"Are They Listening???": A Review of Born To Be Free by Natty King

I’ve been asked now, on several occasions, by ‘industry people’ who have seemingly stumbled upon my blog whether or not I am some sort of official publicist for the artists about whom I write. And while I’ve certainly given this ‘business’ some consideration and may actually try my hand at it at some point in the future, I of course am not and wouldn’t at this point be interested. BUT IF I WERE, there is a very disturbing tier of artists who I would seek out to work with/for because the very fact that they aren’t more well known than they are is just something, at this point, which I just find to be incredibly strange. I’m not even talking about looking for ‘the next big thing’ on the levels of Sean Paul, Shaggy and the likes, I’m talking more along the levels of Sizzla, Capleton, Luciano and artists like such who certainly don’t have that ‘mainstream’ following surrounding them, but are clearly household names in regards to Reggae fans, deep and casual observers alike. While we open the doors to that class to add younger lights such as Tarrus Riley and Etana when they’ve proven themselves worthy, simultaneously it seems to shut in the face of individuals who would seem to be in a position to step forth also, but for some reason do not. So if you think I write a lot now and I’m passionate about the music, were I actually making my living doing this to expose artists to the masses, I’d make reviews like this look like picture captions. So with whom would I start? I’d probably go out of my way to attempt to work with very talented individuals who I feel have the unquestionable talents and abilities to sustain themselves in the industry and probably the type of artists who would also have a bit of a youthful ‘feel’ to them as well. Someone like Natty King actually might be perfect to start with because it has equally fascinated and frustrated me for the better part of a half decade or so now why this man isn’t a bigger star than he is. On the level of just being flat out - I could rather easily say something like ‘well if Luciano became a star and Bushman became somewhat of a star, then Natty King should also’. Of course that would be lame and I’m not going to do it, but to use those two more popular artists, their successes definitely show that the masses are WARM to accepting an artist like Natty King, a big and baritone voiced singer, at least in theory. On top of that theory is the fact that the man has already had a bonafide hit to his credit - ‘No Guns To Town’, which remains (unfortunately) his largest hit to date. Since then, however, his career hasn’t seemed to progress in the way in which I and definitely many of his fans (and probably Natty King himself) would have hoped or predicted. Seriously, what has become of Natty King, with all of his talent, is just WRONG!

But apparently things are far more on the ‘RIGHT’ side, in regards to how the singer from out of St. Thomas parish is perceived and accepted by fans, in Europe. I have actually been noting that I’ve been seeing his name pop up more and more on compilations and artist’s albums (biggup Marlene Johnson) here and there and quite a bit of them were from European labels and apparently he’s been touring the continent frequently as well (of course that isn’t at all surprising as Europe has essentially become a ‘home away from home’ for modern (and old school) Roots Reggae music, but as usual, such a thing both pleases and distresses me because I DAMN SURE thought that Natty King’s music would be more appreciate at home). Well, lo and behold someone had something under their proverbial sleeves as after all those appearances riddims and compilations, Natty King now delivers his third album to date, Born To Be Free for the solid Austrian based House of Riddim imprint. This album, to my knowledge, is largely built on tunes done by the King for a variety of European based labels (with a couple of exceptions or so) and that’s a pretty good thing as, European compositions (especially as of late) have been very good to me on a variety of recent releases and this album, in terms of quality, definitely continues that trend. The fact that the album is only the third from Natty King, however, is somewhat disappointing. His very first No Guns To Town, despite being very good, has largely been forgotten in my opinion and while I still spin through it at least somewhat consistently (talking about monthly at this point), I’d think that I’m in fewer and fewer company in that. His second, last year’s compilation style digital release Trodding, was probably a stronger album than the first (the fact that it had the best producer on the planet certainly didn’t hurt) in total, but I don’t even think that it received nearly as much of the hype that I might’ve hope. It is on those unfortunate standards that Born To Be Free PROBABLY becomes the King’s most high profile release to date and I sure am hoping that European fans are going crazy over this one and so much so that the fervor extends to fans worldwide. That, of course, goes back to the reception (or lack thereof) I think that the artist has been getting in general. For me personally, this album is VERY big deal and I remember when I first saw it ‘forthcoming’, I was genuinely excited, and again, I’m so hoping that I was part of a very large group in that. Natty King is an artist who, at least by my standards, has proven himself well capable of handling the vibes for a full album and on this release he reinforces that fact and does so with such a very interesting and colourful piece in total that, while I’m reluctant to speak of it in terms of ‘album of the year’ discussions, I’m really going to have a hard time listening to someone make the case that this isn’t a very strong album.

