Apparently, and hopefully, a curse which has been hurting the Reggae world in terms of album releases has FINALLY been lifted. Over the past few years a few established fans and definitely a large number of new fans have been downright bamboozled into buying some truly ridiculous projects in the thought that such a thing might be the real thing. Of course, what I’m talking about is the monster that was the Charm/Penitentiary/Rude Boy Records (all of whom I THINK had some type of connection to Jet Star Records) who released really screwed up Reggae albums from some of the biggest names in the business for quite awhile. Jet Star, in and of itself, had some rather strange releasing practices on its own, most notably in terms of time, as they would just release an album on their own imprint not very long at all from the release date an artist would have for a next (and potentially bigger) album (most notably with Luciano back in 2001when they dropped the BIG Great Controversy about a month prior to VP‘s even BIGGER A New Day album, which even bothered Luciano). But that was FAR below what the other labels did. Charm, Penitentiary and Rude Boy Records all had very strange releases and I’m pretty sure they were all related in some way, shape or form but you wouldn’t know such a thing as NONE of them EVER had very much in the way of contact information. They would often release albums with downright wrong track lists (see Anthony B’s Confused Times or Richie Spice’s Motherland Africa), wrong misspelling of titles and artists (see pretty much any of their albums) and virtually no album credits whatsoever. Now that’s one thing and definitely screwed up as you could simply look at an album’s track listing, as a fan and not recognize the tunes and think that it was all new material; even worse, however, is the fact that when you actually got to the songs, not only were they not new but they were tunes that had been on previous albums. The breaking point for me was back in 2005 when Penitentiary released a Sizzla album, Burning Fire (which was also called Reality originally) which featured ALL songs from other albums (Jah Knows Best and Taking Over if I recall correctly). Apparently that was even too low for their ‘standards’ (whatever that means) so they re-released it a few months later with maybe a song or two that wasn’t available on other albums. This and other fucked up activity went on every year, with very familiar looking packaging, from artists ranging from the likes of Sizzla, Anthony B and Capleton and even occasionally someone like Dennis Brown.
But, as the first half of 2009 is already gone and there hasn’t been a single Jet Star (or Jet Star-ish) release or even a digital reissue (which they did last year), those days are over. Right? Right? Maybe not. It turns out that, not surprisingly, over the past two years or so that ST. ANN! singer Chezidek has become not only one of the most solid and CONSISTENT Roots Reggae artists on the scene currently, he has also become one of my own personal favourites. I say “not surprisingly” as the work he has been doing is definitely something that would seem to necessitate such a reaction from the Reggae listening world as an artist in his stage, not necessarily the most popular but definitely a big name still, who finds his/herself on a good streak would normally get that type of career ‘step up’ as Chezidek has recently done. The very strangely voiced singer has also been relatively active on the album side in that time, with two releases, Firm Up Yourself (Cousin’s) and Inna Di Road (VP Records) coming in 2007 and although he didn’t push a project (at least not to my knowledge in 2008), both Firm Up Yourself and Inna Di Road were big albums with the latter becoming one of the bigger commercial successes of Chezidek’s career and its popularity definitely leant itself over into the following year also. And because there was no Chezidek release in 2008, as he had remained solid throughout the year with nice tunes and even since then, it made the almost MANDATORY 2009 release pretty anticipated by his fans, yours truly definitely included. So here it is, Herbalist, (seemingly) named after a big tune Chezidek had last year over Danger Zone’s SWEET ASS Jam Down riddim (same riddim backed so many big tunes, most notably Ce’Cile’s HUGE hit I’m Waiting as well as Jah Cure’s EPIC Sticky), which is a very good thing and not only that, on the surface, but also the fact that the album has a STACKED twenty tracks and Chezidek fans couldn’t ask for more right? If all of that was just as it seemed then you would potentially see the number 5 at the end of this review (instead of whatever it is that you do see down there) and it would potentially be that HUGE album which Chezidek had flirted with releasing in the past but never quite has to this point. However, a relatively EASY glance beneath the surface of Herbalist shows a story that only (maybe) Jet Star, Charm, Penitentiary and Rude Boy Records would be proud of. Now, what’s very interesting about this is that Herbalist comes via the exceedingly popular Tad’s Records who, besides being easily one of the most popular resources for none VP/Greensleeves artists to push their projects to the world, have accrued quite a very nice reputation throughout its years of existence in terms of how they generally do business as well as the very fine level of quality control (sometime even, in my opinion, to their own detriment) (see Teflon’s album Motherless Child) (more on that album in a minute). It is because of that reputation of Tad’s that I FULL ON believe that everything was on the ‘up and up’ and it was simply a matter of a HORRIBLE idea in what occurs on Herbalist. I also want to stress that, from a strictly musical point of view, the vibes here are VERY strong. Chezidek is on point throughout and when such a thing occurs, regardless of the situation) you have something CRUCIAL on your hands. Thus, I fight all good sense that I have in my body to call Herbalist crucial. . . Despite the fact that more than half of it belongs to ‘someone’ else.
