Despite how much I love and appreciate the music of individuals such as Sizzla Kalonji, Sanchez, Junior Kelly and all of the wonderful artists yet to come this year, I’d have to say that in terms of albums, the most wonderful piece of news I’ve encountered in 2010 thus far is that VP Records will be delivering an album from Capleton, I-Ternal Flame, within the first of the year. I’ve always said that when a (legitimate) album from ‘The Prophet’ reaches, it’s one of the very few times that something so common to Reggae fans, within a modern and not inherently international frame (meaning someone like Shaggy or Sean Paul), literally becomes an event. It is a truly big deal when he releases a new album and unfortunately it’s the type of big deal we’ve now gone without, tangibly speaking, for the past five and a half years, which is entirely too long. Capleton, unlike so many of his ultra-active peers has been an artist who has been tied into a contract (albeit a damn good one apparently), with VP Records for a very long time and it is to that contract that we owe WONDERFUL successes such as last three studio albums, Reign Of Fire, Still Blazing and of course his opus, More Fire. And with the years spanning in between those releases being ultimately well worth the wait (and hopefully that trend continues in 2010), there hasn’t been much actually to complain about besides the time itself. He’s also been very active performing locally as well touring quite frequently over the years (while living a very Reggae devoid part of the world going to college, I once saw Capleton perform three years in succession), so if you’ve wanted the music, you’ve gotten it, he hasn’t been inaccessible AT ALL. Still, I can’t help but wonder what might’ve happen had Capleton been in on the craze like artists such as Sizzla, Anthony B, Turbulence, Jah Mason and others had running a few years back where multiple (LEGITIMATE) studio produced albums would arrive almost continuously throughout the year, every few months. Although I, broke ass college student for the most part at the time, complained bitterly about it, THOSE WERE THE DAYS! But, save for the almost certainly bastardized and completely fucked up and disgusting release from the likes of ‘Rude Boy Records’ and the occasional (very welcome) live albums and DVD’s here and there (which obviously contain nothing new), Capleton’s discography within that time frame is largely ‘limited’ to the A+ material pushed by VP.
But of course there’re exceptions to (almost) every rule. Throughout the years we’ve seen artists like Jah Mason and particularly Sizzla release random (but legitimate) albums from companies who weren’t the most solid and just a few years later now are well long out of the business and thankfully so. And while Capleton is definitely saved (just like we are) from the odd release from some company who’ll forever be known as just doing that single release, he does have an album such as Praises To The King, which certainly comes through a most reputable and respectable source. If you could, in the midst of the big releases from VP, get a kind of a ‘one-off’ album out of Capleton which was even remotely on the ‘up and up’ and could only add to the vibes, that would be a very nice thing and that’s exactly what happen with this album, which I believe appeared in 2003 originally (I have the thing actually sitting right in front of me and there isn’t a date to be found anywhere on it). The release comes courtesy of one what is one of the longest surviving labels in the history of Jamaican music, Maurice Johnson’s Black Scorpio. Not to give too much of a history lesson (because it most certainly isn’t my strongest subject), but if you don’t know of the label, you may very well know of others such as King Jammy’s and later Penthouse which are two of the most well known, Black Scorpio is in that class and in terms of an actual functioning unit, I believe his history predates them both. It should also be mentioned that at roughly the same time, Black Scorpio was in the midst of enjoying quite the renaissance as well, producing albums for the likes of Luciano (Serve Jah) and Anthony B (Wise Man Chant) and scoring hits as singles throughout the same time span roughly. So if you take all of that into consideration, what you have here is an album from one of the greatest of all time, produced by one of the greatest of all time and it just kind of appeared one day. It was just like a bonus Capleton album and even though it didn’t actually reach to the heights as Capleton’s VP albums (which essentially goes without saying) Praises To The King was an album which definitely had and identity of its own and wasn’t merely just a project built upon the shed carcasses of the tracks which VP had turned down. It is in that “identity” that you get exactly why this album was REALLY worth vibing (besides just what it had going on for itself on paper and in setup), because it very much showed another side of Capleton, one which was very familiar to older fans but hadn’t exactly been shown in quite awhile in this sorts (and these tunes, as far as I know, were older as well) and certainly not to this level of quality either. Tracing back the styles from King Shango, you have (as he largely still appears to this day) one which is the HEAVY rootical style and not too far from him is the very fiery (in terms of sound) Dancehall artist and that’s pretty much how he’s known musically, in my opinion. Capleton is this artist who makes these big and spectacularly beautiful Roots Reggae anthems and then he’ll also turn of the flames to the highest temperature and DOMINATE in a new age Dancehall style. Well, while neither of those aspects of his base style are on full display here, what is present is just a very strong and straight forward style which may actually make Praises To The King one of Capleton’s lyrically strongest efforts to date actually.
