Courtney Undah Privilege marks 35 years of hip hop influence

KINGSTON, Jamaica —Thirty-five years after Jamaican artiste, actor and producer Courtney Undah Privilege delivered the words “Six million ways to die, choose one”, the unmistakable vocal continues to stand as an enduring link between Jamaican music and hip-hop culture. Credited as Daddy Courtney, the creative first delivered the line on Raw Fusion’s Don’t Test in 1991. The track appeared on the Oakland hip-hop duo’s Live from the Styleetron and brought his Jamaican cadence and dancehall sensibilities into the emerging West Coast hip-hop scene.

What lasted only seconds on the original recording would ultimately take on a life of its own. The vocal has since been sampled, interpolated and referenced across hip-hop, reggae, dancehall, jungle, drum ’n’ bass and electronic music. Its journey included Cutty Ranks’ A Who Seh Me Dun, which helped further popularise the phrase within dancehall and sound-system culture.

Cutty Ranks later released the 1996 album Six Million Ways to Die. Its reach within hip-hop became even more pronounced, with the phrase or variations of it appearing in music associated with some of the genre’s biggest names. Among the best-known examples is Snoop Dogg’s Serial Killa, from his landmark 1993 album Doggystyle.

Its influence has also been heard across recordings associated with Dr Dre, Ice Cube, The Notorious B.I.G., Method Man and Redman, Mos Def, Jay-Z and Joey Bada$$, among others. For Courtney Undah Privilege, the longevity of those few words was impossible to anticipate when he entered the studio more than three decades ago. “When I first said ‘Six million ways to die, choose one,’ I was just bringing my Jamaican energy and style to the record.

I could never have imagined that more than 30 years later, those words would still be moving through hip-hop and being heard by new generations,” he said. “To know that something I contributed became part of the culture is a great feeling. That’s bigger than one song or one artiste — that’s legacy.” The story is also representative of a much wider relationship between Jamaica and hip-hop.

Sound-system culture, deejaying, bass-heavy production and rhythmic vocal delivery have long travelled between Jamaican and American music, influencing how generations of artistes and producers create. Courtney Undah Privilege believes his contribution is another example of that exchange.