Customer Reviews

XXX Dancehall Anthems

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Slackness and the dancehall have always coexisted on VERY friendly terms. From the time that the very first chatter picked up the mic on a dancehall sound, he was immediately chatting in the lewd and lascivious styles. Besides the original gaming styles which including bragging about one's own originality and lyrical prowess, exclaiming the true strength of one's style and pushing down the strength of the next artist, dancehall was partially built on XXX rated vibes (and I'm not complaining about that!). From the internationally known and loved greats of business, such as the legendary King Yellowman, Shabba Ranking and Beenie Man; to the lesser known legends such as Mad Cobra, Spragga Benz and representing for the feminine gender, the likes of the brilliant Tanya Stephens. The lure to the sexual style or `slackness' has even reached to the point where even the tallest pillars in the roots arena have risked (and pretty much completely) a high level of criticism to throw their own slack vibes on their songs. Capleton, Anthony B and most notably Sizzla Kalonji over the past half decade have made more of a concerted effort to prove themselves in the slack arena and even, in the case of Sizzla, securing and scoring a major local hit with the tune Pump Up and at the same time securing arguably, the greatest piece of local controversy of his career. Pump Up was a rather odd lyrically built masterpiece over the Buzz riddim (which most notably birthed Sean Paul's MAMMOTH Gimmi Di Light as well as Cobra's equally Jamaican MAMMOTH Press Trigger) which if done by any mid to top notch dancehall artist might have spent a considerable time at the top of the charts, as it was, the song did very well on its own and was one of the highlights on the stacked riddim. Since then, Sizzla and his peers have taken an ever-so slight step back from pushing the risqué vibes, but the space which they have vacated has been filled by some ever so seriously talented mic men and women. Critics will of course point to the level of sex, sexism and misogyny in the music as one of the points which prove and point to the break down and ultimate death of dancehall music as a healthy piece of Jamaican culture. Still more (and even more vocal) critics will also lump the music's rather violent view of `alternative' sexual practices and lifestyles, however, dancehall has shown itself to be one of the most powerful musical forms anywhere, able to come back from certain death and destruction at virtually any point, and slackness cannot kill it!

Today's dancehall scene `boasts ` some of the most insanely talented wordmen we've ever heard. Even the traditionalist in me who longs for the days gone by of the slower and bouncier riddims backing artists like Shabba, Admiral Bailey and Papa San who could have voiced in any generation due to their skills, has to admit that on the large, the talents of today are MASSIVE. They also boast some of the lewdest and slackest micmen ever as well. Check Elephant Man whose zany and off the wall (or `over the wall' in his case, the name of his looooooooong overdue fifth album) persona has actually made him an international dancehall superstar (if you love dancehall music and have yet to see Ele in concert you are missing out!). Elephant Man at any given time of the year or over practically any of the dozens of riddims which he voices in a given year is liable to set off with one of the raunchiest and craziest sex tunes you'll ever hear. One could even make the point in Ele's cases that he has toned down such tunes in recent years (and he hasn't but he hasn't exactly been making big hits of them in the past year or so. However, one need only need check recent tunes of the past year such as Gal Moan over the Lap Dance riddim, In Deh over the 12 Gauge or the hilarious Anaconda over the nice Full Draw to see that the dirty Elephant has gone nowhere indeed. Then there are the superstars of the game Beenie and Bounty who both have eons and eons worth of slack tunes and their peers like the lethal Spragga, all still around, at full strength who routinely voice slackness (although Spragga has definitely toned it down after his change). However, without a doubt there have been two acts in recent years who have virtually placed a claim over the real slackness in the dancehall. The first being super group Ward 21. A quick scan of either of their 3 albums could produce a wicked lineup of nothing but slackness for about 15-20 tracks easy! Then of course there's big man Vybz Kartel who. . . Has more or less redefined what it is to be slack, as he routinely enters into diatribes on his tracks which leave the listener thinking, "I KNOW HE DIDN'T JUST SAY THAT!", check aptly titled tracks like Tight P*%*y Gal Dem and Too F&%# y F&%# y for further direction!

