I've been a passionate lover of reggae music for close to forty years now, both for its utterly unique and mesmerizing musical elements and its traditions of social commentary, spirituality and political content. I can't think of another popular music form that over the years has had so much of those elements. Not saying I don't enjoy reggae which is purely entertaining or sexy or romantic because I do--as long as the music is strong.
Recently I had a conversation with an old friend, a veteran of at least three decades of the reggae music biz wars. He made a statement that was surprising and disturbing even to him self, namely that the reggae scene in Jamaica is dead. On the dancehall side it has hip-hop-fied itself into irrelevance, more often than not becoming a hyped-up bunch of beats with very little connection to recognizably Jamaican musical currents, in support of lyrics that are the most expedient and superficial sex-and-violence exploitation. In this trend, dancehall reggae mirrors hip-hop, which he pointed out is mostly high pop-inflected, hook-oriented productions where the rap is more or less secondary to the vocal hook and the lyric content operates at the lowest-common-denominator of quality. On the "one-drop" "concious" side, he said, the new recordings in this style are mainly pale imitations of what has gone before. On a business level, it is difficult for producers to make economically-viable recordings, thanks to piracy, free internet downloads, the decline in the number of "riddim" compilations (especially with the consolidation of V-P Records and Greensleeves), and the disappearance of the market for 45's and 12" singles.
I couldn't disagree with any of this, though it hurts my heart to acknowledge it.
Therefore, I feel it is imperative to point to the few bright spots I see in the reggae realm. The slow but steady rise of Tarrus Riley, for instance, is encouraging, not because he's doing anything musically new, but because of the consistent quality of his songwriting, which has a solid melodic flair and thoughtful lyrics. He's a capable singer with a nice vocal sound who truly broke through about eighteen months ago with his hit "She's Royal", an anthem for the woman in his life that was refreshing for extolling womanly virtues beyond the obvious superficial ones. His recent song "Cold Kisses" evocatively expresses the process of leaving a failed relationship. His lyrics avoid cliches and deliver a message with overt preaching.
One of the strongest reggae singles I've heard lately comes from Queen Ifrica, a conscious singer/deejay who first made some noise a year ago with her single "Daddy', a surprisingly direct tale of sexual abuse suffered by a child at the hands of her father. Her new hit, "Lioness On The Rise" sounds vibrant and energized, not simply a copy of something that went before. It is from her new album "Montego Bay" , produced in association with Tony Rebel, a lyrically varied set with nicely produced riddims, that is largely a step up in song quality from her earlier singles. Queen Ifrica is not an especially great vocalist but like Tanya Stephens she can deliver a song with passion and authenticity.
New vocalist Courtney John, brought to my attention by Sharon Gordon, is a throwback but a welcome one--he often sounds like a new incarnation of the legendary Slim Smith. His "Lucky Man" cut, from his debut album "Made In Jamaica", is beautifully sung classic lovers rock and there's more where that came from on the album. Notable is a cut called "Save It All" which is Caribbean-inflected pop, a kicking crossover groove on a nice song.
Veteran singer Ini Kamoze stepped forward with a new album entitled "5150 Rule", which draws as much from hip-hop as reggae. Ini's earliest Sly And Robbie-produced hits from 1983-4, such hits as "Trouble YouA Trouble Me" and "General" were edgy, electronica-infused reggae from the get-go, so it is not a departure for him to incorporate hip-hop elements (indeed his "Hot Stepper" re-mix was a hit on urban radio in America in the Nineties. But on "5150 Rule" Ini does not simply ape hip-hop; he incorporates the feel and certain elements of it into his own sound. Not everything on the album is great but most cuts are interesting, with serious semi-poetic patois lyrics. Most interesting is "Rapunzel", which features American underground soul singer Maya Azucena; it uses the fairy tale character of Rapunzel as the basis for a love song.
Terry Lynn's "Kingston Logic 2.0" would be the most original thing to come out of Jamaica in the past couple of years but it didn't exactly come out of Jamaica. She certainly did but the riddims--most electro dance-beats or hip-hop inflected grooves that only occasionally reference reggae riddims--were created in Europe. On the title cut is a lacerating run-down of the realities of Kingston ghetto street-life, a ten-times-worse portrait that Junior Murvin first outlined in "Police And Thieves" thirty years ago. The video for this cut was filmed in a Jamaican meat abbatoir, a stark, compelling metaphor for the slaughter going on in Kingston streets. Cuts such as "IMF", "System", "Screaming In The Night" deliver some of the hardest hitting political lyrics to be heard anywhere today in any genre of music. But she closes the album with a version of "Rivers Of Babylon." Powerful stuff.
Finally, I should not shy away from mentioning the new Inner Circle album; I only hesitate because (full disclosure) the company I work for has released it. But check out such cuts as "Gun Ting", "Real Soldiers"(featuring a vocal by Gramps Morgan of Morgan Heritage), "Never Give Up" and see if you agree that there is melodic and lyrics content there that is not too common these days.
So there are a few points of light in the wasteland that is the reggae music scene right now. Historically Jamaica has been a consistent source of creativity, though, so we can hope something rises up to lead the way into a new era. But let's hope it happens soon!
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