you something, the other day I saw Rory and when Rory saw the new dance he said, “Jesus Christ! Bogle, I don’t know what dem a call you in Jamaica, I don’t know what dem ago do” to and Sky Juice and when Sky Juice saw the new dance he said, “Bogle mi a beg you to call it the wave… ” 

He tells me a story about Elephant Man who was on stage in Jamaica recently.  Bogle says, “true me have some youth down there that I taught the wave to, and Elephant Man is onstage and say Log On, and it no work! And him do one named “Shizzle my nizzle” and it no work!  And him try one name “Online” and it no work Niiiitha!  So, when him onstage he said “Yow, me hear bout the new dance in Miami that Bogle do.  Who can do the new dance that Bogle do?”  About 50 people go onstage and flop him softly like Roberta Flack!”  He repeats for emphasis, “flop him softly like Roberta Flack!”

 Just in case I wasn’t getting the point about his current distaste for Elephant Man, Bogle tells me the story of the Log On Video.  He says that he told Elephant Man to make sure that he is in the video for the song.  Elephant Man made the video with a whole bunch of people in it who can’t even dance, “and the music is all about dancing! So, the video never go no where. The video doesn’t even show.” 

Montana: “How did you get into the Foxy Brown Video?” 

Bogle: “I didn’t go to Foxy or nobody. Them come to me.  That is why you don’t see me in a lot of things.  My motto is to dance or die. So when I dance, you can discover me!  I like when people discover me. I don’t like when I have to tell you about me. That’s how I am.” 

On fellow Jamaican dancer, Bruk UP:  “Look at Bruk UP.    Bruk up wasn’t never a dancer. Bruk Up is a DRAMA thing.  Dancing is making WAVE. Dancing is not DRAMA, not because it’s spelled with the same D.  Dancing is not Drama.” 

“They think I don’t know what I’m doing?" Bogle continues," Jamaica would be surprised.  When I create a dance in AMERICA, so all the entertainers can take it to JAMAICA and I’m still in AMERICA.  SO, what are they doing in Jamaica?  WAITING! And getting impatient.” 

Bogle is very excited about the wave and tells me more, “Yow baby girl, if you ever see the dance you’ll say JESUS CHRIST! You’ll just want to do it EVERY DAY!  It just come like the zip it, the log on, it just come like one of those dances where you FEEL it when you can do it because I just do it for the feeling of ME and YOU.  It’s like I know how you feel, so I know how to put it to YOU. That’s how a dancer is. I know that when I’m doing a dance, I do it for ME and I do it for YOU.  If I danced in front of you right now, when I’m finished with you, Nobody can dance like you!” 

He tells me about a youth called John right now who is mashing up Jamaica right now with dances that Bogle has taught him.  “When he come on stage, the first name they call is Bogle”, he says.  “A foot ball we used to play and me turn him inna dancer.   I make him stop play football and dance!” 

This is where Bogle starts to interview me. 

Bogle: “You notice how they’re not keeping stage shows now? They are just keeping parties?   Hardly any stageshow keep, just pure parties.  You know why?”

 Montana:”why?” 

Bogle:” You know why? Because of ME!  Everybody wanna dance! Everybody wanna dance right now baby.  Less talking and music dem waan hear because the people want to what?”

Montana:” Dance.” 

Bogle:” Good!  See girlfriend, I know what I’m doing! Trust me. No dance can come to Jamaica and no vibes inna dancehall can hot in Jamaica UNTIL?” 

Montana:” You” 

Bogle:”Good!  So who start it?” 

Montana:” You you” 

Bogle:”Good! Good, so how it was in the beginning, how it is in the?” 

Montana”End” 

Bogle:”Good.  That’s all mi want them to know.  I’m wondering if they think I put it down and just take it up?” 

Montana:”What should we expect from you in the future?” 

Bogle:”I don’t’ want to tell you right now, trust me, a whole heap of things still. Right now mi wan go back to Jamaica and teach some people to love because nuff a dem love spelled backway.” 

Montana:”You know there is a website calling you a crime boss on the internet right now?

Bogle: Laughing, “who ME?  Let me tell you something baby girl.  They say ‘show me your company and I’ll tell you who you are’.   My FRIEND dem a log me on with. My friend who is gone.  Everybody know in Jamaica, The Prime Minister and the Police, the only thing that boy ever do is what?” 

Montana:”dance” 

Bogle:”That’s all they know about me!  Police never harass me yet! Mi never a bad man or a gun man, but the whole world knows that MY FRIEND was a gun man and a bad man! It’s because we were always standing beside each other in a dance… Me make him my way and me make bad man dance!  You know how much years we a deal?  Me love him! Me no care what people say or whatever, he was my friend!…Everybody will hear the same thing I am telling them now.  If they go to the commissioner, he will tell you I am a dancer, Bigga Ford… Every day, EVERY NIGHT me a go a dance for 2, 3 years back to back! So they know what I deal with!  I wasn’t a bad man, thief or robber.  Every chop inna my face my mother give me.”

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