Jermaine Balance turns Jamaica’s road woes into a dancehall statement

Jermaine Balance has turned one of Jamaica’s most familiar daily gripes into a dancehall cut with a clear point of view. The Roads, released on May 26 on Di Genius’s Hill & Gully rhythm, lands as a song rooted in the same battered roads and traffic stress that Jamaicans talk about every day, and Balance is leaning into that recognition value.

Balance said the idea came straight from the present road situation in Jamaica, which gives the single an immediacy that many protest-style records miss. He also said he produced the track through his own company, Spanish Town Records, making The Roads a self-produced release with his own stamp on it rather than a label-driven assignment. That independence matters in a genre where personal voice and local credibility still carry weight.

The response, Balance said, has been strong because the subject is so easy to identify with. For drivers, commuters and anyone who has spent time navigating potholes, delays and rough stretches of roadway, the song does not need translation. It arrives with the kind of everyday frustration that can start a conversation before the hook even finishes.

The timing also gives the record a wider public backdrop. In November 2024, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said Jamaica’s road problems had worsened after Hurricane Beryl and Tropical Storm Rafael, and he promised a multi-pronged fix for the short, medium and long term. By January 2025, the Office of the Prime Minister said the government had put $6.5 billion toward road surface repairs and constituency-based mitigation, while the $45 billion SPARK programme was expected to improve between 600 and 650 roads islandwide. The same update said the Constituency-based Mitigation Programme was 55% complete, while a May 2025 letter on road conditions argued that poor roads were affecting commuting, commerce and emergency services.

Balance’s own story adds another layer to the single’s appeal. He said he has been recording since the late 1990s, his last stage show was Ghetto Splash 2024, and one of his earlier releases was Girlfriend in 2007. He now has two singles out from an upcoming EP in development, and he says he would like to work with Bounty Killer, an artist he credits as a major inspiration.

The Hill & Gully rhythm gives The Roads an even broader cultural frame. Stephen McGregor built the project to tap deeper into Jamaican culture and reintroduce mento influences to new audiences, and the first track, Masicka’s Slip and Slide, went straight to number one on the iTunes Top 100 Reggae Songs chart. Against that backdrop, Balance’s song feels less like a passing complaint and more like a roadside dispatch from the same Jamaica that fans live in, drive through and argue over every day.