What I'm Listening To Vol. 6

Wyclef Jean - “Welcome To Haiti: Creole 101” [Sak Pasé Records, 2004]

What an interesting, interesting album! Of course all the news is currently buzzing around international star, Wyclef Jean, as he recently announced his intentions to run as President of his native Haiti. Whether or not such a position is within his reach remains to be seen, but back in 2004 ‘Clef’ well had it in his power to drop this, ”Welcome To Haiti: Creole 101” album for his homeland. The album was WONDERFULLY filling, covering various styles such as Hip-Hop, Reggae, Soca, Kompas and others and it remains, in my opinion, one of the greatest testaments to Wyclef’s genius that he pulled this one off, kind of behind the scenes and then seamlessly returned to his Hip-Hop center without missing a beat. He didn’t do it on his own, joining the rapper were, amongst others, Buju Banton, Foxy Brown, T-Vice, his sister Melky, a particularly on point Admiral T and, incidentally, Sweet Mickey, potentially Clef’s biggest name rival for the presidency of Haiti. Big album.

Spragga Benz - “Thug Nature” [Empire Musicwerks, 2002]

From one superstar to a next - I’m going to assume that it was the fact that I’m just tired of waiting for Spragga Benz’ increasingly MYSTERIOUS and potentially LEGENDARY new studio album, ”Shotta Culture” (which, I last heard, was scheduled for an August 31 release date, but has now been pushed back indefinitely) (I’d be pretty damn surprised if we got it before the end of 2010 at this point), which made me pull out the ”Thug Nature” album. If that wasn’t it, I’m lost. It’s certainly not that this album wasn’t any good - Quite the contrary - For what it was [supposed to be], a HARDCORE Dancehall album, it was pretty damn good actually. But the problem was that despite the “Parental Advisory - Explicit Content” warning on the cover, it was EDITED! There is still some value to tunes like ‘Bait’, ‘Spin Yu Roll’, ‘Buck A Catty’, personal favourite ‘Playa’ and ‘Gi Wi Dem’ alongside the Red Square Camp, but not as much as there should’ve been and this album remains kind of ‘lost’ (and deservedly so), from one of the very few GENUINE master DJ’s the Dancehall has ever seen.

Ragga Ragga Ragga 2006 [Greensleeves, 2006]

And speaking of genuine masters of the Dancehall, five of them, Beenie Man, Buju Banton, Bounty Killer, Shabba Ranking and Vybz Kartel (still have to give respect where it’s due despite . . .) appeared on what turned out to be a bit of resurgence for the ”Ragga Ragga Ragga” series, 2006’s edition. There was a very noticeable trend favouring not only very hardcore and very skillful deejaying, but also the kind of old school rebirths of the vibes as well. The result was, arguably, the best edition of ”RRR” of all time, boasting tunes such as Beenie’s HUGE ’We Set Di Trend‘, ‘Heart Attack’ and (the ridiculous) ‘Stamina’, Shabba and Kartel uniting on a remake of ‘Love Punani Bad’, Macka Diamond’s ‘Ugly Man’, Spice’s incredibly dirty 85 Riddim backed ‘Grab Yuh Hood’ and the album’s finest moment to my opinion, Buju’s MASSIVE ‘Beauty Queen’ from the reborn Twice My Age Riddim (then called the Twice Again). Not enough? The same album also featured earlier hits from Busy Signal - ‘2 Much Gun’, ‘Lu Lu Lu’ and ‘A Weh Busy A Do’, Aidonia - ‘Chicken Head’ and the hilarious ‘More Punanny’ by Dr. Evil and (more still) the same album had Matterhorn’s ‘Dutty Wine’ when it was still kind of new. BIG.

Damian ‘Jr. Gong’ Marley - “Halfway Tree” [Ghetto Youths/Motown Records, 2001]

”Distant Relatives” certainly gave a jolt to my senses and it also convinced me (not that it would’ve taken much at that point) to dig up the ”Halfway Tree” album, dust it off and drop it on the players where it’s been now for almost three months now. This (very) borderline ‘modern classic’, although it didn’t get anywhere near the attention of the ”Welcome To Jamrock” album or the aforementioned combination with Nas, was CLEARLY better than both in my opinion. To my ears, Gong makes a very specific and often pretty DARK type of vibes and while ”HT” was still pretty dark, it was also more melodic and just kind of ‘loose’ which fit so nicely with this reenergized and just flat out BETTER version of the artist. It still had its dark moments with tunes like ‘Educated Fools’ (with Bunny Wailer, Treach and Bounty), ‘It Was Written’ (with Capleton, Drag-On (unfortunately) and brother Stephen) and others, but with tunes like the WICKED ‘Mi Blenda’, ‘Still Searching’ (with Yami Bolo and Stephen), the unforgettable ‘Give Dem Some Way’ (with the late Daddigon), the infectious ‘Paradise Child’ (featuring Mr. Cheeks and Jimmy Cozier) and more, what you got on ”Halfway Tree” was just a BRILLIANT mix of exactly what Jr. Gong was capable of (has it been that long???) (damn).

Tina Ly - “Couleurs Du Monde” (Collector‘s Edition) [AngelSound Productions, 2009]

And finally - Because I write SO DAMN MUCH, there’s always an album that I keep on a pretty consistent rotation which kind of breaks up my mind and helps me express what I’m trying to say better (consider it laxative vibes). That album is almost always something pretty opposite of whatever I’m listening to (it’s generally some Soca or some pretty high powered Dancehall riddim album) and as of late, I’ve ventured out and for the past week or two, it’s been one of my favourite Zouk albums ever, ”Couleurs Du Monde”, via the divine Guyane born Zoukie, Tina Ly. This is actually a really cool re-release of a really cool album released back in 2007 and this edition had really nice extras, like a DVD with performances and an interview and nice pictures and everything. The album itself was very strong also, featuring a kind of ‘global’ theme with the various tunes being attached to some of Tina’s favourite places like New York, Haiti, Miami, Gwada and of course she reserves arguably the album’s finest moment ‘Di Mwen’ for Guyane. So I’m loving this album right now and you can too, courtesy of >>> Antilles-Mizik.com or even digitally (although digitally its pretty much the same as the original) for . . . Wherever you shop. Yeah (oh and did I mention that Tina’s a cutie???).