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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Potential In Progress. . . , October 21, 2008
Whenever you're able to catch a potentially BIG artist at close to the start of their career its always a very interesting thing to see exactly how they and their backers go about developing their skills. In reggae music is specific its even more interesting as, sans a particularly HUGE and life-altering event or set of circumstances, you know that when a very talented new artist comes around, you may very well be `stuck' with that artist for the rest of their lives! Also in reggae, the learning curve or the gestation period is very different than other forms of music because when a young artist reaches (ESPECIALLY if they prove themselves to be very talented) the level of prolificacy and their overall release schedule will have to be very high to keep the attention of the public. And that music will be ALL that they are expected as, unlike in the states, a musical artist isn't exactly going to disappear to Hollywood for a few years to work on their acting career. Some of the recent artists who we're now REALLY getting to experience them entering their respective primes are very interesting. Take Portmore singer I-Wayne for example (very fitting here). When I-Wayne initially reached on the strength of his MASSIVE (One Man) Can't Satisfy Her tune, there were people proclaiming him (myself included) (myself STILL included) as the second coming of the late and great Garnet Silk. I-Wayne has more or less lived up to the initial hype and now probably nearing in or even surpassing one hundred released tunes and two albums deep into his still young career, he has shown himself to be a HARSH roots singer with hidden and twisting levels underneath the exterior (REALLY listen to an I-Wayne tune and you'll see just how HARSH the high pitched voiced singer can get). There has also been the case of Warrior King who before I-Wayne burst onto the scene with a BIG tune, in his case the SWEET Virtuous Woman hit. Warrior King, although these days isn't as extremely popular as one might have imagined, to my ears remains one of the most all around talented young artists in the game and he has rather willingly scribed his name within the top fifteen or twenty top roots talents in Jamaica. We've also had more typical cases such as Turbulence who, although WELL within a bad stretch in terms of vibes these days, at any given moment is capable of pulling a hit out of his bag of tricks and has proven himself capable of being one of the most active (both recording and touring) reggae artists altogether; and Fantan Mojah, who really made his name on the strength of producing multiple hits. He's still doing just that. ALL of these names are virtually household names to reggae heads all over the world and they'll be with us for a VERY long and exciting time to come.
An even younger and potentially BIGGER entrant amongst that group has been young Gyptian. You could argue (and I'm not) and many have that out of all of the young reggae artists today, Gyptian has THE MOST potential. The singer initially caught a hold of the public's ears and imagination much in the same fashion as Mojah in producing several hits and having them run virtually at the same time. Gyptian attracted two way attention definitely, speaking in terms of groups not necessarily available ALL the time to artists like the aforementioned group unless they're doing a particular tune; but the ladies have REALLY taken an interest in the young lover's rock/roots singer, thus making his audience very diverse and seemingly very eager and willing to support him. VP Records tested that eagerness and willingness of Gyptian's fan base and they didn't disappoint as in the middle of 2006, having signed up the singer's services (just as they did with Warrior King and I-Wayne in the preceding years) to a multiple album deal, VP Records released My Name Is Gyptian, his official full length album debut. While it received what can definitely be called MISXED reviews from most critics, it was still apparently quite commercially successful and went to help establish his international name more and more, while also exposing some more tunes to the local heads which would prove also to catch on a bit (such as the album's biggest tune, Beng Beng) as well. My Name Is Gyptian also received quite a bit of mainstream attention as well; I saw and heard of the album being mentioned in several international publications and, for a reggae album, as is to be expected when dealing with VP Records, it was promoted as well as one could possibly hope. Earlier this year after announcing their purchase of chief rival Greensleeves Records, VP also announced the resigning of Gyptian (and Busy Signal) and announced his forthcoming sophomore album, to be released in later in the year. Well, its later in the year and VP/Greensleeves now brings forth Gyptian's second full length album, I Can Feel Your Pain, named after one of the singer's bigger singles in the two years between. In that two years he has pretty much remained consistent, there was quite a bit of time away from the studio (which is to be expected, on the road touring for the album), but he has scored with hits along the way, perhaps most notably the WICKED My Fadah Seh, which VP apparently loved so much as to include it on their annually big compilation, Reggae Gold last year. There were also some nice tunes in the interim like Too Late and the very nice Higher which caught on just a bit (okay maybe not so much, but I LOVED them both), and likewise, through other releases young Gyptian has still shown himself to be quite YOUNG and still well within the scope of needing to be brought along carefully and developed as an artist. To my ears, I Can Feel Your Pain STILL finds him in that mode of developing, although what has changed is that he (and VP) has DEFINITELY found what they intend to make his style become as he has well become the marketable `ladies' man' of modern now. In a career marked by different, unusual and interesting things, in I Can Feel Your Pain, Gyptian drops what is easily it's most interesting creation to date.
