'Meet Mr. X': A Review of "Babylon Nightmare" by Jahdan Blakkamoore

I think it’s the case with most serious collectors of music that we tend to try to catalogue and then categorize, within that catalogue, our collections. However you accomplish it, be it by genre or artist or year or maybe even by form, it is the built-in nerd inside of all of us who finds such things interesting and insists on doing so every once in awhile. In my own case, I once again undertook this most ridiculous of processes recently and, in doing so, I started to notice that there’re just a few artists who, when you really break it down and the proverbial light on their work, seem to have a very ‘antisocial’ standing when compared to their peers. Fittingly, it was just a few months back when an American artist by the name of Toussaint introduced us to ‘Soul Roots’ which made a lot of people like myself have to reorganize things and accurately so - his album, ”Black Gold” was thoroughly impressive and one of the best releases of the year. Surely it is a coincidence but, featuring on that album was another artist who is going to have music fans attempting to Feng shui their collections, the sharp Jahdan Blakkamoore. I could pretty much start anywhere in his case, but I think one of the most interesting tidbits of information about the artist is that he has now won “Reggae Album of The Year” honours from iTunes twice consecutively for albums which . . . Well they weren’t really Reggae albums. Last year there was absolute carnage when the premier digital music service gave the downright bizarre ”Buzzrock Warrior” the distinction and in 2008 Jahdan also earned the award as part of the group, Noble Society, for the album, ”Take Charge”. The latter of those two was far more Reggae-ish than the former, but that isn’t very hard to be. Previously, Jahdan was known, primarily, as being a member of said Noble Society group (with whom he apparently continues to tour) and although they reportedly had a very healthy following which stretched all over the world (and I remember constantly seeing their name associated with this wonderful label that I’m about to tell about and while I pretty much checked EVERYTHING this label did (including that strange EP with the Vaughn Benjamin and Lutan Fyah combination on it and a few very strong riddim albums) something about Noble Society just ‘told’ me not to go there just yet). That group, to my ears, was a Hip-Hop group who mixed in a lot of Reggae music and mainly - It was too much Hip-Hop for me. However, over the past two years or so, Jahdan Blakkamoore has begun to do more and more straight Reggae and in the process has shown himself a truly DOMINANT artist.

So, if we could somehow and someway manage to ‘borrow’ Jahdan’s talents and mix them in with just a little more Reggae music consistently (and by “just a little more”, I mean WAYYYYY more than is to be found on ”Buzzrock Warrior”), that would potentially be something truly big. How big? Thirteen months ago I called his forthcoming album, ”Babylon Nightmare” from Lustre Kings Productions, something to Look Forward To in the last sixty days of the 2009 - So, I have been well looking forward to the album’s release for more than a year at this point and over that same time, with exception of Buju, who found a way to remain in the news for other reasons this year, I haven’t had a greater response from you wonderful people who read this blog, about any other artist who hadn’t had a project out or who I hadn’t otherwise found terribly enjoyable (biggup Sara Lugo). Well here’s something to keep you talking as FINALLY one of my favourite labels delivers what is to be regarded, in some circles, as one of the most anticipated albums of the year from one of the most talked about artists of the year. So presumably, with Jahdan on a very Reggae-themed titled album such as ”Babylon Nightmare”, for such a label as LKP, known for doing full blown albums for the likes of Lutan Fyah, Norris Man, Turbulence and others (reportedly Perfect coming in April as well), what we’re going to get here is this Bambu Station-esque piece which is only 100% Reggae and nothing else. Right? Wrong. As I said, the material Jahdan did with Noble Society was somewhat Hip-Hoppish and of course the label I alluded to at that point was also LKP so obviously they had no problem with it at that point at least. Also, something I noticed fairly early on in ”Babylon Nightmare” just highlighted itself for me throughout the album (and kind of made me feel a little dumb that I hadn’t spotted it prior to the album) it - Adding the Hip-Hop flares . . . It’s just kind of Jahdan’s style. Reportedly born in Guyana and having spent a great deal of his formative years in New York City, it is no mystery at all to how Jahdan may’ve developed his vibes as such. Sometimes he reminds me, vocally, of Wyclef Jean to a degree who would be a next artist with a very similar set of origins and I wouldn’t at all be surprised to hear that perhaps the two have worked in the past at some point either. With me not being the biggest fan of Hip-Hop music, it clearly made me have to focus in even harder on what was being said and in doing that I found something else which was a highlight for the album, but this came as no great revelation to me and honestly, I feel that it probably has a great amount to do with why my interest in this release has grown so much over the past year - Jahdan Blakkamoore is a WICKED lyricist. The man says some MIGHTY things and while we, as fans, may prefer it to be delivered in a certain fashion and over a certain backing, I’d like to think that I am able appreciate good words when backed by NOTHING at all whether it’s rapped, chanted or deejayed (and Jahdan does all three here). Also, it does help that the album never really moves too far away from the ‘shadow’ of Reggae music as well. By its end ”Babylon Nightmare” manages to once again prove its authour to be an original as it dually manages to both satisfy the wishes of people like me, while not drifting too far from the artist’s obvious natural sound. Let’s examine!

