Okay so, I had tons & tons of fun putting together the Sizzla 50, a list of fifty random songs in celebration of Kalonji completing his fiftieth year on the planet. Putting that together fairly quickly (I don't know if it took more than two or three hours) was a BEAUTIFUL dosage of nostalgia and, despite the fact that I had so much room to work with, I still left out quite a few tunes that I had originally planned to put on the list (such as the entire "Ghetto Youth-ology" album, for example). It was a fun journey back through the classics and, on one hand, it made me miss them, while on the other it made SO appreciative of how well we had it back then.
Typically, when we talk about Sizzla Kalonji at his absolute best, the discussion centers around the work that went into a pair of albums, "Praise Ye Jah" and "Black Woman & Child", which is completely fair. Those two releases have reached a legendary status and that's fine. They're deserving. The latter is the single greatest album I have ever heard in my life to this very day and, all these years later, I still find myself running into new things that I hear on "PYJ". I wanted to take a little look at some of Sizzla's earlier work that didn't/doesn't get as much attention, in retrospect, as "Black Woman & Child" and "Praise Ye Jah" but definitely are big demonstrations of a supreme level of skill.
The biggest example of this is probably "Royal Son Of Ethiopia" for Greensleeves, from way back in 1999. There used to be a fairly strong contingent of individuals who maintained that "Royal Son" was every bit as strong as "BW&C" & "PYJ" and although I do not agree... the album lays a serious claim to being the solidified #3 out of his catalogue. The very first song on the album, 'As in the Beginning', was literally PERFECT (probably in the top ten of my favourite Sizzla songs altogether) and although it was the highlight of the album, it was the brightest of stars in a sky FULL of them. That set was absolutely LOADED and other standouts included the likes of 'Eastern Mountain' with Luciano, the intoxicating 'Burn Dem Turf', the blistering 'Ripe Leaf' ('Ripe Leaf' was PROBLEMS!), 'A Wah Dat', 'Break Free', 'Babylon Homework' ["Who dem go fool seh Black man a monkey? Black man, Black woman a di first monarchy!"], 'Break Free' and I could go on and on.
As I said, "Royal Son Of Ethiopia" was Sizzla's Greensleeves album for 1999, if you go and look at what he was doing for VP Records around the same time, you don't see anything quite impressive, singularly, but you see a group of albums whose best represent some of the finest work of the entire genre at the time. Lumping together the three VP albums of 98-00 -- "Freedom Cry", "Be I Strong" & "Words Of Truth" -- when you take THE best that they had to offer, in full... BOOM! For its part, "Freedom Cry" was FUN. It leads into a point that I'll probably end this post on so I'll save it for a minute but it was a really good time of a Roots Reggae album of its time. It's very melodic in tunes such as 'Saturated', 'Long Journey', the kind of funky 'Rain Shower', 'Ancient Memories', 'Lovely Morning' and even 'Till It Some More' to a degree. Take that and combine it with the class of the album, 'Real', 'Love Amongst Me Brethren' ["To Sizzla, that is heaven"] and 'Dem Ah Try Ah Thing' and you have an album which may not represent the chanter at his absolute zenith but PAINFULLY close to it. While 1999's "Be I Strong" wasn't as fit as "Freedom Cry" it, too, also served up some unforgettable material on its highest side and it had a certain 'levelling' quality to it (which makes no sense at all but I'm going to explain it). The two signature tunes, at least on paper, from "Be I Strong" were the title track and "The Vibes" which featured Capleton. Neither one of those songs are amazing. They're pretty good and there's nothing wrong with them but there was far better material to be found there and most of it is gone. You don't remember damn near BRILLIANT Dancehallish Roots tracks like 'Powerfull', 'Men & People', 'No Chance', 'Stop Violate' and 'Love Is All' very often. And that's what I meant by "levelling". "Be I Strong" hit a certain level of quality and, for the most part, it just STUCK there. It never went too far up or down and, if you enjoyed that sound, listening back to it today shows a different side of what came before it in sound but one still honouring the downright monstrous talent behind it. Then there was "Words Of Truth" which kind of sits out on an island of its own because of the fact that the album came accompanied by a second disc which was a live performance of Sizzla's (which was and remains a VERY cool addition by VP). That fact will probably always keep this album not too far forgotten but, perhaps, we do tend to overlook what was going on with disc #1 a quarter of a century later. 'Enemies Are Confounded' ["Babylon! You're a dirty bastard!"], 'Them No Good', 'Attack' [BOOM!], 'Love Ah Di Way', 'Step Up' and the GORGEOUS opener that was 'Lift Mine Eyes' were EXCELLENT tracks present on "Words Of Truth". Again, they weren't his best but they weren't galaxies away either and they represented fine, collective, next steps and expansions on his sound in my opinion.