As I said, Black Scorpio was very active around the same time with releasing various projects for various artists. That being said, even if you aren’t very familiar with some of the material on this album, you may recognize some of the riddims from different projects and familiarity in that sense (in Reggae) isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Also not a bad thing is the incredibly intelligent ’Righteousness’ which begins Capleton’s album Praises To The King from Black Scorpio. The tune is very evident of what I tried to convey - Being a midtempo piece which, ostensibly, isn’t SCALDING in any single area, the tune thrives on what is said. “Seems like they don’t love good intentions no more, seems like they don’t love righteousness no more. Seems like they don’t want their heart too clean and pure”, he says opening the tune which is still quite delightful sonically speaking as well, utilizing the same Dance Riddim which backed Luciano’s formidable ‘Long Story’. The title tune is in next and it well keeps a similar vibes going and perhaps even turns things back just a little in terms of the tempo. In retrospect, I don’t actually recall this tune being such a great hit that it would immediately jump off the page at you as being a title track for an album, but it certainly does sound very nice. The tune, like the album itself, definitely presents that kind of older ‘dusty and smoky’ sound of Roots and Dancehall in which Capleton did a great deal of his developing (which is present throughout the album). So of course with that being said, you can imagine he does very well with the inspirational vibes of the song. The third song on the album, ’Fire Ago Bun Dem’ is a similarly vibed tune, although it does throw quite the ‘wrinkle’ in, in the form of Ilah Man [bka German Reggae superstar Gentleman] (apparently not realizing that name was already taken by that WICKED Soca artist from out of St. Lucia). The tune is also very familiar as it appeared on Gentleman’s own album Journey To Jah where it existed as one of the highlights to that album and NOTHING has changed on Praises To The King. It’s still a VERY BIG tune and you’ll certainly not tire here from Gentleman working his magic in a combination style with artists far and wide. BIG START.
Gentleman’s certainly isn’t the only name joining Capleton on the album; his is just the very first of what turns out to be four in total. The second of these is the biggest and the most familiar and also the one which aids The Prophet in pushing the strongest vibes on the album, Luciano, who costars on ’Never Want The Youths To Die’ [bka ’Hail King Selassie’ (which was also on the aforementioned Serve Jah and Still Blazin’ albums, respectively). This tune, although well traveled by this point, is just a personal classic for me as the two stars come together to produce what is one of the greatest modern Reggae tunes of giving praise that you’ll EVER hear! Period! The tune is absolutely a MASSIVE vibes and it’s everything you’d expect given the quality of the two artists. Although it’s a name which you may not remember, Bobby Zarro is another which denotes a pretty nice level of quality and he joins Capleton on a tune, ’Gun Hark’ [aka ‘Dem Gun’] which may be around twenty years old at this point. The very colourful antiviolence tune utilizes the famed Diseases Riddim and it does so to near perfection. This is what I mean when I spoke of that “older style”. Capleton came up as a straight Dancehall DJ and there were tunes like such which decorated his earlier catalogue. Looking back upon it now and some of them are absolute GEMS, such as this selection here. The fourth and final combination on Praises To The King, ‘Ghetto Youth Fi Big‘ is also the final tune on the album and features the somewhat reserved Josie Mel. All of these years later and despite owning two of his albums, I still can’t tell you very much about Mel (I do know that he was a favourite on Scorpio, however), but I certainly hold him in a nice esteem and it’s tunes like this, which goes to show how Mel and Capleton see things going for the then coming generation, which are exactly why. I’d love it if the two would re-link the combination in the future, with Mel having since shown himself an ACE in that department (biggup Lutan Fyah).