'All Comes Back To One'

As expected, production on ”Babylon Nightmare” by Jahdan Blakkamoore comes courtesy of not Lustre Kings Productions, but also the roll of labels with which they associate. So you can expect to hear compositions from the likes of I Grade Records, DJ Child from Project Groundation and others as well. And I have been paying attention to Jahdan’s recent output (obviously), so there’re more than a couple familiar moments for me during the album. Such is the case with the opener, the funky ‘We Won’t Break’ . . . Although I cannot (AT ALL) tell you where I know it from, but it definitely sounds familiar. Whatever its origins, the tune is a SUPREME example of the good in the mix of Jahdan’s style of blending the Hip-Hop with Reggae because it is a hybrid of sorts. I hesitate to call it a ‘social commentary’, although that is the direction of the tune, but it’s such a vibes wrapped into something else and right off the top of the album Jahdan manages to set a BOOM for listeners (and that riddim is RIDICULOUS!). He chases the opener with the first official single for the album, ‘All Comes Back To One’. I’ve had a very interesting ‘relationship’ with this one because I have to admit that the very first time that I heard it, and associated it with this album, I was kind of worried because it isn’t the full-on one-drop backed type of tune that I was looking forward to hearing. But it’s also pretty good. Such a set of circumstances generally tells me to focus on what is actually being said, as it did in this case, and strange as it may be, the tune gets better (and much better) each and every time I hear it.

After the opening two selections, ”Babylon Nightmare” then does something fairly unexpected by placing my two favourites in sequence and I am utterly IMPRESSED! The album’s finest moment comes in the form of a very familiar track, ‘Flying High’. I believe I asked Tippy from I Grade Records his favourite tune on the compilation album he released last year ”Joyful Noise” (which you certainly have by now) and he said it was this song. I ultimately found ‘better’, but I was wrong. This is the best song on that HUGE set and it is the best song here as well.

“Back from mentally overcoming the psychological stress of post traumatic slavery syndrome
Like a fish out of water, we’ve been transplanted and still come fi burn down babylon kingdom”

“Babylon ah fight fi control over natural things
Them forgot all the blessings that nature brings”

WHAT!

The song comes in even stronger here as it is now more than half a minute longer than on the ”Joyful Noise” version and the riddim does noticeably play on after the final lyrics have been told. Then comes a very FRESH and vibrant tune, ‘Soul Survivor’, which is the first of the album’s two official combinations, this one featuring Princess Menen (nice name), who is a next artist to keep an eye on from out of New York also. BOOM!

