'Shooting Star': A Review of the Ifficial Riddim by Various Artists

Streaks - both good and bad - Are things most often and generally associated with the world of sports. Be it a footballer who’s scored in x-amount of consecutive games or a basketball player who has missed so many consecutive free throws, I think that we’ve come to think of ’streaks’, ’runs’ or ’rolls’ mainly in the sporting sense. I, however, do believe in and maintain that that there is such a thing as ’musical momentum’, which is essentially another way of saying streaks in the musical world. In Reggae specifically momentum is a thing which, I feel, can manifest itself in a variety of different ways. For an artist, one could make the argument that their entire careers are little more than the combination of many different streaks and seeking some type of ultimate consistency is merely a matter of having far more good stretches in your career than bad. For example, the career of one [Baby] Cham is the streak of all streaks in regards to Dancehall. He goes from making ‘good’ and sometimes ‘exceptional’ music to . . . Not making much of anything at all and he’s ALWAYS done that, for his entire career - From the top of the charts and international success to a missing persons report. In terms of Roots Reggae music, things are only slightly different because that subgenre has seemingly made room for itself (and done so on a global level) and isn’t necessarily this ‘do or die’ battlefield that Dancehall tends to be in the most proverbial of senses (of course). Here we are inclined to see more consistency for artists, but staleness as well. We can currently look at someone like Chezidek who is probably enjoying not only the greatest level of popularity in his entire career, but also one of the greatest stretches of quality as well (and isn’t it so nice how the two combine at the very same time)?). On the opposite end of that same spectrum exists someone like a Turbulence whose supreme talent level almost ensures that any time he isn’t scoring hit after hit (and he isn’t and hasn’t been for quite some time), he’s experiencing quite the downturn. Now, if we take that phenomenon and apply it to an actual label then ‘all bets are off’ because a label has the ability to fuel these such stretches for artists and eliminate them as well and with that being said, I think I’ve managed to find a label on an absolute ROLL in the form of Itation Records.

If the Higher Meditation, the Show Love, the World Go Round and the Clearly (which no one ever sent to me. Ever) (wink wink) Riddims were any indications (and they are, in fact, the only indicators) of quality then Itation has been absolutely blazing from since I first heard of their name just a few years back. All were quality productions and would lead to very strong riddim albums showing, if nothing else, that the label clearly had an ear for top notch material and definitely had the wherewithal to put that material in the proper form and shine the proper light on it as well. Furthermore, when they weren’t doing riddim albums, Itation was busying themselves with a couple of album releases - Delly Ranx’ most unexpected ”Good Profile” and the exceptional ”Vizionary” album from VI Roots Reggae master, Ras Batch (who actually built the Higher Meditation Riddim, if I recall correctly) - Both of which managed to place them in an even higher standing in my opinion, despite the fact that I wasn’t and still am not a very big fan of Delly‘s. It is largely because of their highly dependable output, in such a brief time Itation Records has quickly managed to join others such as the powerhouse that is Lustre Kings Productions and Zion High Productions, as some of my favourite Stateside based Reggae producers going right now. And, although my loyalty (read: BIAS) ultimately does ride with LKP, I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see Itation reach a point where it becomes highly debatable that they are THE number one label in the States, if we haven’t, already, reached that point. So, with all of that, you know that my eyes are going to jump in their general direction the next time Itation brought forth a project and said time has now arisen as the big and bad Ifficial Riddim has just been released. This HEAVY riddim was reportedly built by the same WICKED Tune In Crew from out of France who also crafted the World Go Round and Clearly Riddims (and also the same Tune In Crew who has worked extensively with Achis Reggae favourite, Sudanese born singer Dynamq) and it is a lovely composition. The riddim is this kind of ‘LARGE’ vibed one-drop riddim which, ostensibly, lends itself very easily to the vocalists. And speaking of those vocalists (although brief) (more on that in just a minute), for the most part Itation Records shows, once again, that when it comes to lining up big names and proper and fitting names to a project, they have very little in the way of equals. They also give a pretty nice mix of artists as well, ensuring that the project will nicely catch attention like mine and then give listeners a name or two to think of tuning in to in the future (hopefully on further Itation Riddims). It is also well worth mentioning that, like their previous work largely, the Ifficial Riddim ends up in due course producing songs which may have a genuine lasting appeal. For me, I look back at tunes such as Pressure (more on him a minute) alongside Norris Man on ‘When Your Time Is Up’ from the Show Love Riddim, Lutan Fyah’s ‘Trodding Alone’ from the same riddim and Sizzla’s ‘Goodness’ and Pressure’s dazzling ‘Ganja Make The World Go Round’ on the World Go Round Riddim which all have a significant enduring connection for me and stick out as moments on Itation Records riddims (and not to even mention Batch’s album - An album full of memorable moments) - And I found myself having that same feeling in regards to three or four songs on the Ifficial Riddim. By its end, the riddim proves to be yet another STRONG addition to the ever growing family . . . At least for as long as it lasts.