What Kalonji would do with VP in the next two years isn't worth discussing because it's been talked about ad nauseum (and if you do need more, check HERE and HERE) and deservingly so; both albums were fantastic (and I just thought of a cool conclusion to this, so I'll bring up one in a minute). But let's go back and see what the next two years had in store for Sizzla on the Greensleeves side. In the year 2000, they'd push out the absolutely FANTASTIC "Bobo Ashanti" which, for me, is a top ten level Sizzla album (and it isn't eighth, ninth or tenth) and would've been a Modern Classic were it not for the fact that it missed the cutoff by a year. "Bobo Ashanti" is headlined by a tune, 'The World', which is one of a very few in the conversation for being THE single greatest song I've ever heard from Sizzla altogether and what followed were SUPREME winners such as 'Strength and Hope', 'Wicked Naw Go Prosper', 'Grow U Locks' ["....and wear yuh turban. Pon di disobedient di fire burn pon!"], 'Attack', 'Courage', 'Do Good' and others still. Charged with following "Bobo Ashanti" was an album which, although it didn't reach those levels, admittedly, has WELL become a personal favourite of mine, 2001's "Rastafari Teach I Everything". Highlighted by a downright GLORIOUS ode to Mother Africa, 'Beautiful', I think "Rastafari Teach I Everything" is, arguably, THE most underrated release of Sizzla's entire career (I'm REALLY biased if you haven't figured that out) as it is STOCKED with excellent tracks and no one remembers! 'Better Make Sure', the THUMPING 'Stay Clean', 'Energy', even 'Give Her The Loving' was solid, 'Escape From Prison', the title track, 'Revenge' and, of course, the all sorts of fun ganja tune, 'Yes, I Get High' ["Rastafari a who we are. Identify me now - BY MI SKIN COLOUR, YOU KNOW THAT I'M A STAR!"]. Always at least solid, over the course of the past decade or so, "Rastafari Teach I Everything" has become special to me and, again, it fits so wonderfully into the type and the QUALITY level of work that Sizzla was doing at the time. The Sizzla & Greensleeves releases would lose their way shortly thereafter with albums such as "Rise To The Occasion", "Soul Deep" and that other one whose name I can never remember and don't feel like looking up (Street or Ghetto SOMETHING) ranging somewhere between awkward and awful; before righting the ship somewhat with "Life" and COMPLETELY with fine albums "Waterhouse Redemption" and "Ghetto Youth-ology", making way for the MAMMOTH "I-Space" in 2007.
And, before we do end, I'd also be doing you a disservice if I didn't mention another pair of albums from the time, "Good Ways" & "Liberate Yourself". The former is the followup to "BW&C". Produced by the brilliant Bobby Digital, "Good Ways" featured a very loose but old school type of vibes and it carried some serious HAMMERS such as 'Bless Me'... I was about to go down and list a heap of tunes like I've been doing thus far but fuck it.... pretty much the entire album was a HAMMER! I would point to one song, specifically, that was an excellent dose of what was to come on the Dancehall end: Sizzla's cut of Jazzwad's WICKED Riott Riddim. It was aggressive, POSITIVE and uplifting music which would soon become a giant staple of his output. Like "Words Of Truth", "Liberate Yourself" came with a wildcard. It also came alongside a second disc; this one a straight compilation with the likes of Bushman, Kulcha Knox, Terry Ganzie, Prezident Brown and even the legendary aforementioned Garnet Silk and Luciano, amongst others. As for the actual album, while it most certainly was NOT great (and that opener... probably turned more than a few people off from listening to all that came after it) ('Inna Africa' may just be Sizzla's WORST time from the period altogether), it was saved from total quality oblivion by 'Forever Be Strong', the striking 'Waan Go Home' (probably the best song on that album), 'Fire Fi Bun', 'By Your Words' and maybe one or two others. While "Liberate Yourself" may lack (it does) in overall strength and levels, it does give you glimpses CONSTANTLY of the brightness of its source. Generally speaking, LISTEN to the work Sizzla was doing. I point out in certain individuals -- whose music I absolutely LOVE -- such as Vaughn Benjamin and Lutan Fyah, who I regard as being bona fide masters of the spoken word with some of the things they're capable of doing, lyrically; but aren't necessarily the most gifted at making melodies. Benjamin, for his part, often doesn't even seem to give a damn about the riddim behind him, while Lutan Fyah (although he's better than he was earlier in his career) can come off as being somewhat rigid and less malleable). Sizzla was positively BRILLIANT with his words AND he made a brand of modern Roots which was WHOLLY ENTERTAINING and gratifying to the ears. He could glue himself to a riddim of several different types and do so with a poignancy virtually without equal. Also, he had a way of writing which combined both the spiritual and tangible worlds effectively. You did not have to seek His Majesty to find clarity in his words and, at his absolute best, he spoke to EVERYONE willing to take the time to listen and, again, listening wasn't labourious. You did so willingly!
There is an elephant in this room which I alluded to but did not mention outright when it comes the "vintage" level or "PRIME" of Sizzla Kalonji and that is "Da Real Thing". Despite coming years following "Praise Ye Jah" and "Black Woman & Child", "Da Real Thing", arguably, has had even more influence on the genre and played a greater role in bringing new ears to the flock (given just how outwardly popular it became) (and remains). The title of that album is significant because, if I recall correctly, its maestro, the aforementioned Bobby Digital, insisted on it. The story was that Sizzla, himself wanted to name it "Thank U Mamma", after its best (in my opinion) track but he relented and it became "Da Real Thing". There's an obvious connection here but I think that, given the fact that someone SO DAMN responsible for supplying much of the ammunition which we recognize as Sizzla's finest output wanted to, ESSENTIALLY, declare another album to BE part of that. It was just three words but they included an album into a certain level and also excluded it from one (<that being more of the Dancehall oriented and controversial material that Sizzla was doing around the time). That is VERY POWERFUL coming from who it's coming from. It sounds like something You and I would do, as fans. So, while we look at two very large pillars as being THE examples of a level that remains Sizzla's finest after all these years (and do so fairly enough), perhaps that thought is INCOMPLETE; because when we examine the entire general era, in full, what we find is that the genius seeped into other areas, whether we realized it or not. Combine that with a level of [over]activity that may be unmatched and where you end is at an EXTREMELY robust catalogue - particularly LOADED with diamonds at the front.