Most of the old school Dancehall material on Praises To The King is reserved for the second half of the album. The first is definitely a big one as Capleton throws the hat of his sound in the ring with ’My Sound’. You’ve certainly heard dozens of these tunes, but don’t they just sound so much better when someone whose skill and reputation are CERTIFIED as opposed to some loudmouth sound boy? While not one of my favourites on the album, if you are unable to appreciate a tune like this, then Dancehall simply isn’t for you. There’s also ’Cold Blooded Murderer’ which very much comes in like the similarly named tunes from both Beenie Man and Buju and does so on the classic Far East Riddim. This is another tune which may be upwards of twenty years old or so and it isn’t one of my favourites either, but I’m SURE there’re quite a few old heads out there who regard in a HEAVY esteem and the skill level here is so high that it’s definitely no wonder why. ’Some Body’ on the other hand, IS definitely one of my favourites and the tune itself speaks to its own age as it finds Capleton taking friendly slaps at his competition and naming individuals like Risto Benji, Admiral Bailey and other stars from that solid era in Dancehall. The ‘set’ of this tune is GIANT. It’s absolutely brilliant and even if you don’t have that feel for it, the downright sickening Auntie Riddim which backs it (also backed the SCATHING ‘Badder Than The Rest’ by Beenie Man) will certainly drag you in and keep your attention as well.
For the more straight forward Roots pieces on Praises To The King, you’ll check a tune such as ‘Right Now’. This tune is I think closest on this album to the fiery Roots which Capleton presents these days, because it definitely has that kind of ‘hybrid’ sound to it. It also has that long and spiraling style of connecting lyrics for which he is known and I absolutely love about his style. There’s also ‘Gwaan Fight Them’ which grabs the same riddim as Luciano’s BIG tune ‘I Will Survive’ [alongside Messenjah Selah]. He doesn’t quite get to those levels, but Capleton definitely drops a HEAVY piece on the riddim which, at least for me, is just about letting people go through and not giving everyone a fight and just trying FOCUS ON ONESELF. You’ll later encounter the decent 'Love The Ghetto Youths', which is decent, but I jump to it to save for last the WICKED ’Seek Salvation’. Lyrically the tune expresses Capleton’s thought of so many misguided and downright HARMFUL religions of the world and the riddim on the track (whose name I have no idea of, but is very familiar) pushes it even higher to my tastes and to yours as well, I’m sure. It does the same for the album as a whole as well.
Overall, I’d definitely like to reiterate the fact that Praises To The King is by no means a GREAT album. That word is thrown around entirely too much (by myself as well, I’m sure) and it’s not a word I’d use here. Given the fact that there’re only thirteen tracks in full and the album isn’t without its soft spots as I’ve alluded to, certainly no such an album is great and this isn’t the exception either. But what it is, especially considering Capleton’s past with releasing albums is DAMN INTERESTING and perhaps via lack of competition, it stands with One Mission as some of the strongest (legitimate) non-VP work that Capleton has done since the days of I-Testament and Prophecy. Black Scorpio and ANYONE is something which is probably going to catch my attention in some way and when you link it up with Capleton, it is a LOCK and the results are just what you might expect at that time. Call it one of the most interesting releases of his entire career and DEFINITELY not bad at all for a ‘bonus’.
Rated 3.5/5
Black Scorpio
2003
Happy Born Day Capleton!
I have this on pre-order from Amazon, but the album is available online already. Treat yaself
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