I think after having listened to as much Reggae music as I have over the years, it is often quite easy to become somewhat disillusioned as far as what exactly is going on in terms of the message being delivered, particularly on the Roots sides of things. I mean I can pick up any album or any single in my arm’s reach and hear any dreadlocked or turban clad performer in a studio singing “times getting red”, “Babylon must fall” and “praise Jah”, but what really, if anything do they mean? Are they merely regurgitating the things which they’ve grown up hearing people reap the successes for singing or is their a full meaning of something or another behind their words. This happens even in music which I can say that I honestly do enjoy listening as it does strike me in some melodically gifted concept but I can come away FULL ON believing that the particular artist is merely talented at going through the motions of performing the message and MAY NOT actually believe what they say. So who do I feel REALLY believe became an artist to get the message across, rather than learned the message to become a performer? Well, these days I would, of course, like usually point to the fairer sex who tend to be more emotional creatures, thankfully, for the sake of the world. I would have a hard time believing that you could roll through ANY release from someone like Queen Ifrica and pick it up in front of her and have her not throw her full support behind it, in any way, shape or form. This, I would say in spite of the fact that the diminutive Tony Rebel protégé from out of Montego Bay, isn’t exactly the most emotive artist you’ll find around. Instead the conviction of her vibes comes well through via the fact that she often comes off as TEACHING instead of singing, and of course, the very TANGIBLE messages which she relays in her music; often sounding as much like a council leader, rather than ‘merely’ a musician. Then there’s young Etana, currently on a meteoric rise to Reggae superstardom, who, unlike Ifrica, is VERY emotional in her tunes. Besides her voice, which is wonderful, Etana just has the vibe about herself, as a person, which blends so nicely into her music: The perfect example of this, of course, being the tune Roots, which affirmed not only her walk in life, but her arrival on the scene as well. There are male performers who share similar characteristics such as Natural Black who blends HIMSELF into his music perhaps better than ANYONE in modern Reggae to my opinion and of course Sizzla Kalonji whose rather back and forth nature of making music often steers those away from the truth about his rather open and non sequestered living situation, just as he says in his music. Truth be told, not everyone does it (I could name you several big name artists who I feel are going through the motions) but for the few that do, I think they could REALLY make progress and they are.
So what of the aptly named Jah Cure? Well if EMOTIVE and EMOTION is what you’re looking for, then I could very well make the case that Reggae music and perhaps music as a whole has RARELY seen a more emotive artist than Jah Cure, or so it seems. Regardless of the case, Jah Cure, by far one of the most controversial figures in the history of Reggae music as a whole, has convinced me and millions of Reggae fans across the Caribbean and the planet as a whole and since his release from prison in mid 2007 following a stretch of more than eight years served in the Jamaican prison system for a conviction (which he has thoroughly denied and was under a VERY strange set of circumstances to say the least) of rape. In the year and a half following his release from prison, just as the year or so prior to it, Jah Cure has been one of the most consistent artist in all of Reggae music, aligning himself with some of the biggest hitmakers in the game, which does in his case say quite a bit: Can you imagine what kind of PROGRESS he may have made had the large eight year gap in his career not existed? Besides aligning himself with the likes of Sizzla, Anthony B, the aforementioned Queen Ifrica and Etana and most recently Tarrus Riley, as artists capable of making bonafide Roots Reggae hits, the Cure has also set himself up with the very strong Danger Zone camp of which he is seemingly the musical centerpiece. Danger Zone, headed by industry veteran/producer Della Drummond has been one of the most CONSISTENT outfits in the same time since Jah Cure’s release and besides the Montego Bay native, DZ boasts a stable which includes the likes of Reggae legend Junior Reid most notably (and most recently) as well as now very successful Dancehall diva Ce’cile. Last year was one of the most interesting in the recent time for Danger Zone as well the most successful. Besides officially inking Junior Reid to a contract, they also released two Ce’cile albums on their very own (she also released another in the European market), Waiting and Worth It (a special digital release of Waiting) as well as a riddim album for their very popular Journey riddim. What they had set to cap off 2008 was a potentially MIGHTY release from Jah Cure himself, instead, however, they merely set the stage for it by flooding the place with singles and promotions. Now, bright and early in the first third of 2009, they finally release that album, The Universal Cure, Jah Cure’s fifth album to date and his first full length piece recorded (except for one tune) after his release from prison. The Universal Cure, whenever it actually arrived, was set to be one of the biggest pure Reggae releases of the year and so it is in 2009, it becomes after Mad Cobra’s Helta Skelta, Anthony B’s Rise Up and Mavado’s A Better Tomorrow, one of the first big releases from a MODERN Reggae artist currently in the game. So how is it? The Universal Cure is arguably Jah Cure’s second best album release to date and fans are certain to be happy with the results, new and old.