As I said, I’d been noticing Natty King’s name pop up more and more on releases from European labels over the past year or two and because I pay entirely too much attention to such things I was actually familiar with more than a couple of the tunes on the album including two of the finest and most interesting selections. It just so happens that in a strange way (but not really) the finest and definitely the most interesting of them all begin things on Natty King’s new album for House of Riddim, ‘Slu U In The Open’. Okay, for posterity’s sake I should definitely say that - NO, this isn’t the strongest tune on this album - HOWEVER, had it appeared in its original form, across Rootdown Records’ absolutely GOLDEN iLove Riddim, it probably would have been. The version on this album is an acoustic set and the tune (which may contain the same vocals from the other track) is STILL very strong and one of the best tunes here and definitely feel free to pick up the original for the MASSIVE track which is a warning to decent and righteous people, to be careful with whom you associate. Although I was certainly less familiar with the next tune ‘Free Yourself’, I was still nicely impressed. This tune has a very strong lyrical base (it kind of categorizes and compartmentalizes the sentiments of the title of the album) and it also sounds very nice as well and if you have both of those then you can’t really go wrong. And then there’s the arguably even stronger ‘Don’t Be Foolish’ which doesn’t necessarily have the sonic punch of the tune which precedes it, but is easily one of the strongest lyrical sets on the whole of the album. I would definitely be interested in hearing the story of how Natty King wrote this tune and in particular the line, “what dem stimulate is pain”. Very interesting tune.

Songs two and three eluded my experience, but as I said I am quite familiar with a few of the tunes here. A song like ‘Real Herbalist’ (one of two identifiable ganja tunes on the album, although the ganja does appear to be on of the King’s favourite topics of discourse on Born To Be Free) is one I know quite well as it appeared a few years back on House of Riddim’s very cool Street Riddim. This tune is one of the biggest on the entire album. It finds the King kind of openly flaunting (SHAMELESSLY!) what his herbal interests are and doing so in a way which kind of speaks to the usefulness of this wonderful plant (at one point he flat out says that the herb pays his rent). On that same medicinal note, ‘Herb From The Westside’ is another tune here which rang a bell for me. The tune flows across the same Sons of Spoon riddim which backed D’Angel’s big hit, ‘Stronger’ a few years back and the tune just so happens to feature Fantan Mojah as well. Fantan Mojah is slowly but surely once again becoming one of my favourite artists again and this tune definitely helped his standing along as the two make a very powerful pair (Mojah just seems to pair well with almost everyone). My ears also jumped in the direction of the closing tune for the album ‘The Truth’, because I recognized it as being on HoR’s Conqueror Riddim (big tune from Utan Green on that riddim) and besides that, it’s HUGE! Probably my second favourite tune altogether on the album as it speaks to the terrible terrible lies being told upon His Imperial Majesty and dismantles them one by one. That tune simply cannot be missed. And then there’s ’Care For Life’ which took me awhile to recognize (damn near finish with the review when it hit me that I knew it), but the song was THE dominant effort across the EPIC Consuming Fire Riddim from several years back now and it kind of serves, in my opinion, as the other side of the opener in a sense, definitely get into the message there. Still, all of that being said, as I alluded to, the album’s absolute finest tune is another one with which I’m very familiar, the SPARKLING ‘Fyah Bed’. This song! This song is ‘Exhibit A’ when I think about the damn crime it’ll be if this album doesn’t find a big audience, because this thing is magnificent. For me, it strikes a meditative type of song and when you really get into the lyrics it actually magnifies that sentiment as well and is just a powerful and upful vibes on the Kings Highway riddim from Reality Chant, which I believe is an Australian label. MASSIVE tune!