“No matta how hard dem ah try dem coulda neva eva eva keep I down
Beast coulda neva come tek I crown
What goes around comes right back around
Well hot!
Chant two psalm and bun up dem spot!
Blazing fyah man ah walk through dat
Barefoot lak mi name Shadrock
Rastaman ah chat and stand pon lateral
Beast dem ah come fi yah soul on collateral
When you speak out dem call you ah radical
Haffi return to mi home lak Prodigal
If mi haffi sail pon di sea lak nautical
Or fly high in a plane, aeronautical
I’ve got to live natural
Protect your soul, it’s all about your survival”

For her part, Menen more than holds her own alongside Jahdan, providing equal parts smooth delivery and FYAH in her impressive delivery.

Prior to the release of ”Babylon Nightmare”, there was a very official looking mixtape (called a Podcast) by the name of “Global Warning“, which (you people sent me about forty copies of) contained tastes of a few of the tunes which ended up on the album so definitely listeners who paid attention there will be looking forward to the full meal of some of these tracks even before the album comes through for them. Definitely one of the most interesting finds Jahdan taking a ‘Dim View of the World’. I GUESS I can call the tune a ‘gal tune’, but it’s kind of weird because how it actually sounds is that Jahdan has a number one woman in his life, but it doesn’t stop him from staring at potential number 2’s (and 3’s and 4’s) through the ‘cover’ of his sunglasses (thus the title). The song clearly isn’t the best on the album, but the course it takes is definitely ‘different’, to say the least. A version of ‘Songs Of Love’ was on that same mixtape and now, hearing the full version, I am impressed. The song utilizes what appears to be the same Pure Vida Riddim from Dean Pond that backs Pressure Busspipe’s EPIC ‘Pure Life’ tune and Jahdan well takes on the lovely creation to stirring results. ‘Down In The Ghetto’ is another recognizable piece as it not only appeared on the aforementioned “Global Warning” release, but it was also one of a handful of highlights on board a mixtape created by DJ Child, also named ”Down In The Ghetto”, from early last year (and check the ‘feature’ from Eek-A-Mouse as well). And there is also a remix to Jahdan’s riddim title track from LKP’s Proverbs Riddim last year (this time around it’s on a more Hip-Hop set), ‘Right Way’, which is a REALLY big tune and another track which is easily one of the album’s biggest choices, the moodily intoxicating ‘Red Hot’, which was Jahdan’s cut of the Grasslands Riddim, also from the ”Joyful Noise” album.

On the tracks which are new work to my ears, ”Babylon Nightmare” continues to impress. One which caught my attention in a very nice way was ‘Highest Region’ which comes over one of those strange and spiky sounding riddims that Vaughn Benjamin used on the ”Infinite Quality” album LKP released in 2007. Typically such compositions should be reserved for (and only for) Benjamin who . . . doesn’t really care what’s going on behind him very much and while this piece had “complete disaster” written all over it, Jahdan SHINES on the riddim because he basically goes after it. The results are so good it ends up being one of the best tunes on this big album. I could say the same about the tune which precedes it, ‘All Over the World’, which may be Blakkamoore’s attempt at a ‘dance song’, but as usual it comes out as so much more.

“All over the world
Everywhere you go the people feel the vibes
I love to see poor people shine

All over this world
Say they struggling to stay alive
And they’re playing Reggae music day and night”

I really like the basic NATURE of this tune because while it has elements of speaking on cultural and societal matters, it does it seemingly purposefully with a very upbeat backing to it and what I came away from it with, sonically speaking, was that the song is one on which Jahdan REALLY injects his own personality and mannerisms into. Very big tune and surprisingly ripe and complex as well. The inspirational ‘Mountains To Climb’ is apparently an older track, but it’s one which I don’t believe that I’d heard. The song kind of surprises on the surface because it comes equipped with the same sublime Kingdom Riddim which backs Chezidek’s big hit, ‘Call Pon Dem’. Jahdan tears down whatever Chezidek left with some of the finest lyrics to be found here. Again, the tune has a very free feeling to it and it still rings through firm enough to solidify a point which you simply have to dissect on your own - If you can’t focus on the lyrics on this one - Skip it. ‘Against All Odds’ features “Noble Society” (which I take to mean the group’s other two members, one of whom I believe is a giant named Delie) and is the most Hip-Hoppish on the whole of the album as the other two vocalists are straight forward rappers with American accents. I don’t hate this song. Like I said, I can appreciate it when good things are said and the lyrics here are strong, particularly from the first guest vocalist in my opinion who does a very good job.

