The Best Of The Best: Sizzla Kalonji's Ten Best Albums of All Time

If you have been reading me to any degree and for any length of time you probably know quite well that Sizzla Kalonji is my favourite artist of all time. Why? Take an overwhelming level of intelligence and combine it with an overwhelming level of passion and conviction and you have Sizzla. By far, he has led us into a new generation of Roots Reggae artist who eschew the 'cookie cutter' levels of making Roots music. It's simply no longer acceptable to merely be average anymore. Sizzla has also been quite active, with now more than 40 studio albums to his credit. So I though I'd help you sift through them and give you MY OWN PERSONAL best of the best lists. Thus, I submit for your approval, Sizzla Kalonji's ten best albums of all time.

[note: Studio albums, no compilations. And I fully acknowledge that there are albums not on this list which are, technically, better than albums on this list (like Waterhouse Redemption), but these are my favourites and I fully explain why]

#10 Rastafari Teach I Everything - Greensleeves/2001

What! Yes! Rastafari Teach I Everything is an album which wasn’t received very well at all and I know people whose opinions I NORMALLY respect and agree with who do not like it AT ALL, but this album just worked for me on so many levels. It was kind of funky; songs like It This and Revenge gave it a decidedly Hip-Hop feel at times, but the saving grace on RTIE was this: EVERYTHING Sizzla said here was on point. Not a word was out of place (regardless of however out of place you think the tune itself may have been) and, for what it was, it couldn’t have been any better at all. Call it Michaelangelo finger painting: A rather strange masterpiece and one of his more underrated projects from Xterminator.

Best Song: “The Motherland is so” Beautiful

#9 Taking Over - VP Records/2001

Go back and listen to the Taking Over album and then jump ahead and listen the next album which followed it for VP in 2002 (more on that one later). Very dissimilar albums right? Couldn’t be more different could they? Take another listen and this time start from the middle, or the end of the album. Count the tracks. Then slow it down. Taking Over was probably about as a ‘rough around the edges’ type of an album Sizzla has EVER released, but even in becoming that he managed to score two significant hits off the title which you can still hear him singing in performance today (the title track and, of course, To The Point). It also, to my point, was such a POLAR opposite to the undeniable master class which was to follow it that it kind of shared things with that album. Taking Over was dark, grimy and downright ANGRY at times and the necessary kick in the ass Sizzla fans needed to keep paying attention for one more year, until the BOOM.

Best Song: “Rastaman we” Taking Over

#8 Good Ways - Artists Only/1999 [VP Records/2003 Re-release]

Easily one of the most overlooked, underrated and downright FORGOTTEN albums Sizzla has ever had, Good ways was, essentially, almost a THROWAWAY album. It gets lost in the shuffle so much, yet the credentials behind it were so powerful: Sizzla did three albums with legendary producer Bobby Digital, Good Ways was the second, the third is on this list at number four and the first is the top album on this list. Good Ways was in that class definitely, those two always made STRONG results.

Best Song: “Who to be” Trust & Love “If you cannot be trust, you cannot be loved”.

#7 Bobo Ashanti - Greensleeves/2000

LOADED. The Bobo Ashanti album means so much to me and is actually around the blueprint of why I LOVE Sizzla’s music, as it led me on to my own personal journey and eventually being chosen to walk the path I walk in life. The album also marked a significant shift in Sizzla, going from a once very passive stance seen on earlier albums to Bobo Ashanti which took to the offense with tunes like Courage (“Dem a try pounce you, diss King Selassie and a dead dem a pronounce you!”) and definitely Attack, it along with the Words Of Truth album (from VP that same year) was the first album which featured the August Town chanter with such a stance. Of course it didn’t hurt that it rather quietly contained one of the greatest songs of his career EVER, either and has managed to remain quite popular nearing a decade later.

Best Song: (DUH!) The “whole” World “shall see”

#6 Freedom Cry - VP Records/1998

Another one which has been overlooked throughout the years but, arguably, was a set which began to show Sizzla capable of standing apart from the pack CONSISTENTLY (if you weren’t convinced by the two pieces of brilliance from the year before), because it showed more of a MUSICALLY INCLINED artist on top of the downright dazzling wordsmith he had already proven himself to be. Freedom Cry was ENTERTAINING, it introduced a level of MELODY not only to Sizzla’s music but to an entire generation of young Roots Reggae artists who were, just prior to it, focusing so much on the message that it was like they were poets at times and not singers. Freedom Cry proved you can spread the power of His Majesty and burn Babylon to ash and make people dance at the same time.