Despite the fact that his three previous release came via VP Records, the largest distributor of Caribbean music in the world, and his last one A New Beginning, was much talked about as it was released the same week as Jah Cure’s own release, you could also make the case that The Universal Cure is the singer’s most high profile album to date as well. It comes via Danger Zone (Della Drummond executive producer) and SoBe Entertainment, a very strong up and coming Miami based company (they also have Brooke Hogan). As this may be the first sample of Jah Cure for many, you’ll have to get accustomed that VOICE, trust me. Getting things started on the downright BEAUTIFUL The Universal Cure from Jah Cure is one of my own personal favourites from the singer, Sticky on Danger Zone’s own Jam Down riddim. As much as I’d like to save the honour for a less familiar tune: Sticky is the best tune on this album. Period. EVERYTHING about is DIVINE! The song, the riddim, Jah Cure’s singing (DUH) and even the video! It’s one of the best songs he’s ever recorded which is saying a lot in his case and if you don’t like Sticky and you’re a Reggae fan, then something is FUCKED UP with you! MASSIVE TUNE! (old, yes. But MASSIVE nonetheless). Up next is the first combination and one of the highest profile tunes on the album, Hot Long Time. The tune features the Cure alongside Hip-Hopper Flo Rida, and the aforementioned Junior Reid and Mavado (who I can’t seem to stay away from these days). It’s not a bad tune actually, I can say that it has grown on me over the year or so since I first heard it as a Cure/Reid combination alone. It’s done, primarily, for the international heads, certainly, and I think they’ll appreciate it in this form. Now I could go back and remind you what I said about emotion for the tune True Reflections, the oldest on the album and the only, to my knowledge, voiced while the Cure was still incarcerated. I don’t even know, really, why this song is on the album, however, in any form, this once PEERLESS and still highly inspirational is to be appreciated and if you (have been under a rock) haven’t heard it, you should rush out and buy this album for just that one tune, I mean REALLY. More than a solid opening and it gets better.
The three tunes here which I’m sure SoBe would like you to most pay attention to definitely are Mr. Jailer and the title track as all of them feature Jah Cure alongside SoBe stablemate Phyllisia, an R&B/Pop singer from Florida (I THINK). Mr. Jailer has been receiving a HEAVY push lately and is an official single from The Universal Cure. The tune is actually an IMMEDIATE remake of a tune from Nigerian born songstress Asa (also very impressive) and apparently it struck a chord with someone at SoBe, its okay, but steadily growing on me as a very fitting tune for Jah Cure. The title track here has no such ground to make up with my tastes and is SPARKLING. The tune is just beaming all around as Jah Cure actually places a word to his ‘cure’, Love. Phyllisia’s role here is playing backing singer for the most part and her small helps with the tune pushes it even higher, she almost sounds like an echo and definitely keep an eye for her forthcoming SoBe release as well. Big big tune. Even better than both of them is the SWEET lover’s tune near the end of the album, Call On Me which is a duet of EPIC proportions. This tune could literally, in my opinion, buss internationally RIGHT NOW. I’ve loved it from the first minute that I heard It (when everybody thought that it was Keyshia Cole instead of Phyllisia). I just read that a video has been shot for it recently and if SoBe is thinking correctly, they’ll use it to push Phyllisia in the US market because I really feel that they, like me, will love this song. REALLY nice vibes and I‘ve heard it recently playing around these parts as well. That being said, however, most of the class of The Universal Cure is made up of more familiar and less flashy tunes. Such a tune would be the BRUTAL Soon Come. Tears! Tears flow down the sides of my face when I hear this one from the opening, “King Selassie I you’re my everything. And everything is everything”. The tune is a message from the Cure to his loved ones that “Soon I’ll be coming home!” and it just has HUGE and undeniable vibes as he throws those vocals around like a football! The song really has a profound effect