The word inspirational is one which is probably is underused in terms of music when you really think about it. If you take that and contrast it to something like ‘great’ or ‘amazing’, then you’ll probably notice ‘inspirational’, by comparison and in regards to its actuality, is woefully absent from the musical linguistic landscape. Think about it. Why do you listen to music? For myself, I’d say, first and foremost, because it makes me feel good - it’s uplifting to my senses. My next reason would probably be because inspires me. It draws me closer to doing something, regardless of its importance, that I should or just want to do (and my reason after that would be to LEARN). I would imagine that it’s probably a similar case with most people who listen to a substantial bit of music, you draw different things from the music and it serves a large range of purposes and reveals an even larger range of emotions. So much so is this the fact that I know literally DOZENS of people who have different (but SPECIFIC) tunes which aide them in doing certain. You’ll have someone who listens to the same song everyday when they get up and have to go to work; there’ll be a person who plays a specific tune while they’re waiting for something - ULTRA specific things like that and, still you’ll have more kind of broad and general inspirational purposes for it as well. So, for the sake of t his review (because . . . damn) I began to think of what and more particularly WHO in Reggae music makes music which actually and truly INSPIRES me. The first OBVIOUS stop for me was Sizzla Kalonji and I can go over this very quickly because Sizzla is an artist who, when at his absolute best, taps into emotions and thoughts in me that no one else does musically, but Kalonji’s music almost single-handedly inspired me to change the course of my entire life. And then there’re the very stereotypical answers of artists for whom the term is seemingly almost exclusively reserved such as Luciano, Bob Marley and Queen Ifrica who has seemingly replaced ’The Messenjah’ as the living and breathing CONSCIENCE of modern Reggae music and they all do occasionally serve that purpose for me, but I wanted to, almost as a precursor to the artist in question here, think of more off the radar type of names. A great one that I came up with was Beres Hammond. Through all the accolades and grand adjectives used to describe Hammond’s music (and deservedly so, in my opinion), ‘inspirational’ is one which is rarely applied, but you have to ask yourself: How many babies were inspired to be conceived through the music of that man??? I’ll even (SHOCKINGLY) give it to someone like Bounty Killer who, besides INSPIRING quite a few youths to grow up and wanting to be artists (and then actually doing it), with those high-tech battleground type of songs, inspires how many people to do something as simple as exercise. Inspiration, although you won’t hear it discussed much outside of gospel, is to be found in some very interesting places within Reggae these days.
Well, I’ve found someone new to add to the list. Following very much in the vein of strong emerging female artists such as the aforementioned Ifrica and Etana (who could also be in this category to a degree) is the Kingston born Empress Robertha. Now, certainly hers won’t be a name anywhere near as familiar (at least not yet) as her very powerful peers, however, Robertha has been around from quite awhile as a minor act and a backing singer (like literally from the 1980’s!) and although her status hasn’t been exactly at the top of the Reggae food chain, having had a breakout within the past two years or so, definitely things are on the rise for her. I add Robertha to this category because of a very subtle and unique talent which she has which I have a difficult time drawing comparisons to anyone with Cruzan singer Dezarie being the only one coming to mind: Empress Robertha has a base style, this cool and very natural sounding singing, and EVERYTHING she does musically revolves around it. It can change ever so slightly, but not very much and STILL she is able to convey anything that she needs to through her vibes and I don’t even know if she, herself, knows that she has this, but besides that other thing (meaning the subject on this review), it was the first thing I noticed about her WONDERFUL music (more on that in a minute). And besides that, another reason why her time to shine may be quickly coming is because she now brings forth her debut album, Standing Ground, through the label which she has made her biggest push in her career, Cecil Halsted’s Kickoff Records imprint. Actually, maybe that’s wrong because one of the earliest tunes I know from her, which curiously doesn’t appear on Solid Ground, the wicked ‘These Wars’ is labeled from Conscious Vibes Entertainment, but is still produced by Halsted (so she, ultimately, is definitely where she belongs). Also, Kickoff has been releasing a steady stream of solid riddim albums as well, so if you’ve picked some of them up, you’ve probably heard a nice chunk of Solid Ground and like those compilations, the album comes digitally via the fine folks at Zojak Worldwide (Zojak to di world!). The album is not only a nice introduction to Empress Robertha as an artist, but at times, it almost kind of SEEMS like we’re hearing something we shouldn’t in the sense that it seems very personal at times and no, she’s not just telling all of her business to anyone who’ll listen, but within that straight forward style, there’s quite a bit (at least in my opinion) of emphasis on showing who Robertha is as a person as well (Sonya Robertha Downer is apparently her name), so you see a few nice tunes on the relationship side and on the romantic side of the vibes as well. Also, I think it’s evident that (even if you don’t know how long she’s been in the game) Empress Robertha has DEFINITELY developed her style already and developed it as one to be INSPIRATIONAL to the masses, yours truly (and hopefully you too) included.
