It is always so nice if you can get things off to a nice start, isn’t it? In Reggae music taking an artist from one who seems to be capable of getting and maintaining an initial hype to one who is just as capable of delivering enough solid material to hold an album seems to be quite the difficult process. However, when you can actually get the planets and stars to align properly and produce an artist who is able to do just that, the results can be absolutely delightful and downright STUNNING at times. Looking at good examples over the past few years or so and you really get a healthy dosage of artists who have done just that and have gone on to varying successes and level of successes in their career subsequently. So, in order to give you a nice idea in which direction to go when look at the initial stages of artists in development (at so many different levels albeit), I submit for your approval, The Top Ten Reggae Debut Albums of The Last Ten Years.
{note: In order to qualify for this list an artist must have at least TWO albums (sorry Etana and Lion D)}
{note 2: This list was hard as hell actually}
{note 3: I mistakenly printed this one in reverse of how I usually do (with one being the final), but I also wrote it like such, mistakenly, so I decided to leave it}
{note 4: Dancehall - Yes. Soca - No}
{Honourable Mentions - Free Jah’s Cure by Jah Cure, Fyah Muma by Queen Ifrica, Queen Omega by Queen Omega and No Guns To Town by Natty King}
#1. Pressure - The Pressure Is On [Tsuni Records/2005]
DUH! Honestly this wasn’t as cut and clean as you might think if you read my stuff with any type of consistency (and thus know how much I LOVE this album). Still, The Pressure Is On almost has to be the favourite here through its being consistently SPECTACULAR. Where the #2 album on this list (even though I’m writing this before I’ll write that) succeeds on being damn near masterful on its biggest moments, I’d have a hard time finding a non-masterful moment on this album and even though I may be the only one still championing its cause, you know I don’t care about that. The Pressure Is On was an AMAZING introduction to an artist who perhaps may be the most significant to EVER come out of the Virgin Islands in Pressure Busspipe.
#2. Sean Paul - Stage One [VP Records/2000]
When you take a look at what Sean Paul has become amongst hardcore Dancehall/Reggae fans, it’s really damn near depressing to an extent. He’s now seen as this kind of an outcast or a poppish sellout and we could sit here and argue that all day (and I’d argue against it, of course), but I’d challenge anyone (particularly a younger one) to dig up his debut album (shouldn’t be too hard to find), Stage One. This album, to my opinion, was one of the greatest pure Dancehall albums of ALL TIME and it showed a level of SKILL in Sean Paul which he still has today, but is rarely given credit for. So many of his earlier hits, ‘Infiltrate’, ‘Hot Gyal Today [alongside Vegas]’, ‘Check It Deeply’, ‘Mek It Go So Den’, of course ‘Deport Dem’ a whole heap of others which pushed this one to the head of the class STILL as far as Sean Paul albums definitely and regardless of what you may think now, it’s no surprise at all that the artist who made this album went on to be a bonafide superstar.
#3. I-Wayne - Lava Ground [VP Records, 2005]
Remember him? I-Wayne was the talk of everyone’s town just a few years ago and while he certainly hasn’t managed to maintain the hype he ‘flared’ back then, “back then” was truly an awesome thing to behold. It all peaked (at least so far) for the very strange Portmore singer on his debut album Lava Ground, back in 2005 which seemed to signal another “bonafide superstar” in Reggae and had many people calling the singer “the next Garnet Silk” and with good reason. I-Wayne’s style was SO beautiful and ORIGINAL that you really had a difficult time characterizing it at times. Be it the occasionally ridiculously high octave he sung in or his rather strange and quietly HARSH lyrical approach (“UNUH SOON GET DISEASE AND DIE!”), there was definitely something about I-Wayne which inherently set him outside of the pack. And with tunes like the title track, of course ‘Can’t Satisfy Her’, ‘More Life’, ‘Nah Draw Nil’, ‘Grow Proper’, ‘Touch Her Softly’ and definitely others (you can pretty much be guaranteed that this one will turn ‘modern classic’ sometime in 2010), you just knew something was special with him, whether it still is remains to be seen, however, but back then it was AMAZING.
#4. Norris Man - Persistence [VP Records/ 2000]
Okay so, because I just told you about this one I won’t make too big of a deal of it here, but yes, the first time anyone met Norris Man on an album for it was absolutely sublime. Coming courtesy of Iley Dread’s Kings of Kings, Star Trail and Colin McGregor (and Ce’Cile too), Persistence was a fine introduction to an artist who probably hasn’t proven to be as consistent as one might’ve hoped, however, he has most certainly become a very familiar staple within Reggae music and things just wouldn’t be the same without him, or his masterwork which was this album.
#5. Warrior King - Virtuous Woman [VP Records/ 2002]
Let me tell you about this album. I got down to writing number eight on this list (which is now #9) and I went to look for the actual CD if I had it around (and I did) and in the process of doing so, I opened a bin and staring right in my face was this BEAUTIFUL peace from Warrior King, Virtuous Woman. Warrior King is kind of like I-Wayne in the sense that I don’t think he has ever really captured his potential, but he wasn’t as celebrated initially and what he has become is still very respectable in my opinion and the tunes to be found on his debut album, for me at least, are very close to being classics on their own. This album was kind of lost in the hype of the same year (on the same label) from Sizzla’s Da Real Thing album and that’s unfortunate because it was so beautiful. The tune was pushed on the strength of some WK’s earlier hits such as (of course) the title track, ‘Power To Chant’, ‘Jah Is Always There’, ‘Breath Of Fresh Air’ and ‘Education Is The Key’ (oh and ‘Empress So Divine’) and it went to add on further excellent material like the MASSIVE ‘Health & Strength’. The album denoted someone who didn’t end up being a superstar, but someone who has definitely become a solid artist and one who is still potent enough to bring his standing back to the heights like on this album.
