I just don’t care. If there is one sole voice championing the cause that Sizzla Kalonji just may be the greatest Reggae artist of all time, then that voice will be mine and mine alone! Sizzla is an artist who, in my opinion, has led the charge to take Reggae music to a place of absolute brilliance and has had the impact on the up and coming generation which many people hoped that he would have had when he first arrived on the scene more than a decade ago now. Artists like Lutan Fyah, Natural Black, I Wayne, Torch and even older artists like Capleton have all shown an obvious ode to the diminutive August Town fire breathing chanter as far as their style being influenced. For me personally, I revere the man first and foremost because his music, when at its best, is an UTTER JOY to listen to. Sizzla presents rather colourful and vivid word play regardless of the nature of the tune and in doing so offers a far easier to convey message of Afrikan upliftment and unity than so many of his peers and perhaps even by their own admission. Of course the problem is that the time between doing just that is marked by often ridiculously long and off target ‘experimental’ phases of recording downright slackness and violent tunes. Were these times more spread in with the brilliance then things would undoubtedly be different, however, ask any Sizzla fan (your’s truly included) and they’ll tell you the same thing I’m about to tell you in this crazily long review: If I have to sit through that stuff to get to the magic, it’s worth it! The magic hasn’t exactly been missing either as, if you really look at it, although he hasn’t registered a MEGA hit in awhile, Sizzla has suddenly become one of the most consistent active artists on the Roots Reggae scene, recording for so many different labels with so many WICKED singles as of late that he may FINALLY be entering a stage in his career where his reliance on the more harsh vibes has waned considerably. On the album side, although things may be more along that same vibes, it’s still somewhat erratic. Sizzla’s last studio album, Addicted for Drop Di Bass, last year was probably his WORST studio album to date (not including those Charm/Penitentiary RUBBISHES that drop every year), but it wasn’t a very violent album (that would have been an improvement) at all. The one before that one? An underground album by the name of Jah Bless Me With Life might have been his most aggressive since Blaze Up The Chalwa, back in 2002 (and it wasn’t very good on top of that). Now, were you to stop, going backwards as an honest representation of who Sizzla Kalonji was as an artist, then it would be surely to your detriment as the one just before that was one of his best releases to date, I-Space, THE bets Reggae album of 2007 and not too long before that was King Jammy’s production Waterhouse Redemption, another very strong album. If you don’t pay CLOSE attention when it comes to Sizzla’s music, you’re almost GUARANTEED to miss the brilliance which originally attracted so many fans worldwide and solidified his status as a Reggae LEGEND.
What both Waterhouse Redemption and I-Space had in common was that they were releases on Greensleeves Records. Last year, which marked his tenth consecutive year releasing albums for the label, he had a BIG greatest hits release, The Journey, instead. But, 2009 and we’re back to usual and even as close to ultimately USUAL than he’s been since 2004 by my count. Having originally been pushed by Phillip ‘Fattis’ Burrell of Xterminator, Sizzla would have linked with the BIG backing band, Firehouse Crew, very early in his career and the band has continued to follow the artist throughout his career. Nearly 100% of the time you’re likely to see Sizzla performing ANYWHERE in the world, you’re likely to see him being back by the Firehouse Crew. The FC has also backed other former members of Xterminator like Luciano and Mikey General and even other unrelated artists like Junior Kelly. Even more importantly, however, is that for a great deal of the time, most of those older HIGHLY REGARDED albums from Sizzla feature the Firehouse Crew in some form or another, including albums like Freedom Cry, Be Strong, of course Praise Ye Jah and even non-Xterminator productions like Good Ways and Black Woman & Child (both from Bobby Digital) which means that a lot of your (and mine) favourite Sizzla songs, were likely, in some form or fashion to have been voiced in front of the Firehouse Crew. So if Xterminator isn’t in the mix (although they are back at work, having, most notably worked on Linval Thompson’s recent HUGE comeback album Ghetto Living) who is the next best USUAL producer for a Sizzla album? Sizzla and Greensleeves now brings forth their latest album release, the suddenly hotly anticipated Ghetto Youth-ology. Manning the boards for this new album is none other than The Firehouse Crew itself, which is not only the first time they’ve produced a Sizzla album but it also is the very first album that they’ve produced period and what more fitting way to make their debut than on a Sizzla album (even if it turns out not to be their first drop). Ghetto Youth-ology is an album which almost couldn’t help but be STRONG based on little more than its ‘background’. the Firehouse Crew simply does not make poor music, period. They don’t make substandard music and they don’t really make anything besides ROOTS Reggae vibes which is what we’re looking for here after all. Headed by one George ‘Dusty’ Miller (the rather large looking gentleman you’ll always see playing drums at a Sizzla show, who takes executive producer credit here) and alongside kings of all trades Donald Dennis and ‘Wrong Move’, they have played for just about any and every prominent producer in Jamaica over the past twenty years +, having originally gotten their start (to my knowledge) for the late and great King Tubby. The results of mixing that with Sizzla’s long proven vocals for that style and what you have is a bit of a blast from the past on an album in Ghetto Youth-ology CERTAIN to be LOVED by the old school, longtime Sizzla fans.
