For a genre of music which speaks so much of Righteousness, Upliftment and Positivity in general, if you really start to pay attention to the matter, Roots Reggae isn’t exactly FULL of PURELY positive artists. It seems as if nearly ALL of our artists have had spats or downright stretches of time where they either flirted with the slackness and violent style of vibes before eventually ‘righting the ship’ again (for however short or long a period of time it may stay righted) or was just that type of an artist, full on, before finding a more serene and responsible place in life. Of course, the three main examples would be artists who fell into the latter case, rather than the former in Buju Banton, Capleton and Spragga Benz. Particularly in the cases of Capleton and Spragga who literally built their statuses, initially (and in the case of Spragga that ‘initially’ phase lasted quite a long time), as VERY rude bwoy Dancehall DJ’s of the highest order. It almost seemed ODD that their conversions to Rastafari, not only in life but in music also, even took place. With Capleton I find it hard that someone who sang tunes like Dem Bend, Bumbo Red and Lotion Man would ever find a more peaceful way to do things and would end up singing tunes praising His Imperial Majesty and bigging up the Afrikan Empress and chanting down disrespect of them. Spragga Benz, spent quite awhile as, arguably, the single most slack DJ the Dancehall had seen since the death of the legendary General Echo. The Benz also just happened to be one of the most TALENTED DJ’s as well which made him virtually ‘unignorable’ and from since he has sighted up His Imperial Majesty, his output (although very much slowed these days) has remained just as crucial arguably (although unlike Capleton and Buju forthcoming, Spragga hasn’t TOTALLY abandoned his former vibes). In the case of Buju, the shift seemed to be brought on by the death of his good friend and fellow artist Pan Head, however (who, himself, was apparently undergoing his own shift as well) it was still rather unusual to see that the same man who has HIT with “It’s like boom bye bye inna batty bwoy head” and was the virtually LOCK heir apparent for the title King of the Dancehall, had pretty much left the Dancehall on a consistent set, only to return with very much, more MATURE and less controversial ideas for his Dancehall pieces since. Other examples would be the madness Sizzla frequently engages in still these days and has been for five or six years now; Norris Man’s AWFUL recent run with slackness and violence; I can even recall a tune or two from seemingly CLEAN Junior Kelly with a violent vibes to it; and, most recently, the squeaky clean Luciano who has never recorded such music, however, as more and more details are revealed of his personal life, it seems as if he may be an individual having a difficult time practicing what he preaches. There shouldn’t be too many people throwing stones in Reggae music, at least not as many as you might think.
Aside from relatively new artists who simply haven’t had enough time to screw up (and they will) as of yet and a select few of predominately younger veterans who seem to have stuck to the righteous path (like Queen Omega, like Lutan Fyah and like most of the artists from out of the Virgin Islands), there are VERY few LONGTIME artists who have avoided the more slack and thereby popular type of music. One of those such artists who has approximately THIRTY years in the game to his credit is the UK born and bred veteran chanter/DJ Macka B who also happens to be one of the more underrated and overlooked names in the game as well. As I get more and more into the UK Reggae scene, courtesy of one Lloyd Brown for the most part, and I look in and see artists like lover’s rock specialists Peter Spence, Peter Hunnigale and Bitty McLean it’s very easy to look over Macka B as he doesn’t make that VERY ACCESSIBLE and VERY easy to enjoy style of music as his lover’s rock peers and the biggest complaint that you’ll ever hear of the artist is that he can be somewhat mechanical at times (thus less accessible). HOWEVER, let it be said that, at least to my knowledge, NOT ONCE, in his ENTIRE career has Macka B EVER done any type of material or participated in the making of such material that one would find offensive or degrading (unless you are just living nasty, then I imagine you would have a bit of complaint against him). He has also remained wonderfully active, despite being past his prime in terms of popularity (not in skill AT ALL) and has remained quite popular in certain circles, particularly amongst the more mature crowds. His albums have also remained in relatively steady streams as he has continuously been releasing projects steadily since the mid 1980’s to my knowledge. Now, Macka B arrives with his latest piece for 2008/2009, the very well done More Knowledge. This album comes via Humal Records which I didn’t necessarily recognize beforehand but has apparently been going pretty strong from quite awhile since the turn of the century and the Birmingham, UK based outfit has worked with the likes of Frankie Paul, Admiral Tibet (for whom they released an album named Determination back in 2003), Jimmy Riley and even the aforementioned Junior Kelly (interesting note here: Humal, led by Ransford ‘The Great African’ actually produced what is one of my favourite Junior Kelly tunes of all time, the downright BRILLIANT tune God Bless from the Conscious Voice album). Previously, Macka B’s albums have come via other reputed UK labels, most notably Ariwa and JetStar (and there are some RAS Records releases in there as well) and I was honestly looking forward to seeing him follow the trend of many of his aforementioned peers and heading to Cousins’ Records who, although they seem to be slowing down these days, have virtually locked up the talents once frequented by JetStar who has operationally fallen apparently. Regardless of who gets the honour of putting More Knowledge into stores and onto shelves, this one is SKILLED! You couldn’t and shouldn’t expect less from an undeniable talent such as Macka B and More Knowledge definitely doesn’t disappoint.