#6. Chrisinti - Comfort My People [VP Records/2002]
Getting back to Kings Of Kings, Iley Dread and Ce’Cile, just two years after the Persistence, the same setup masterminded #5 on my list, the GORGEOUS Comfort My People from spectacular singing and spectacularly underrated Chrisinti. This album has been rather ‘comfortably’ shuffled away and given the unfortunate (in terms of popularity) trajectory of Chrisinti’s career, I guess you could say it has matched it and that is a damn shame, because this album was SO GOOD! Chrisinti’s voice is one which just lights up the place time and time again and when given good material, like on this album. It was such an inspiration and it is one which seems to get better over the years (next year (or hell, maybe even this year), I’ll be calling it a modern classic). OH and not to mention the fact that in ‘Land Of The Nazarite’ Chrisinti sang arguably THEE greatest tune of his career and one of the greatest that I’ve ever heard altogether and you’ll find that here.
{note: Hopefully I’ll get around to reviewing this thing one of these days, it would be an honour}
#7. Perfect - Giddimani [DHF Records/2006]
Don’t look at me funny when I start ‘preaching’ about the CONSISTENCY of an album from Perfect (your laugh here), but that’s exactly what puts his debut album Giddimani on this list. Of course consistency in his case has a much different meaning than in the case of the artist who reigns supreme on this list, however. Perfect’s style here was so impressive from a whole heap of different ways - Not the least of which was the fact that he was one in the same artist who sang the BIG and heavenly ‘Handcart Bwoy’ and then just ten tracks later came back with the viciously animated ‘Nuh Badda Mi’. Only one artist I can think of probably who could do such a thing and make it WORK, and it did, and that’s definitely ST. ANN’Z (!) maddest, Perfect.
{note: There was also the Rasta Rebel album which may have been release before Giddimani, but since it was the same damn album essentially, only like 9 people have Rasta Rebel and the two were very close in terms of time, I passed it through}
#8. Vybz Kartel - Up 2 Di Time [Greensleeves Records/2003]
Do you remember when it used to be fun? Before all the Gully/Gaza foolishness and before Kartel turned like his ‘Fadda’ and started taking offence to everything everybody said? Do you remember when people used to call the man ‘Vibes Cartel’ or ’Vybz Cartel’??? Don’t you miss those days? I was certainly amongst the people calling for Kartel to mature his style and started adding dimensions to it, but now that he has (I guess), I kind of miss the days of old which were present in abundance on his debut Up 2 Di Time. From the very first tune, ‘Badman Party’, the ghoulishly talented Kartel presents an absolutely mesmerizing style and one which seemed to signal an eventual changing of the guard from the Beenie and Bounty era to one dominated by the Portmore DJ. Other tunes like ‘Sweet To The Belly’, definitely ‘Sen On’, the SCATHING ‘Badman Nah’ and all of the business with Wayne Marshall seemed to reinforce that, as did the combination of future superstar artist in Kartel alongside future (and arguably then) superstar producer in Don Corleon. Now, with the change having occurred (basically), I might be the only one, but I’m missing the days of getting high like a pedestal, heavenly and celestial! Dammit!
#9. Fantan Mojah - Hail The King [Greensleeves/2006]
Even in the eyes of some of the artists on this list whom I think Fantan Mojah is more popular than these days, I think his debut album Hail The King may be the most forgotten on this list in terms of what it was and how it’s now regarded. It shouldn’t at all be too difficult for you to recall just how big of a deal Fantan Mojah was on the power of his two dominant tunes, ‘Hail The King’ and ‘Hungry’. People were connecting his rise to prominence with an overall re-rise (within another rise) of cultural music as a whole in Reggae and also his style chanting (still his and his alone) was supposed to bring up a healthy batch of new artists attempting to do the same. Well, while those things may have been blown out of proportion (they were) certainly this album could’ve used a similar of meteoric push from the masses because it deserved it (well not quite that much, but you get the point, I’m sure. Besides the two big tunes, there were a few nice surprises on board as well, such as ‘Nuh Build Great Man [featuring Jah Cure]’, ‘Corruption’, ‘Rastafari Is The Ruler’ & ‘Authentic Love [both alongside the future Zareb, Mr. Flash]’, ‘Uplift Yourself [with First Born]’ and my own personal favourite ‘Search’.
#10. Chezidek - Harvest Time [VP Records/2002]
It wasn’t quite the Harvest Time suggested by the title of Chezidek’s debut album (and the best tune on it), but it was certainly forthcoming. You’ll find that his name is the only amongst the artists on this list which rather casually strode amongst the likes of Sizzla, Turbulence (both products of the same camp as Chezidek), Jah Mason and others who maintained a very high level of releases in their time and justly so (although if pretty much everyone else on this list wanted to start doing that now, I wouldn’t complain and neither would you probably). The Martian voiced ST. ANN’Z (!) native linked up with the famed Phillip ‘Fattis’ Burrell and his legendary Xterminator camp to get his career going into the top flight and when he did, it exploded with this stellar release which would have certainly risen higher on this list were it more ‘healthy’ than the eleven tracks and it is to the credit of the overall quality of those tunes that it ranks at all here.
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