I was struggling for awhile to think of a singer who Empress Robertha reminded me of vocally and, incidentally, the one who I came up with is certainly one who I’m sure millions of people worldwide would say has been inspirational to them, American Neo-soul superstar Alicia Keys. They have a similar kind of slight ‘rasp’ which they both use to GREAT effectiveness. I think actually Alicia Keys herself would be quite pleased with Empress Robertha’s debut album Solid Ground which gets up and going with the PERPLEXING ‘Reverlution’. I don’t really know what to make of this tune. I will go as far to say that it’s not one of my favourites on the album, but despite the fact that it isn’t, it is still CLEARLY very well put together and crafted on all fronts. So, don’t let my confusion (from a critic’s point of view), diminish from a tune I may very well enjoy this time a week from now (or tomorrow). Far less vexing is the next tune in, ‘Call On Jah’ which starts kind of slowly but eventually ascends into an absolutely BEAUTIFUL tune, so much so that it (after several spins through the album), grew on me to the point where it was one of the finest things I heard on Solid Ground altogether. The tune wonderfully speaks of seeking help and reassurance in a higher power and really just sends out a very lovely vibes to all lucky enough to hear the tune. GLORIOUS! ‘Can’t Give Up’ is the first relationship-type of song on the album and easily one of the best. This one deals more with the social effects of trying to maintain a family and the struggles families go through and it’s a very moving vibes as she details the story of a Father attempting to make the very best life that he can for his family.
Empress Robertha then goes on to knock out three similarly vibed tunes consecutively. ‘Tonight’, ‘Key To My Heart’ and ‘Remember’ all ride in as lover’s tunes (or derivatives thereof) and are all SOLID at least. For my opinion, I’d ever so slightly favour Tonight although not far behind is Remember and not too far behind that is Key To My Heart (which is somewhat sappy, as you might imagine). Later we get the even stronger ‘Change Your Mind’ (on which Robertha poignantly declares, “I can’t understand why one would not wanna experience love when love is such a beautiful thing) (neither can I), which is downright STUNNING at times. Still, the biggest love song on Solid Ground is ‘Now That You’re Gone’ [aka ‘Where Do I Go’] which finds a lovesick Empress Robertha just CONFUSED ALL IN THE BRAIN following a broken relationship and doesn’t know what to do next with herself; a VERY relatable emotion which she taps and doesn’t lose a stride in the process across what appears to be Kickoff‘s flagship riddim, the Recharge. There’s also the funky ‘Alright’, which is a bit of Dancehall and is completely out of the vibes of the album, but it’s so catchy and when you do generally good material, it makes such a tune so digestible and less . . . weird for your listener and Alright becomes one of the best tune son Solid Ground to my ears. Unsurprisingly however, I favour more so the cultural and social tracks which appear on the album although I greatly appreciate Robertha’s duality of vibes. Of course on that side all eyes will be on track #7 ‘Mystery Babylon’ which features Roberta alongside lyrics maven Lutan Fyah. The tune is a holdover from his own ‘mysterious’ album from Kickoff Rising Up (and I promised myself I wouldn’t mention that album here) (oh well) and is so VAST! I get something new from it each and every time I hear it and I think, with the proper promotion, it could prove to be a really big tune for both artists with the LESSON it has to teach. But don’t get far thinking it’s the only such tune on Solid Ground which can make an impact (need I remind you of Call On Jah). Check ‘Home’. You wanna talk about INSPIRATION??? DAMN! I feel like loading up a damn paddleboat