If you’ve never really vibed Macka B I have to say that he very well may be one of the most skilled Reggae lyricists to have EVER lived and his style, simultaneously, is one that is SO simple that you may just look around him full on. He writes about the ‘standard’ topics, more or less, but he almost does so in a conversational or a lecturing type of manner whereas other gifted wordsmiths may be more metaphorical, I don’t even think Macka B would know what the hell a metaphor is and he’s better off for it. Reggae fans are better of for the existing of Macka B’s More Knowledge and Macka B drops into his latest album with one its finer outings, the Reggae uplifting tune and fitting one for the opener, Greetings. This song epitomizes EXACTLY what I mean when I say that Macka’s style is one which is so simple but brilliant at the same time as he simply weaves a song saying hello to all of the places in the world, how they say hello in their language. On the surface it’s almost elementary but you listen to Greetings and then imagine how hard it must have been to look at a map and a translation dictionary and write this song and you’ll see is only by a master’s hands that it is created. Big opening definitely (and check the end of the last verse!). The first of three official combinations is next with the aforementioned suddenly controversial Luciano, the WONDERFUL Satan Leave. The team-up here is on paper is impressive already and the two veterans definitely don’t disappoint with the BIG uplifting tune which is, to my ears, the finest piece that More Knowledge has to offer altogether (and its close with a few others including Greetings). HUGE tune. Another tune on that same level is the BEAUTIFUL and well written tune Murderer, a tune on which Macka throws blame for the violence going on at more than just the one who pulls the trigger (as he says, “The one who make the gun, the one who send it come and make the youths shot down, is a murderer, is also a murderer”). It is a concept which I don’t know I’ve heard explored DIRECTLY in Reggae before and it is, of course, a big tune at the same time.
If you favour modern Reggae then you will definitely appreciate some of the topics Macka B explores on More Knowledge and definitely from his very straight forward and simplistic world view which is really refreshing style (someone not trying to sound smarter than they actually are). Such a tune is DEFINITELY Empress Divine which not only throws big praises to the Afrikan Woman, but really steps against those who defile and degrade her. This one is just SOAKED in INTELLIGENCE and a nice charm to it as well and if you aren’t praising your woman then you definitely need this one is massive dosages. The vegetarian anthem Wha Me Eat is a similar tune to the opener which is, yet again, brilliant and maybe even more so. This tune espouses on the virtues of the vegetarian lifestyle and is like other tunes he has done like such and the EXCELLENT highlight comes in the second verse when he just runs down the list of what he eats (and I’m a vegetarian as well so LARGE UP Macka!) and the third verse keeps it going! This is a HUGE tune and really one of my favourites from More Knowledge altogether. Keeping it going, of course Macka B follows the Rastafarian path in life and that is expressed throughout, but specifically on the tune Rasta, which has a nice horn backing which does for the Rastafarian what Wha Me Eat does for the vegetarian (and I’m both, YAY ME!) Another large tune there. And Homeland Africa keeps it going, uplifting the Afrikan nations and all of it’s children worldwide. I love when he says, “Call a Chinese man a Chinese and he’s cool. Call an Indian man an Indian and he’s cool. Call some Black people Afrikan, they look pon you like you’re a fool!”. Definitely need to get back to representing the BIRTHPLACE of our people and Macka is doing his part full on. The second half of More Knowledge well has it’s nice bits as well, particularly two more combinations as well as the title track. The combinations, Oh Jamaica and Original feature the very familiar Justin Hinds and Jimmy Riley respectively. The unforgettably voiced Hinds chimes in on the wonderful acoustic set of Jamaican praise, Oh Jamaica and he definitely teams well with Macka and we well wish he was still with us making this DIVINE music. Jimmy Riley (or ‘Father of Tarrus’ as he is quickly becoming known) comes in on the arguably even more beautiful tune Original which has a big sounding old school vibes and really wins you over by the end and you shouldn’t expect less from such CLASS on both ends. The title track had double interests for me because not only was it one of the biggest tunes on the album named after it, but it also came across the SWEET Determination riddim which backed another favourite of mine from Junior Kelly, Burn Rome (also Conscious Voice album). Kelly did a better job, to my opinion, but Macka isn’t that far behind and is lyrically, of course, even more impressive. Other tunes down the stretch of More Knowledge which more than catch the attentions are Black Christ which takes a bit to get going but once it does erupts into a slow stream of knowledge about the misconceptions of you know who, especially very personal and somewhat humorous observations from Macka B, on Macka B’s interpretations of Him. Big tune. The obligatory herbalist War On Drugs has a bit of a Dancehall swing to it and shoots offensively against those who fights against the marijuana but still readily (and FOOLISHLY) support alcohol, cigarettes and all these other forms of over the counter things. And ending things here is a nicely vibed tune in Would You Like which is a tune for those people who want to reach the heights spiritually but can’t manage to even live on this planet clean. Excellent way to end things there (and lyrically you HAVE TO get into that one).
Overall, big album. Macka B is an artist who I feel is hard to recommend to most people who haven’t been exposed to him and as he is still relatively unknown (especially on this side of the globe), I’m sure that’s many of the people who will be looking at this album and considering it. The ‘hitch’ of course with him is that, as opposed to most artists where I could instead recommend a more accessible piece before the one at hand, I can’t do that with Macka, not only because I’m not as up as I should be on his music but also because his style is one which is constant and hasn’t changed, at least not ostensibly so, in quite awhile to my ears. Therefore, what I will say about his album More Knowledge is that if you are a fan of modern Roots Reggae music (a BIG fan) AND a fan of old school Roots Reggae, then there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll enjoy it. The album, like most of his music as I mentioned, would be relatively easy to follow to your experienced tastes and knowledge and is strictly very MATURE and just damn SMART vibes. For me personally I’d like to see Macka B get more press on this because he is an artist who has a style which I think could literally BOWL over so many Reggae heads. And on More Knowledge, that style has rarely sounded better. Pure Roots from beginning to end and I don’t think Macka B would have it any other way.
Rated 4/5 stars
Humal Records
2008
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