Once kind of ‘chided’ as the second-class annual Sizzla release (when compared to the VP album) the Greensleeves release from Sizzla Kalonji over it’s past now three shots has gotten so much better and CONSISTENT, returning to an earlier stretch which included the aforementioned Black Woman & Child and Royal Son Of Ethiopia and now that GS and VP are one in the same, it only figures to get better in the future. Taking me back circa 1999 and getting things started on the EXCELLENT Ghetto Youth-ology is a mighty strong opener in the rather simply stated Jah Love. I’ve probably heard around forty or so songs with the same title (I could probably write one at this point) and half of them probably sound alike. That definitely isn’t a problem here, however, as Sizzla (and some fine backing singers) produce a downright hypnotizing vibes on the tune which gets the album started on one its highest levels altogether. It is, however, upped and upped on a GRAND scale with the following tune which is Ghetto Youth-ology’s best tune altogether, the MASSIVE Ghetto Youths Dem Ah Suffer. This tune could have fit on ANY previous Sizzla album in terms of quality, it is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! The song follows a strong line of actually PERFECT written tunes from Sizzla and its definitely on the scale of classics like Mek Dem Secure, No Time To Gaze and The World alongside so many others. It supposedly is a remake of a song I never heard, but it really doesn’t matter, for an album flirting with perfection at times, the ‘romance’ never gets sweeter on Ghetto Youths Dem Ah Suffer. RIDICULOUS! I could listen to it all day! Holding the unenviable task of following that masterpiece is a tune which does a pretty good job in Stop It Right Now. This tune is kind of a complicatedly written anti-violence tune but it picks up somewhere in the middle of it through some of Sizzla’s ‘tricks’ and really it proves to be one of the stronger tunes on the album and does so (despite the way its written and ultimately present) fairly simply. Big start but did you really expect less?
