As wrong as I undoubtedly am for doing so, I like to take a little bit of credit for having something to do with the word being spread of the talents of certain Reggae artists. These are names who I, for one reason or another, seemed to gravitate to fairly early in their respective careers and, having been won over by their vibes and their displays to some extent, I began telling ANY AND EVERYONE about them and to check them out. And while, again, I’m sure my influence has been minimal, virtually not a day goes by without me getting an email something along the likes of, “Thanks Achis for telling me about ______, the artist is mad!” Right now, I consider my greatest ‘piece of advice’ to DEFINITELY be Lutan Fyah. I’ve been telling literally everyone about Spanish Town’s finest for maybe seven or eight years now. Now what’s really interesting is that, around the same time I came across Lutan Fyah’s music (which would have been 2002 or so, while I was in college in the States), I also came across the name Chezidek as he dropped his very first album back in 2002, the STILL wicked Harvest Time. That was an album which didn’t do much damage (apparently) in terms of commercial successes, but I wasn’t the only one paying attention to the album from the very strange sounding singer from out of ST. ANN’Z (!). I didn’t push Chezidek’s name as hard as I did Fyah’s (or Queen Omega, Turbulence or some of the others I would have been just recently high on and expose to at the time), because of his “very strange sound” as, despite the fact that he came through not only my home town but my favourite label of all time (Xterminator) as well, honestly I just didn’t know what to make of him back then. Then, when you take into consideration that Harvest Time, while still big material (albeit short big material at only eleven tracks), was followed a few years later by what I still regard as Chezidek’s worst COMPLETE piece of work, the very strange and just DULL Rising Sun album, which definitely gave me and I’m sure many other fans a cause for concern. Since then, however, Chezidek has established his name as one of the most TALENTED and in-demand Roots Reggae artists worldwide. His subsequent releases (for the most part) have impressed and you could even make the case (although I’m probably not going to) that he’s managed to outdo the Harvest Time album at some point as well. So, again, as someone who’s been running the name Chezidek (and I even think he was billed as ‘Melchezidek’ at some point), for over seven years, allow me to gloat a little by saying, I TOLD YOU SO.
Along with the amount of excellent work Chezidek has done, he’s also made some very nice contacts. Besides doing work with and originally getting his start with ‘Fattis’ Burrell’s famed Xterminator camp, Chezidek has not only voiced with, but has recorded full on albums with the likes of Al.Ta.Fa.An, In The Streetz, Massive B and, of course, Kemar ‘Flava’ McGregor’s No Doubt Records. I wouldn’t even bother to go through with whom he’s scored singles with, but trust there’s a virtual ‘who’s who’ of producers and not only locals, with whom Chezidek has voiced and voiced extensively. Earlier this year Chezidek added another producer and label for whom he’s released albums when the very strange Herbalist was released through Tad’s. And while I’ll spare you the exact circumstances of the strangeness of the album (although such information might be revealed to you through the process of clicking that link), the album was well high profile for the singer and undoubtedly opened even more ears to his vibes and his potential. Well, apparently Chezidek had a bit more to say in 2009 than was present on Herbalist (which was only like a half of an album or so) (biggup Al.Ta.Fa.An), as he now does his Lutan Fyah impression and releases a 2009 followup, the very SOLID I Grade. While Japan is slowly but surely (maybe not so slowly) turning into a hotbed of Reggae music and Reggae album releases, you also have to look at the European market and the European producers and labels in general who are now very steadily building more and more releases through Jamaican artists. With labels such as Pow Pow from out of Germany, of course