Of the songs with which I was largely unfamiliar, definitely two caught my interest and stuck out on paper. The first is, of course, the title track for the album. I always try to focus in on the title track because it, perhaps, gives some ‘hints’ as to the overall statement attempting to be made with the album (even though in the case of this particular album, I think the aforementioned ‘Free Yourself’ probably does a better job of that actually). With this tune, I think what Natty King is trying to speak of is more of a mental freedom than a physical one (although with a social connotation, a physical freedom is just about always looming in the conversation)and he goes about this in a way which is very uplifting (love the occasional backup singers as well). The other tune here which caught my eye was the classically vibed ‘Rootsman Chantin’ which just happens to feature a resurgent Louie Culture. Speaking of uplifting, this one is probably one of the MOST jovial and uplifting on the album and you simply must hear Culture absolutely LOCK OFF the verse in the middle of the tune and do so quite effortlessly at that. Love this song and its ‘organic appeal’ and just everything around it is very subtly powerful. The official (I THINK) press release for the album also mentioned the tune ‘Purge Dem’ as being a previous single for the Austrian label Bassrunner Productions and when I actually got into the tune I realized that it was from the Prisonbreak Riddim, which I have but have yet to get into as of yet (shamefully). Well if I needed anymore convincing to take it out for a spin (and apparently I did), Natty King gave it to me with the tune which is one which deals with cleansing of all types, including in the actual music, which is a very large statement. It ultimately ends up being one of the finest moments on the album. There’s also the very nice ‘You Don’t Have To Steal’ - a message you would think would be far known by now, but apparently not. I liked this tune because, as you might suspect, what it attempts to do is simplify several simple things and concepts which have seemingly gone forgotten in today’s world, but it does so in a way which isn’t ridiculous or condescending. It’s just a very nice vibes. Another very nice vibes (even nicer actually) is the tune ‘Memories’ which finds Natty King going all Beenie Man on the people. This tune has another powerful message. I took it as a tune saying to be careful what you do because, for better or for worst, you’ll have to live with the consequences or rewards of your actions. It’s a very relatable message, GRIEF, and one which hopefully helps someone by. Obviously when you name a song ‘Buzz Rock Warrior’ people are going to pay it special attention, so it better be good. Thankfully the King’s rendition is even better than just “good” and has a very strong and captivating vibes to it (love the occasional horn). The tune has a very broad appeal and were it given the opportunity, I would think it could become one of the more popular tunes here. ‘Evil Surround Me’ is another potential HIT on Born To Be Free and it’s definitely not only one of the strongest tunes on the album, but probably one of the strongest of Natty King’s career thus far. I might have to go back and think about what my second favourite is, because ‘Evil Surround Me’ is top notch material and I love to hear things like this from anyone and definitely Natty King.

Lastly I’ll mention the one tune on the album which I definitely do not enjoy, ‘Judgement ‘ (everyone spelling that word wrong these days). The tune has a nice sound, but it is just almost WHOLLY unexceptional. It is FILLER of the highest order and certainly that’s excusable here, but just keep it in mind not to expect much from it.

Overall, I’m not sure of the overall impact an album like Born To Be Free will ultimately have, but I suppose that I should attempt to look more into exactly how popular Natty King has become in Europe as of late. Apparently he RIGHT NOW has touring planned alongside the House of Riddim band for this year to promote the album, so definitely that’s a big deal. And if the furthering of said “big deal” is to promote this album also then what you have here may be a bit of a ‘dark horse’ type of an album for the rest of the world. I guess maybe you could say the same thing about Natty King himself actually. If Europe has suddenly become fertile ground of supporters of his message then definitely more power to him. However, if I could help in any way to get him to that same level of success back home, as you can see, I’m certainly ready to do my part - Too damn long the world has been sleeping on this HUGE talent. Well done.

Rated 4/5

House of Riddim/DHF

2010

Natty King @ Myspace