'Mountains To Climb'

And as the album winds down we get another tune which sounds very familiar, ‘Long Road’. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this tune in some form (probably on one of the other 900 mixtapes I’ve heard with Jahdan on them), but I’m even more certain that it’s never sounded this good! This song is absolutely sublime!

“Well dem ah try slander mi name, try put mi to shame
But mi neva get weary yet
Stumbling block inna mi way, try turn mi astray
But mi neva get weary yet
I give thanks for mi life, for mi health and mi strength
Cah mi neva get weary yet boom!
Nuff ah dem ah hate and ah discriminate
But mi neva get weary yet
All dem ah go down and ah send peer tricks
And mi neva get weary yet
One ah dem try perpetrate war, dem instigate
But mi neva get weary yet
Dem ah come inna mi face and ah intimidate
But mi neva get weary yet
I man ah keep up di pace and ah hold up di faith
Cah mi neva get weary yet
Blakkamoore caan get crackin if mi don’t set straight
Cah mi neva get weary yet
Trust in The Most High
HE’s the defender!
And always remember
It‘s a long road!”

At the end of this review I’m going to place my own distinction (granted I’m not as much of a genius as whoever makes the decisions at iTunes) (clearly somewhere there must owe Jahdan money) on this album and it’s largely because of not ‘songs like this one’ - Meaning plural - But this SONG. It his HUGE! Jahdan takes a well traveled course of telling the masses to hold firm when times get hard, but I don’t know that I’ve ever heard that messaged carried like this. DAMN! The HEAVY ‘Are You Ready’ and ‘Rewind’ close out this top notch set. The former is really strong and kind of ‘delicately dynamic’. What I mean is that the song comes off as being really big and fast paced, but it isn’t as fast as you think, but if you slow it down and hear it as it is, it isn’t as slow as you would think either. Somewhere in the middle of it all, ‘Are You Ready’ is still a big tune. ‘Rewind’, meanwhile, almost sounds like a total freestyle (and it kind of sounds like poetry at times also) across the same riddim which backed Messenjah Selah’s (remember him???) ‘Their Story’ tune. The song has some special effects energy to it that I’ll save for your ears to go through (not very hard to predict with that title), but I will tell you that it and thus the entire album comes to its end with a sweet dub effect over the base riddim: Music on top of music.

Overall: Yes. I am THOROUGHLY impressed and it was well worth the thirteen or fourteen months that I spent waiting for this album to release. As I said I was going to: I’m thinking that in 2010 I’ve yet to hear a better WRITTEN album than this. I‘d typically say such a thing about an album from Sizzla or Lutan Fyah, but ”Babylon Nightmare” is the best lyrical experience to be found in modern Reggae in 2010. Jahdan says so many really powerful things and the way he presents it, for the most part, is very ’resourceful’. To that end, he kind of reminds me of perhaps a more adventurous version of someone like a Junior Kelly (whose “Red Pond“ album is also very strong in that context) when both are at their respective bests and hopefully that is a quality which I’m not overstating and the masses really respond to this album from the lyrical aspect. As a whole, it’s also very well presented and while I’m no greater fan of Hip-Hop for having listened to and enjoyed ”Babylon Nightmare”, when this artist does it, I can do more than simply tolerate it (I do wish they would have stuck one pure Dancehall riddim on the album however) (oh and can someone get me a Jahdan/Capleton combination???). In reference to the premise of this review, after listening to the album I think it’s pretty clear where to place the music of Jahdan Blakkamoore - You are to keep this album in the same area where you keep your material marked “EXCELLENT”. Very well done.

Rated: 4.90/5 {got REALLY close to giving this a 5/5}
Lustre Kings Productions
2010
CD + Digital

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