Okay, I’ll get the vast majority of what I do not like here out of the way right now - The riddim only has NINE vocal tracks. Coming after its older siblings who, at the least, had thirteen in the case of the World Go Round, I was pretty surprised and somewhat disappointed in just seeing that. What I most certainly wasn’t disappointed in was the opening tune on the Ifficial Riddim album from Itation Records, ‘Jah’ by Monsoon. I mentioned that there were “three or four songs” on the riddim which I felt could lay a lasting impression on its listeners and this is definitely one of them with the big ‘calling’ nature of the song it shows itself to be not only well educational, but damn entertaining as well. Monsoon’s is a name which is largely new to me, for the most part, particularly on this level, but I am now well interested to hear more from him, indeed. Next up is another of said three big tunes, ‘Watch Over My Soul’ from VI Reggae ace, Pressure Busspipe. I built this review on the premise of great streaks and clearly, in terms of Itation riddims, Pressure has been on a bit of a hot streak within a hot streak. He’s also, subsequently, become one of the genre’s most consistent and dependable lyricists in the meantime and what he delivers on this effort is nearly exceptional.

“For every seed I sow
For every that my locks grow
Most High watch over my soul
And restoreth my soul
For everything that I don’t know
Shine your light, let it be shone
Most High watch over my soul”

Finally of the opening lot is an artist with whom I am largely familiar based on his pieces on Itation riddims, Rocker T. His tune on the Ifficial Riddim, ‘No Surprise’ is another pretty nice song for the artist, although I’ tell you to, because of Rocker’s kind of ‘varied’ delivery on the tune, deal with it a bit before passing judgment, good or bad.

As with one or two of Itation’s previous riddims, I noticed that I had actually run into the Ifficial Riddim prior to the riddim album because the aforementioned Delly Ranx actually lined up a big tune on it for his debut album for Itation Records last year, ”Good Profile”, by the name of ’Rasta Nah Bow’. Just as it was there (I think it was the second best tune on that album), it is a real highlight here as well. In fact, it may even sound a bit better because I haven’t spun in it some time, but even if you’ve never heard it before, I’m sure it’ll be amongst the favourites of most on the riddim. The same could be said for ‘Your Love’ which comes from an artist who made his own debut earlier this year, Bescenta (on the increasingly solid ”Genuine“). He’s another name that has been enjoying a very nice stretch in his career and this tune, a lover’s piece, does nothing but help in that instance to my opinion. Also doing well enough is young veteran, Teflon, with ‘Know Your Own’. This tune doesn’t make such a HUGE impact in my opinion, but what I’ve began to notice in Teflon’s case is the exact opposite of what I previously thought - The more he does Roots type of music, the better he becomes at it and it isn’t necessarily a great idea for him to bring the fire EVERY TIME out. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of Fiyah Binghi and because of that he becomes THE new artist that I take away from the Ifficial Riddim. His song, ’All My Life’ is surprisingly strong repatriation anthem which pretty much caught me off guard. Apparently Binghi is an artist from out of the Boston area in the States and I would REALLY be interested in hearing more from him in the future because this tune is well impressive.

The on song here that I don’t too much enjoy is ‘Backyard’ from Kali Blaxx. Blaxx, maybe for the rest of his career, is going to have a difficult time with the herbalist type of tune because of the EPIC ‘One Smoke’. Pretty much anything that he does is going to elicit a ‘he can do better’ type of a reaction from the masses.

From that extreme we go to the complete opposite with Reggae legend (I think “legend” is an appropriate title for him now) Anthony B who delivers what is the Ifficial Riddim’s biggest moment in my opinion, the closer ‘Outta Road’.

“You know si too much black hearse and black casket
Too much gangster, actors and actress
Man a bun di devil work weh dem ah practise
Nowadays, yute ah get dem bredda tun target”

The tune is an antiviolence/social commentary piece and it is just BIG. I’m already thinking that such a tune is probably ‘destined’ to go beneath the radars of most, but for everyone so inclined to take it as seriously as it is, for you (and me) is one of Anthony B’s best tunes in more than awhile. There’s also a clean version of the Ifficial Riddim included and it, once again, follows Itation’s ‘different’ exercise of just kind of randomly placing the instrumental track somewhere in the midst of the album and not as the last tune - I’m not complaining - It’s lovely wherever they put it.

Overall, this is very interesting. On one hand, Itation Records has set the bar SO HIGH with their other releases that the very fact that there’re nine tunes here kind of hinders the Ifficial Riddim to some extent, in terms of living up to those expectations. On the other, it is a beautiful riddim, there is big material here and I’m suspecting that the response amongst casual fans will be very strong and amongst some of the hardcore heads as well. So, while I’m not quite prepared to giving it the rousing endorsement which I’ve come to in the instances that “new Itation Riddim” makes it onto my players, what I will say is that the likelihood that anyone who has enjoyed the label’s output to date DISLIKES the Ifficial Riddim is officially at 0% as once again the Itation shows credible evidence for the existence of musical momen . . . You know what? I think I should forget all of that “streak” shit - Maybe that they just know what they’re doing. Well done.

Rated: 3.5/5
Itation Records/Zojak Worldwide
2010
Digital


Itation Records
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