and taking my family back to Afrikan soil by any means necessary after listening to this heart pushing tune and so will you (even if you’re from Antarctica, TRUST ME). TEARS! Then there’s the title track. Oh boy. The title song of Empress Robertha’s Solid Ground is one of the best tune’s I’ve heard ALL YEAR. Period. On this album, it goes without saying (or at least it should), it’s the leader of the pack and an obvious choice for the album’s title. This song is going to help a lot of people and I’ll probably be one of them as Empress Robertha speaks from some LOVELY corner of her being about the wonders and splendour of her Friend, His Majesty. I’ve literally spun through this one dozens of times and it never waivers in terms of quality, not in the slightest. AMAZINGLY inspirational tune and you will absolutely love it, I’m sure. ‘Cold Heart’ is a VERY different tune as it finds Robertha singing with just a (sometimes present) saxophone backing, but this tune will make you cry and probably not in a good way. Still, like everything here, it’s very well done tune, but I think it struggles with its identity (more on that in a minute) all the while featuring some of the best vocals on the album altogether. No such problems appear on the next tune, ‘Hail The I’, which is another HUGE praising tune for His Imperial Majesty. The tune comes across the same dazzling Step Riddim as Lutan Fyah’s Family Effort and Robertha arguably outdoes that beautiful vibes with Hail The I (the riddim also features big efforts from Marley and Emmanuel Stain, definitely worth checking out) and for me, it features the punch line of the entire album when Robertha says, “As long as there’s breath in this body of mine, I will Hail the Name of Rastafari. Haile I”. TEARS AGAIN! I love that tune. The final selection on the album, ‘Try’, is a sweetly vibed piece. Although somewhat generic and not my favourite tune here, I think it serves well as a closer because it’s not SO involved and it definitely has a bit of a carefree nature to it (despite its subjectry of never giving up and staying with things when they get difficult) which, generally speaking, is a nice trait to have and Try serves as a very nice BOW to the very nice and influential Solid Ground.
Overall, I feel compelled to mention two things, one being a broad critique and the other being a pretty veiled compliment (veiled on her part, not mine). The critique is that Empress Robertha seems to have a bit of difficulty making her tunes CRYSTAL CLEAR in terms of their meaning. There’s the opener, which isn’t very difficult to overstand, but seems to have some type of hitch to it to me for some reason. But there’s also Cold Heart, as I alluded to and the one tune on the album which I didn’t mention, ‘Time’, both of which I’m sure have some meaning to her, but it doesn’t come across very easily and I would be guessing in both cases as to their actual meaning. The compliment is something I noticed when scrutinizing Solid Ground for the sake of this review, but not when casually listening: Empress Robertha is VERY STRONG lyrically and her music actually seems to revolve around that fact (which is great) and all the while I built this review around the WAY she sings being inspirational, now I’m not quite so sure. She says things which make you want to do them or to seek them out or just make you interested in them and it may be WHAT she says and not so much HOW she says them (which is still lovely and interesting). Regardless, Empress Robertha’s Solid Ground is recommended for all fans of modern Reggae (and maybe a few R&B heads also), especially if your collection is in need of a little inspiration. Whatever it is, Solid Ground can surely help to bring it to fruition. Well done and one of the better Reggae debuts of 2009.
Rated 4/5
Kickoff Records/Zojak Worldwide
2009
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