Customer Reviews

Riddim Driven: Lion Paw

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It is perhaps a testament to the current and ever evolving state of affairs in reggae music that that I could have even 'overlooked' this album. With so many roots and culture tunes and riddims riding high in the last 3-4 for years (so high even that dancehall is now 'questionably' Jamaica's favorite musical genre) it can be difficult to sift through all the various riddims. Such was my case as somehow, someway, the relatively HUGE Lion Paw riddim album managed to fall through and end up in my closet!

Luckily for me, I love cleaning out my closet a couple times a year. The Lion Paw riddim birthed several hits actually, so it was to my utter surprise that as I went through the various unopened riddim albums (the Caribbean Style, the Tiajuna, the Blackout, the Slingshot etc.) that it too was included. The Lion Paw is a might powerful riddim! I guess listening to other big ones of the same time period, which would have included such MASSIVE riddims as the I Swear, the Drop Leaf and the Hardtimes, that I just forgot about it.

But the shelflife of a big riddim actually never dies! And, having heard many of these songs not so much in the last year and some of them not so much ever at all, I was thoroughly delighted in making my way through the Lion Paw. The riddim was built by Mikey John, and named after his own Lion Paw Productions.

The biggest Paw here was probably Richie Spice's nice nice Its Gonna Be More Terrible which is a really really big vibrant beautiful song on the riddim. The other really big hit was Morgan Heritage's awesome Hail Rastafari. I'm not a very big fan of the Morgans, but they make some of the most beautiful one-drop driven reggae today, and I have to confess!

But I'm not calling either of those the best tune here. In my complete and utter bias to one Ms Nadine Sutherland, I'm definitely declaring her nice nice Stop Your Bad Mind the best song on the Lion Paw. She controls the riddim better than any male who voiced on it, and of course those top notch vocals, which made her a legend here are on full display.

There really isn't a bad song here (although I'm terribly fond of Brian & Tony Gold's Prayer, even that is starting to grow on me), the biggest complaint I might have for the Lion Paw riddim album would be who is not here. It lacks, Sizzla, Capleton and Junior Kelly, all of whom (especially Kelly) would have sounded wonderful over this beautiful riddim.

Check Jah Jah World from Anthony B; Equal Rights by Luciano; the brilliant Only Jah by Bushman (which VP should probably manage to squeeze in on his next album (and PLEEEEEEEEASE stick Arms of a Woman on there as well!)); Natural Black's Treat Her Like a Lady; Turbulence's I Will Survive on which he turns out some of his finest singing ever and Warrior King's nice nice My Life.

And then there's Jah Cure. Were I to take off my Nadine Sutherland colored glasses and put on my typical clear ones, I would most definitely declare Cure's AWESOME Searching for a Girl the single best tune on the Lion Paw. Every once in a while Jah Cure will take reggae's most unusual and powerful voice and push it to its upmost extreme, as he does on the hook on this song once or twice and everytime I hear it, I love it, Searching for a Girl, a song about. . . someone searching for a girl, is a huge huge tune.

Overall, I'm definitely recommending you all go searching in your closets and see if you have a copy the Lion Paw riddim album. And then, when you discover that you don't have one, I'm recommending you scour the half off bin at your local West Indian record shop and pick this one up. Although not giving the publicity of the riddims which outshined it, the I Swear, Drop Leaf and Hardtimes, the MIGHT powerful one drop of the Lion Paw is just as good as any of the rest.