The Herbalist album is (was) built as basically a compilation on its own (all eight tracks of it) from material from a variety of different producers, including Tad’s itself. And that’s not necessarily a problem, its often the case of Reggae albums and despite the fact that many Reggae heads, myself included, may not like the practice, its still relatively wise to get the big tunes out there to those people far more likely to buy an album than consistently follow the singles from an artist. Therefore, when you get into the start of the album, it starts rather nicely with three tunes which, although familiar (two of them), have yet to appear on a Chezidek album. The first is definitely one of the biggest and because of what happens later on the album I’m probably going to call it the biggest tune on the album that is uniquely of the Herbalist album itself, Sun Or Rain. The tune comes across Cut Stone’s COOL Rain Wata riddim (same one backed Kali Blaxx’ MASSIVE One Smoke tune) and is just so inspirational that I’ve loved it from the very first time that I heard the tune and if you at all like Chezidek’s music, I’m confident you will also. Big tune. Next up is the least familiar of the first three tunes on Herbalist, Over Through (Throw) Them. I’m pretty sure I know this tune (because I was singing it word for word when it first jumped in) but I don’t know where from. Regardless, it’s another very strong tune that I’m PRETTY sure appears on no other Chezidek album, so the hardcore heads will eat it up. The final of the first three tunes here is the first site of anything strange going on as the title track was quite unexpected. As I mentioned Chezidek dropped and ran with a VERY NICE tune on the Jam Down riddim, Herbalist and it too had yet to appear on one of his albums, so I figured this would be a fitting title track for his new album. I was right in assuming that but this isn’t it. Herbalist is named after a next tune he had of the same title (Chezidek also had a tune named Herbalist Song alongside strong Belizean Reggae upstart Ras Indio) with Tad’s. This song is another pretty good vibes although not as good as the Jam Down version. Chezidek has comfortably taken on the ‘Herbalist’ moniker due to the strength of the first tune and I would assume this tune (and this album, by extension) goes on to further that but I do have to confess a SLIGHT disappointment. All in all, however, a nice opening.
Now, that being that, I wonder what in the hell the compilers of Herbalist were thinking when they decided to make TWELVE of the final FIFTEEN tracks on the album VERY familiar as they are simply holdovers from Chezidek’s 2006 album, Mash Dem Down from Al.Ta.Fa.An! Now I do have to confess that I knew this before actually getting the album but it STILL doesn’t lessen the fact that I think I might be PISSED OFF! Newer fans (who are less likely to buy the album) might not know this but to the older fans, it makes Herbalist almost useless. Given that even a few of the other songs aren’t exactly exclusive either. Leave The Trees is one of Chezidek’s biggest hits to date from a few years ago and it actually appears on the aforementioned Inna Di Road album and even though it’s technically a PERFECT fit for the album, its just unnecessary at this point. A Day Like this, alongside Teflon was not only released before but was released on Teflon’s album, Motherless Child, which also is a Tad’s album. Take away those two and, including the opening three, it leaves us with SIX semi-exclusive tunes to Herbalist out of a possible twenty, which is ridiculous! And, to me at least, it becomes all the more frustrating that the other three are very good also. Check the pro-ganja anthem Wrong Law which was very nice and is almost surprising that it hadn’t appeared on a previous Chezidek piece as the Tad’s produced tune is almost five years old by my count across their cut of the Hard Drugs riddim (and it even appeared on Tad’s compilation for the riddim). Getting Hotter is another pretty good effort from Cut Stone (over the melancholy Ryme Stone riddim). Lyrically the tune is quite impressive and I was pretty happy that Chezidek chose what he ended up choosing instead of the tired and clichéd “times getting red” which would have served the same function here. And lastly is Gangster & Badness, another very nice vibes which speaks about the ills of what’s going on in Jamaica and does so across a downright HYPNOTIC cut of the famed World Jam riddim to my ears. Gangster & Badness is a serious tune. And those go to show that even though they may not be the hottest and newest thing around, you could WELL make a compilation styled Chezidek album from with material that wasn’t previously available in that form. I will say that the Mash Dem Down album did have some very nice pieces on it as well and it marked the ending, in my opinion, of a poor streak Chezidek was on of UTTER MEDIOCRITY so if you didn’t run that way and pick it up and haven’t done so since then (shame on you) then you won’t have the same restraints with Herbalist. To my opinion, the one tune which has stood above the rest from Mash Dem Down, now that I’ve had quite awhile to settle with it, is the third selection from it on Herbalist, the HUGE Leggo Dutty Babylon [Ways]. The album also featured three RIDICULOUS combinations, two of which, Only The Strong alongside Lutan Fyah and Mark Wonder and the LUSH sounding lovers tune Don’t You featuring Gentleman are both on Herbalist (there was also Dem Nah Good with veteran Prezident Brown. Also missing from MDD on Herbalist is the BIG Fi Wah) and just in general, most of the tunes are very nice from that album and they worked on that one (also check Bruck Like Crackery and just all of them) and they hopefully they still work as they with t he exception of A Day Like This, songs from Mash Dem Down comprise the entire second half of Herbalist.
Overall, again I want to stress two things: Number one, I’m not saying that Tad’s is engaging in the almost assuredly FUCKED UP and not so clean practices as Charm & co., and instead I’ll just chalk this one up to REALLY BAD ideas. And also, the music you’ll hear on Chezidek’s Herbalist album is very good. As I said, Mash Dem Down was a good album and the music, to me, is still potent and important these few years later. But they just shouldn’t have to be. This one is stuck so odd as its pretty much useless for heavy Chezidek fans and for newer fans it makes the MDD album useless. You now have ABSOLUTELY NO REASON to pick up Mash Dem Down if you haven’t done so already (unless you suddenly decide you want to be a collector) as it simply isn’t worth it for two extra songs (and as far as I knew, Fi Wah was never included on the digital version of MDD). So it either kills itself or it kills a different album, two things one album should NEVER do. That is, of course, unless it is a greatest hits album and while we may actually be ready for a Chezidek Greatest Hits release, we aren’t ready for Herbalist. The album quietly harkens back to a very dark practice for albums in Reggae music, one which I hoped had been largely erased never to be energized again.
Rated 2/5 stars
Tad's Records/Zojak Worldwide
2009
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