and I imagine if you happen to be locked up, you just might breakdown listening to Soon Come. Easily one of the album’s finest offerings. The same could and is to be said about the similarly vibed tune Freedom, which may actually be even stronger than Soon Come. This one is less personal and more of an announcement to the entire world as he pronounces himself a new man under the guide of His Majesty and “here to reclaim what’s mine” for the time he missed. If Soon Come broke you down, almost assuredly, Freedom will rebuild you. MAMMOTH tune! Stuck smack in the middle of them both (one song away from each) Soon Come and Freedom is perhaps the even stronger (YEP!) and reflective My Life. This tune is somewhat of a sequel to True Reflections, as a newly freed Jah Cure looks back on his time in a tune so lovely and poignant that it challenges Sticky as THE ‘cure’ of this album and is arguably every bit as powerful as True Reflections in its prime. Journey was the title tune for the aforementioned Journey riddim from Danger Zone and I’ll tell you that DEFINITELY not having heard this tune in a couple of months or so has increased my appreciation of it GREATLY! The tune is a MAD symphony of beauty. I’m kind of confused how it didn’t hit me the first several times through, but here, this thing is WONDERFUL. The two tunes immediately following Journey are also very strong and I hadn’t heard much of them at all prior to the album actually. The first, a full on lover’s tune named Forever, took about three spins through to grow on me. After a pretty sub-par the tune really develops into something worthwhile as it finds Jah Cure in a more free flowing style which is one he doesn’t usually tap very often, especially not on a lover’s tune. The other tune U Believe In Me, although kind of corny, had no such developing to do as it is little more than a showcase for the crazy vocals. Seriously, if there is a more talented vocalist in the HISTORY of Reggae music let me know! Because I don’t know of them! Were there anyone who was PHYSICALLY created with a set of windpipes to sing music for Jah, it was Jah Cure, U Believe In Me could have even been an accapella and not suffered a bit! Ridiculous. The very familiar herbalist anthem Green Grass sends things out for The Universal Cure. The tune was one of several hits from 2008’s Mission Riddim from Baby G (the biggest of which was probably Mavado’s On The Rock). I’ve never been really all that high on Green Grass (did you catch what I just did there???) figuratively speaking, of course (!), but I wasn’t surprised to see it here and its not at all a bad tune and actually a nice change of the vibes, picking up the pace to close things out.
Overall, okay, the only drawback here, which has been the case on every Jah Cure album besides the first two (Free Jah’s Cure and the FLAWLESSNESS which was Ghetto Life) is that, for the more established fans, you don’t get much in the way of new material. And given the fact that Jah Cure has simply been on his game, there’s a good chance that more than 75% or so of The Universal Cure will already be somewhere in your collections and perhaps even on official releases. I would have loved them to include More Thanks For Life which was a (underplayed) combination with Gyptian as well, something especially for the Reggae heads (and eventually SOMEONE will HAVE TO give me a combination betwixt the Cure and Ce'cile). Be that as it may, judging this album as simply an album and those circumstances notwithstanding, The Universal Cure is every bit as strong as the A New Beginning album to my ears and, given the fact that Freedom Blues was all but admittedly a greatest hits piece, I’d go to rank it as the second best project Jah Cure has ever done (of course after Ghetto Life, one of the best of all time). And thankfully so here because of the assured advanced promotion it will receive. What you have in Jah Cure’s The Universal Cure is an album from an artist seemingly at the height of his powers and one who can take this music not to the level of ’mainstream’ and all of that, but to a level where something can finally be done in the name of all of this WONDERFUL music. There simply aren’t functioning ears on the planet capable of ignoring Jah Cure.
Rated 4.5/5 stars
SoBe Entertainment/Zojak Worldwide
2009
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