However, there are two artists perhaps best known for the slackness in a historical aspect and two who have made the music to the point where, you cannot mention their names without mentioning slackness. The first is legendary chatter Earl Anthony Robinson, better known as General Echo. Echo was an early DJ from the late 1970's who, while perhaps internationally best known for his tune Arleen, was locally best known for making some of the slackest tunes you would ever hear! Echo not only made the tunes but he actually helped established the genre, while saying certain things on a mic on a song in the studio may have been disallowed while, saying the same things on a mic in live concert of sound system session would have been allowed, General Echo quite easily bridged the gap. While traditionalists may still frown upon his career, looking at the scene today, its quite fair and accurate to say that even though you may not have liked what he did, Echo took the chance and absolutely revolutionized dancehall and had a great affect on the landscape of the music. His skills were also top notch so it is certain while history will remember him as the slackest chatter, the creator of the album, The Slackest LP and its fitting follow up 12 Inches of Pleasure will not be called clumsy on the mic, in his era and all to follow, he was one of dancehall's most talented. Echo was ultimately killed in just 1980 before we could ever see if he could make a dent of substance on any of the other topics in the music, but wherever he may be this day, I'm certain that listening to the dancehall music of today, he is smiling a smile as wide as Jamaica itself! The other artist who has made their name almost strictly on slackness, perhaps unfairly so in this case, is of course Lady Saw. Saw's actual abilities on pretty much any topic which dancehall covers are top notch, however she came to prominence on the backs of such tunes as the hilarious Sycamore Tree, Life Without D*%k and Stab Out di Meat which were tunes absolutely no more dutty than what her male counterparts (Bounty, Beenie, Cobra and Shabba) were offering at the time, but undoubtedly because she was a woman, her slackness achieved such a grand attention, ultimately prompting her to release the brilliant counteraction to her critics, What is Slackness? Saw's career has almost accidentally become a model for females now entering the game that they too can hold a mic and show power in their sexuality when all she was trying to do was catch a hype. Her subsequent recordings, however, have shown Saw to be one of the few immortal dancehall acts anywhere and every female chatter now picking up the mic shall owe her at the very least a small piece of credit from now on.

In celebration of dancehall's absolutely monstrous history of slackness, Greensleeves, in their 30th year of production now and under new management has apparently began a new Anthems series. The label originally released the very solid Hi Grade Ganja Anthems in February and this XXX Dancehall Anthems is the second in the series. First thing which absolutely needs to be said is that this album is 100% for those either new or not so keen fans. You well established fans, like me, will almost immediately dismiss this one as useless and harmless (which it is), unlike the Ganja Anthems disc which featured several very hard and downright impossible to find gems, the XXX album features nonesuch pieces. All of these pieces come from the past half decade and all of them were moderate to big hits, thus, the album isn't new enough to give you something which you haven't heard yet, and it isn't old enough to take you back with nice nostalgia. To be flat out, I haven't yet gotten over being tired of most of these songs just yet to miss them.

The big man on the XXX Dancehall Anthems is not surprisingly Vybz Kartel. The Greensleeves exclusive artist appears on no less than 3 tracks with his MASSIVE Tekk over the Tunda Klap riddim probably taking the honors of his best track on the album. Also present is Kartel's Breast Specialist which he does in combination with Beenie Man over Beenie's own Scoobay riddim, both were very solid tracks and were mega hits in the local scene with Breast Specialist actually being the start of the Beenie & Kartel show which can currently be found playing on a stage show near you! Beenie is one of the only two other artists on the album appearing multiple times with his other track being the HUGE Red Red Red, which I really never did like over the Bollywood riddim. Fittingly, Bounty Killa is the third artist appearing more than once with his two tracks, Sen On & Heng On over Vendetta's high powered Jonkanoo and Sadda Dem over Vendetta's mad Good to Go riddim.

Of course the one track that did incite a tad bit of nostalgia is Shabba Ranking's Needle Eye Pum Pum. . . And by simple virtue of that reason I'm declaring it the album's finest piece. The track is amongst the largest of Shabba's later local hits and bounces pretty much flawlessly over an interpretation of the Punanny Riddim, definitely making one of the finest usages of the outstanding riddim. My choice for second best track here, surprisingly is Busy Signal's Agony. Agony maybe the most clever track on the entire album as a whole and is certainly one of the more skillful pieces, "Mi buy a pack a condom outta di pharmacy den mi wuk a stoosh gyal inna di bush an mek di farmer si!". Agony is a rolling powerful track over. . . You guessed it, Vendetta's Swear riddim. And really after that it gets very slim! Representing for the females is of course Ce'cile on her big big Give It To Me over Scatta's Coolie Dance, wish they would've included a Lady Saw track however. There's Lexxus' very strong Good Hole, one of the best tunes of his career, which really isn't saying much; Sizzla's very controversial Haffi Get It (Nah Rape); and lastly, the ultra clever More Punanny by the evil doctor. . . Dr Evil.

Overall, there's just not much to see here. Greensleeves didn't go very far in assembling these tracks as ALL of them appear on previously released Greensleeves compilations and artist albums, which Greensleeves owns the publishing to. They didn't do any new tracks, mixes or even re-mastering on these fairly new tracks. Nor did they tip their vault really at all, Greensleeves actually owns publishing to part of General Echo's catalogue (including the entire 12 Inches of Pleasure album, it would have definitely proven interesting to see some of those hard to find tracks in the mix here (although with them now reissuing albums for their 30th anniversary, perhaps we'll too see that one come back). I can imagine that have you not been listening to much dancehall over the past few years then some of these songs you've never heard, haven't heard in awhile, or have only heard in part at a club or on a mixtape, then the XXX Dancehall Anthems might be pretty good to you. However, if you've been paying even the slightest of attention, past the outstanding cover here, you won't find too much more interesting material.