Cousins from out of the UK (who released Chezidek’s aforementioned piece with Flava, Firm Up Yourself) Irievibrations from out of Austria, Gold Hear from out of Sweden (who did the MASSIVE Ghetto Skyline earlier this year from Daweh Congo) and just a seemingly endless stream of others. France has arguably been the single largest operator in this fashion as labels on top of labels release albums from great Jamaican and Caribbean Reggae artists. Not only do you have my favourites like Special Delivery, Makafresh/Makasound and Irie Ites but you also have some others who continue to make their presence known, such as Tabou 1. This label (who I was pretty sure was loooooooong gone) made itself known in the late 1990’s/early 2000’s via some very strong album releases which were largely produced by the Taxi Gang, Sly & Robbie (the biggest of which has to be considered Yami Bolo’s Freedom & Liberation which featured the SWEET Love My Woman). Well, apparently Tabou 1 is now picking up where they left off as they helm the new Chezidek release, I Grade, produced almost exclusively by, of course, Sly & Robbie. That’s the BIG DEAL here; Chezidek records an album with Sly & Robbie! So much so that Tabou 1 even mentions it on the cover (and if you dig up some of their old album covers (like Freedom & Liberation) you’ll see it pasted on a few of them “Sly & Robbie” in large blocked letters) as “Sly & Robbie Present”. So what exactly does Sly & Robbie present in I Grade? Well, the pretty bad title notwithstanding, what you hear on the album is a vibes which, although it takes awhile to grab onto you, is just SO nice, that from a strictly sonic appeal point of view, has to be regarded as one of Chezidek’s finest album to date. Of course there’s some substance here as well and such a combination of factors may just make it turn out to be just a very nice album in general.
It’s very interesting (and quite rare actually) that I don’t get any one particularly prevailing vibes from this album. Of course, musically it has a general SOUND, but it doesn’t really come away with any ONE sentiment and it’s pretty much all over the place in terms of subjectry, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing (though, if you know me well, you know I‘ll probably be looking for a unifying vibe here for the rest of my days). The first evidence of Chezidek’s versatility (or ‘globality’) of vibes on his new album I Grade (his sixth by my count) for Tabou 1 Records, is the VERY nice tune ‘Change’. The first thought to come to my mind on the very first time I spun through the tune was ‘STANDARD’. However, and this, as I said, is pretty common for I Grade, the more you listen to it (and this one in particular) the more the tune’s inherent dazzling and colourful nature reveals itself. The song is definitely message music, but you really get a strong vibes from it musically as well and good luck getting to that message. Big tune and a big start for the album with one of its undeniable highlights. ‘Tonight‘, although not as strong as the opener, had no such ‘growing pains’ with my tastes. This tune is nearly lovers MAGIC. Oddly enough, I think that’s an under-explored topic in Chezidek’s music (and if anyone (not named Jah Cure) had the voice for such a tune, it would definitely be Chezidek) and if Tonight is any indication, he needs to invest more time in that vibes as well (there are other such tunes on the album also, quite a few of them actually, with maybe one being stronger than Tonight even) as the tune is just so SMOOTH that you have to pay attention. The final tune on the opening bit is also the best of the three, ‘Border Line’. This song has a very nice old school vibes to it and it really comes off nicely IMMEDIATELY. The tune kind of struck me as a bit strange lyrically as you already have in your mind what such a tune named Border Line is about, but it didn’t hold itself into that same “reach the borderline” and “time to overcome” type of discourse. Instead, Chezidek declares himself to be without a border line and not the type to be fenced in by any means (basically saying that he’s a grown ass man and can do as he pleases). I couldn’t agree more with the very interesting tune.