Best Song: Saturated “with the system which way they go” (one of the greatest written tunes I have EVER heard)

#5 I-Space - Greensleeves/2007

I-Space was an album which I CHEERED for and continue to cheer for as it, like the next album on this list and his most recent album at the time of this writing, Ghetto Youth-Ology, all come as pieces which seem to exist simply to make a point: Just when you think Sizzla has COMPLETELY lost his way, he’ll pull you back with an album so HUGE that you have to take note and constantly ask yourself if the Sizzla of old has returned, if only for fifteen tracks? I-Space was a very modern and very streamlined album which, although it lacked the melody of an album like Freedom Cry and it lacked the promotion machine behind #4 on this list, may be, from a technical standpoint, better than either of them. It was also very simple and understated at times. Just Sizzla and the vibes. Can’t (and won’t) ask for more. The best Reggae album of 2007, period.

Best Song: REALLY & TRULY! “Jah Jah Rastafari is my shield and guide”.

#4 Da Real Thing - VP Records/2002

DUH. It took Da Real Thing all of about six months or so to become a CERTIFIED CLASSIC in the eyes of many Sizzla fans worldwide. And a strong case could be made, even more so than the top two albums on this list and his major debut release, The Overstanding, that Da Real Thing is Sizzla’s most popular album of all time. So what made it stand out? Well besides the fact that VP Records promoted the hell out of it, making surfing websites in the second half of 2002 and the first half of 2003 an experience in being STALKED by it’s presence, Bobby Digital once again proved to bring the best out of the artist, providing him with top notch and state of the art roots riddims over which to deliver GEMS like Solid As A Rock, Simplicity and, of course, Just One Of Those Days. The MADNESS it spawned carried his name to greater stages and undoubtedly some of you reading this right now jumped on board as a fan right around this time. Excellent choice.

Sizzla - Thank U Mamma video (1)
Uploaded by dofrethehustla

Best Song: (DUH!) Thank U Mamma “for the nine months you carried me throughhhhhhhh!”

#3 Royal Son Of Ethiopia - Greensleeves/1999

Moving into the big three now. I know quite a few people who will swear by anything that the greatest Sizzla has ever sounded was on this DIAMOND from Greensleeves a decade ago and really, I can disagree with them definitely but with what went into this vibe, it becomes harder and harder to make any kind of an argument from a technical standpoint. Royal Son Of Ethiopia was probably the best written Sizzla album ever to be and it was also one of the most introspective and DEEP. This, coming from a 22-23 year old! Songs like Eastern Mountain, In This Time (alongside Luciano), Babylon Homework and ESPECIALLY Ripe Leaf simply showed a human being of a higher level of intelligence who simply got it better than just about everyone else.

Best Song: As “Emperor Selassie I was” In The Beginning “is now and ever shall be”.

#2 Praise Ye Jah - Xterminator/1997

Don’t let that corny, freaky little cover that looks like a five year old made it in a construction paper workshop fool you! For if you happen to overlook Praise Ye Jah you’ll overlook what is arguably the single greatest Reggae album of all time. The ‘argument’ goes between this one and the album I choose as number one on this list eternally and a MIGHTY STRONG case can be formed on behalf of PYJ. Why? This album, in my opinion was the figurative and lyrical ancestor to the Royal Son Of Ethiopia album, meaning that it was just as, if not more so, DEEP and SPIRITUAL and just damn SMART! This is modern INTELLIGENT Roots Reggae music in ALL of its splendor. In these thirteen tunes Sizzla simply redefined what it meant to make Roots Reggae music. No longer was it acceptable to just “PRAISE JAH!”. He did just praise Jah and he told you WHY to praise Jah. Check Hail Selassie I, “Hail King Selassie”. WHO? “Ethiopia’s own divine Majesty”. WHY? “First Ancient King of Creation. From the western hemisphere, searching for repatriation”. No cookie cutter Roots Reggae there and none on the other twelve tracks either. KNOWLEDGE in XCESS!

Best Song: PRAISE YE JAH! “Hail the Emperor, King Of Kings!”

#1 BLACK WOMAN & CHILD - Greensleeves/1997 [VP Records/2002 Re-release]

To my opinion? Sizzla’s Black Woman & Child is the greatest Reggae album ever released. I happen to think that Reggae music is the best music in the world, therefore: Sizzla’s Black Woman & Child is the best album of all time, period! Better than Exodus, better than ’Til Shiloh. On the very first album on this list, Rastafari Teach I Everything, I made it a point of saying that every word Sizzla uttered was ON POINT. What if you took that approach and combined it with, of course, Bobby Digital’s finest backing tracks - all of which were obviously carefully chosen, every lyric Sizzla uses - just as carefully chosen, every note played by every musician (some of the top names in the business including The Firehouse Crew) and every song just as carefully arranged? What you would have is an album which might just make everyone step up their levels and begin to do better. I can’t say that about ANY other album that I know of after Black Woman & Child. It had the beauty of Freedom Cry, the modern feel of I-Space (a decade before anyone ever heard I-Space) and the intelligence of Praise Ye Jah and Royal Son Of Ethiopia. What more do you need? NOTHING. Black Woman & Child is the greatest Reggae album of all time.

Best Song: Hell if I know. The album is full of ‘best songs’.