I’m sitting here trying (and struggling) to think of which album Ghetto Youth-ology most reminds me of and I would probably say the Rastafari Teach I Everything album lyrically (it’s a very TANGIBLY written album) and sound wise, probably Royal Son Of Ethiopia, which is an impressive combination to say the least. A tune which you would have found on an album like RTIE and the one here which has been receiving the most publicity and was even made an official single by Greensleeves is the tune Black Man In The White House, a tribute to new US President Barack Obama. There were SO MANY of these tunes throughout the Caribbean recently (most notably Cocoa Tea’s Obama and Yes We Can) and this one was one of the more popular. Its okay honestly, more of a significance song that an actually good record, but I do confess that it’s grown on me a lot since first spin. Growing on me far more, however, is the acoustic set Gwaan Bear. This one sounds SO familiar and I’m loving it. The acoustic bit shows off the lyrics of the tune even more which is an obvious plus as Sizzla weaves a downright LESSON for the masses. Even more impressive is the next tune successively speaking, the BOUNCY Hey Youths. One for the youths in particular (it could actually be the title track, minus the title) which follows big tunes like Rastafari Children (Black History album) and the MAMMOTH Oh Children (Royal Son album) which is resembles quite a bit and it arguably just as strong as either of those proven winners. Love the vibes on that one. The tune Future Is Yours which was the ‘b-side’ to the Black Man In The White House single is a decent tune as well and is steadily growing on me. The tune might sound familiar to you as it goes over Dusty’s WICKEDLY LUSH and a little dub-like Black riddim (big tune on it was Junior Kelly’s Black Am I (Smile album)). The tune, following along the title here, is another for the youths in the world to take control of your future and do so right now. Big tune ultimately. Premeditate ends a very impressive stretch of tunes going back to basically the start of Ghetto Youth-ology and reminds me of tunes like Bandulu and Simplicity and Planet Earth where it seemed like Kalonji just built an entire song around a word or phrase and it has a very free-flowing vibes to it which I love. Premeditate is no different, after a few spins you start to REALLY recognize it’s strength. Big tune. The latter portion of Ghetto Youth-ology still holds quite a bit of STRONG tunes and surprises as well; none bigger (on both accounts) than the HUGE spiritually vibed Open Up The Doors which is so big it sounds like two songs spinning in one. I got into this song and when it built up I started wondering if I had a defective copy because it sounds like two (or three) songs running at the same time, at times. Regardless of the inspiration here, the tune is a BEAUTY! One which calls for the repatriation of all of Afrika’s children and I’ll tell you, this song will strike a might big chord in you if you LOVE Sizzla’s music, trust me. Very POWERFUL tune. What Am I To Do Baby is rather easily the standout lover’s tune on Ghetto Youth-ology (although I Love You So is growing on me) and its also the album’s only official combination as it features sweet voiced veteran backing singer Conradine Campbell (who I believe may actually be Cornell Campbell’s daughter). the tune is a very nice’duet’ style piece and who knows? 2008 proved to be a breakout year for another fine backing singer, Althea Hewitt maybe soon Campbell can have a run herself as her voice is damn near PERFECT. A very impressive trio of tunes sends Ghetto Youth-ology on its way beginning with the freestyled sounding Tax Payers Money. This one MAY have just been a COMPLETE freestyle as it definitely has an edge to it unlike most tunes on the album, it also has somewhat of that ‘rough’ appeal to it as so many other have, before it eventually streamlines itself, becoming a very nice tune (with an attitude). Qualities In Life is still a much better song and ‘challenges’ Open Up The Doors as the second half’s best tune. This one is VINTAGE Sizzla in most respects, although it clearly has a new ‘lean’ to it’s vibes but vocally, all old school material there. With everything going on in the background with this one you should probably have to get through it several times to find its real strength, but when you finally do you’ll realize it as one of the biggest tunes here. Ending Sizzla’s latest work Ghetto Youth-ology is the predictable Nyahbinghi set Babylon Ease Off, another LARGE tune. It seems it becoming a trend to end Roots Reggae albums with nyah drum tunes and Babylon Ease Off is CLEARLY one of the best I’ve heard recently. Sizzla ends his latest piece of work on a high note as Babylon Ease Off shouts down corruption and oppression in every corner of the planet where it exists.
Overall, the promo for the album calls it “the best Sizzla album since Da Real Thing”. It’s not (I-Space is). But it’s not very far from that level at all and, by comparison, stands in pretty good levels. What Ghetto Youth-ology is, is a return to a sound which ultimately went on to make people refer to Sizzla as BRILLIANT and a LIVING LEGEND, myself definitely included and from that perspective you could call this album one of his most IMPORTANT to date. Bringing together some of these older songs and older sounding tunes is really a shot for the OLD Sizzla fans wishing he would return to that more melodic type of flowing that he used to do. So, Ghetto Youth-ology is for those of you, like me, who SWEAR by the artist and have been listening through and enjoying albums like Taking Over, Rastafari Teach I Everything and Black History where others have been panning them. Where they have since stopped listening confident that ‘old Sizzla’ will never return; You’ll look up and notice that with Ghetto Youth-ology, he just did. VERY WELL DONE.
Rated 4.5/5 stars
Greensleeves Records
2009
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