Black House Parties Then & Now (Part II: Sean Paul's "Get Busy" Video)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part II of a two part series on Black house parties in the 1990s and 2000s.

Part II showcases the video of Sean Paul's Dancehall record "Get Busy". This song is sometimes colloquially referred to as "Shake That Thing Miss Annabella". Although this video was filmed in Canada and showcases Jamaican style house parties, I'm assuming that house parties also were (or are) that way in Jamaica. Selected comments from that video's viewer comment thread are also featured in this post.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/02/black-house-parties-then-now-part-i.html for Part I of this series.

Part I showcases a video of the dance off scene from the 1990 African American comedy/drama House Party. Selected comments from that video's viewer comment thread are also featured in this post.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, historical, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Sean Paul and all those associated with this video. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post, and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.

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SHOWCASE VIDEO: Sean Paul - Get Busy



Maja Martin, Uploaded on Aug 2, 2008

Sean Paul performing Get Busy - Official Music Video
-snip-
Sean Paul is a Jamaican Dancehall singer. "Get Busy" was released in 2002.

This video was filmed in Toronto, Canada . Notice the parkas (winter jackets). Toronto has a considerable number of residents who are of Jamaican or other Caribbean descent.
-snip-
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/seanpaul/getbusy.html

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2015/03/what-sean-pauls-get-busy-shake-that.html for a pancocojams post that provides explanations for the lyrics to Sean Paul's "Get Busy".

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SELECTED COMMENTS From that video's viewer comment thread https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmxD7jDuPR0

There were 1,613 comments on that video thread at the time that I completed this post. The selected comments below are representative of two categories. The first category contains comments that compare early 2000s house parties given by Black Canadians, and African Americans (and presumably Jamaicans and other people in the Caribbean) with house parties given by those populations in the mid 2000s. The second category contains additional comments about the dancing in that video and about other aspects of that video.

I've posted these selected comments within one of those categories and assigned them a number within that category for referencing purposes only. With the exception of replies, the oldest dated comments are given first. However, these comments aren't nessarily given in sequential order.

Category #1: Comments Comparing 1990s (or earlier) house parties to house parties in the 2000s

1. Japoliony, 2010
"The Messed up Part is.... NOBODY throws house parties like this no more... EVERYBODY wanna run to the damn CLUB..."
-snip-
The club = nightclub [Going to nightclubs is sometimes called "clubbing".]
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2. MrChr1st0pher1, 2011
"these were good times throwbacks & pinwheel fitted caps, basement parties"
-snip-
"throwbacks" = usually a term for something from the past, for instance, on "Throwback Thursdays" people on Facebook may post nostalgic photographs of themselves and others from their childhood or teen years.
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3. kiana young, 2011
"now thats a house party !"
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4. Soranyi perdomo, 2014
"I swear I think I should have been an 80s baby. Maybe then I would have been able to enjoy the good old days. Days that pertained of awesome music as such, & safe house parties. This generation suck A$$!"

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Category #2: Other comments about the dancing in this movie scene

1.lgov4, 2010
"Haha mad dancing!!"
-snip-
“mad” very good
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2.Vincent Johnson, 2010
"i luv the way the girls shake what there momma gave them"
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3. raphael1245, 2010
"the lil black kid got kicked out and he was busting the ill move."
-snip-
"busting the ill move" = doing a really good dance step. "ill", "sick", and "dope" = very good
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4. Missmuffinmcgee, 2010
"love the little boy. reminds me of my little cousin. :) and the old man is true to life! much love to my west indian people."
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Chyna Boo, 2010
5. "LOL that was all of us as kids moms n pops or older siblings throwin a house party and we sneak out our room to watch!!! lolz (hint) scene from the movie "Menace II Society" lol when caine was a kid"
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MelleAndKev, 2010
6. I love that kid @ 3:05. He makes the video. "Let's get it on til the early morn" so we can have another kid that we can send upstairs to bed while we're partying up in the basement. Hehehehe ;-)
-snip-
The video's inclusion of the young boy who snuck down to join the dancing adds to the authenticity of this depiction of a house party. Also adding to that authenticity is the scene of people getting food and talking in the kitchen, and playing cards or some other game at the kitchen table. I remember all of these from house parties in the United States in the 1960s and the 1970s.
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7. morpheusxnyc, 2010
"The choreography for this is siiiiick!"
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8. shaiska, 2010
this is the caribean style for ya you american girls watch so you can learn.and this girls are dancing what i would call normal wait untill you go to an carbean club and see what they do on the dance floor.
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9. PerfectAngel316, 2011
He had the best dancers in his videos - always on point.
-snip-
“on point” doing something the exact way it is supposed to be done.
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10. Mustafah Aldohdi, 2011
"SHAKE DAT TING MISS...WO'MAN GET BUSY GIRL SHAKE DAT BOOTY HAHA DAT IS MY SONG JAMAICA ALL DAII ITS HARD NOT TO WHINE TO A SEAN PAUL DANCE"
-snip-
"whine" = the dancing style that is done by gyrating your hips
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11. she487, 2011
THE DANCING IS HOT IN THIS VIDEO
-snip-
"hot" = very good, particularly in sexually provocative, seductive ways
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12. el jordo, 2011
"Why does everyone have crack lighters?"
-snip-
"Crack lighters" are called "lighters" (cigarette lighters) in the USA.
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13. Lady Sachellein, 2011
in reply to el jordo
"@eljordo765 was a trend in the dance hall to raise a light when you think a song is hype.........was the cool thing to do"
-snip-
It was also a very dangerous thing to do, in a basement, or on any crowded dance floor.
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14. ADMNP, 2011
"this video broke so many fire code rules smh...and then he had the nerve to ask for "mo fyah" lmao no wonder the man threw them out"
-snip-
"mo fyah" = more fire
amh- shaking my head (in exasperation and/or disgust)
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15. chum1978, 2014
"Remind me of house parties in Canadian winter. Cold outside but hot like Jamaica in the basement

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This is the end of Part II of this series.

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