If you follow things along in a sequential order (and we do) the tune immediately following Border Line jumps in (very timely, on a great streak on the album) and does so as the biggest tune I heard on I Grade altogether. ‘No Surrender’ is an EPIC tune! It almost sounds like something (in terms of the vibes, certainly not the voice) that someone like a Mark Wonder would sing, as it’s this BIG sounding anthem-like tune. Chezidek OBVIOUSLY can do the same thing! HUGE tune. The tune ‘Who Start’ kind of caught me off guard a bit. I’ve gotten to the point where I can pretty much look at titles and know, more or less, what a tune is going to be about, but I had no ideas on Who Start. What the old school vibed tune is about, WONDERFULLY, is tracing back the plight of the Children of Afrika and doing so in support of WHO Chezidek says started the war. It’s so interesting that he would have come with such an approach, and of course, it doesn’t hurt that musically speaking the song is also very good. ‘Devil You Cah Bully We Out’ is another tune which reaches the heights of I Grade in terms of quality. There’s just something about this tune that I can’t quite put into words (maybe it’s the title) that’s really captivating to me and I’ve checked with just a few other people who’ve vibed the tune and have also heard two or three similar reactions. Speaking of titles, also check ‘Keep I Rolling’ which is, essentially, the title track for the album. I don’t enjoy it as much now as I did the very first time I heard it (it was actually my favourite here for awhile), but it’s definitely still well strong. The tune, as you might imagine, is the obligatory herbalist tune on the album (and you would have expected more, given the title), but it also speaks of NATURE in far more general terms which is a nice touch as well. And I’ll mention the potentially MASSIVE ‘Righteous Name’ which is probably my second favourite tune on I Grade. This one is SPARKLING as Chezidek urges all to give thanks and praises to He with the righteous name, His Imperial Majesty of course. As I mentioned before, there are quite a few lovers and lovers vibed tunes on I Grade (and you wouldn’t have expected to see that development on an album named I Grade, or at least I wouldn’t have), two of which even lead the album out. The first of the lot (after Tonight) is the decent enough ‘It’s You Girl’. This tune is fairly unexceptional, but I did notice the nice drumming in the background which is always a favourite sound of mine to hear (and it works in the overall composition of the song as well, it’s not just random drumming). ‘It’s Not Over’ has a much nicer vibes and isn’t the stereotypical love song (even though it sounds like it) as it has much more spiritual overtones and inflections and I’d actually probably go as far as to call it one of the better tunes, altogether, on the album. ‘Girl I Like You In My Life’ (is another title that’s entirely too long) definitely is that stereotypical love tune and I’m not really complaining about that AT ALL. This one has a nice SWEET vibes and is definitely one to play for the special someone in your life. The two final tunes on I Grade are also (kind of) lovers tunes. The first is definitely the strongest and probably the strongest such tune, period, on the album, ‘Black Woman’. This one is kind of two dimensional as it has both a laid back and dynamic vibes and it just SOUNDS GOOD. It doesn’t have that type of formulaic and stale approach (if you played the riddim out alone, it wouldn’t even sound like a love song riddim to my ears very much). And lastly is the corny and sappy and just lame sounding tune ‘Alone’ which sounds like tune from the 1920’s ‘doo-wop’ era. All of that being said I’m kind of miffed that I actually LIKE IT quite a bit. . . Yeah, I’m kind of ashamed but Alone is NICE and a very strange probably BAD way to end the album, but I can’t tell.
I should also mention that I Grade comes with a second piece which includes dubbed out version of the tunes. This is a nice idea and I’d like to see more of it going on (and maybe even on a digital level, as in an album is released and you can go through some of the digital retailers to get its dub or acoustic versions), so biggup Tabou 1 for that as well.
Overall, I’m fairly comfortable in calling I Grade Chezidek’s third or fourth album to date. I’d CLEARLY place both Harvest Time and Inna Di Road over it ultimately, but those (in my opinion) are the only two which clearly top it (its pretty close to the levels of Firm Up Yourself and I can’t quite pick between the two at this point). The thing about I Grade is its SOUND. Musically speaking (biggup Sly & Robbie), this album is top notch material. We’ve heard Chezidek, himself, in better form, but not much better and he’s so close to those levels that I would think it’s pretty imperceptible by those who aren’t HEAVY fans. While I lack to find a complete and gathering type of vibes on I Grade, maybe it lies outside of the album itself. This is the type of project which will only go to help to further his name (as all of his projects have done for the most part) as it’s very solid. Chezidek is definitely an artist to be mentioned with the ELITE of modern Roots Reggae and he’s well on his way with material like I Grade. Hate to say ‘I told you so’, but I did.
Rated 3.75/5
Tabou 1 Records
2009
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