Earlier this year, VP Records released the album Be Prepared from another potential young superstar in Trini upstart singer Jamelody. Be Prepared was VERY uneven as, although it definitely went a far way in showing off the pipes of Jamelody, it was also an album which left the scope of reggae and went to R&B, pop, even alternative and especially Gospel. While it doesn't go in all of those directions (THANKFULLY) I Can Feel Your Pain well reminds me of Be Prepared. Getting things started for Gyptian's second album is one of the real highlights of I Can Feel Your Pain, the LOVELY Keep Your Calm. The tune is one of the conscious selections on the album and is definitely a style which Gyptian has spent the most time cultivating throughout his young career. The tune is one which speaks to the masses not to lose our collective in the face of the HORRIBLE injustices that the system and some of our own brothers and sisters are committing against us. It has a VERY heavy vibes and for the first few spins it really sounded (lyrically speaking) like something you would hear I-Wayne singing as it definitely has a few lyrical twists here and there. Very nice way to get things going here. You could very well make the argument that the second tune is even stronger than Keep Your Calm as Nobody No Cry has a WONDERFUL and LUSH big uplifting vibes and sound to it and it really catches the senses quite immediately. I wouldn't have expected VP to have placed two of the bigger roots tunes at the beginning of the album (I actually expected the second song to be either the first or second on the final tracklist) considering where it ends up going in by its end and while I can argue track placement, you can't argue with Nobody No Cry the song AT ALL. The tune is just a big vibes and really the type of tune which keeps Gyptian's head high amongst the roots crowd (myself included). Completing the A+ start of I Can Feel Your Pain the album, is the album's finest tune overall, I Can Feel Your Pain, the song. What was most interesting to me way back when I first heard it was that the tune comes over the same Cloud Nine riddim which last year (oddly enough) backed I-Wayne's tune Book Of Life which also happened to be the title tune for his very own sophomore album. It's anyone's guess who outdoes the other as both tunes are absolutely SPARKLING. As the first (and the best) lover's tune on the album, Gyptian fires a very romantic tune for the ladies and for the guys if you happen to have a special lady, it'll work just as high for you (as it did for me). The vibes are just SWEET as Gyptian show is in his arsenal which perhaps no other young artist can do at this point: Deliver a showstopping lover's tune, almost at will. MAMMOTH tune.
Get into the middle of I Can Feel Your Pain and see the oddities begin to come forth before (thankfully) righting itself at its end. The tune Love Against The Wall virtually lost me when I saw its title printed! The tune itself isn't much at all and it comes across something which I THINK might qualify as alternative and Gyptian has a bit of a vocodered style going on as well. Its just an odd tune to my ears. Continuing the strangeness is the tune which immediately follows Love Against The Wall, World Caving In. The one area of Gyptian's game which I think needs the most developing is his lyrical ability. World Caving in, although we get the point (not too hard to get) you almost wish you didn't get it because it just has a very kind of incomplete feel to it (despite the fact the I have to admit the chorus is VERY nice). I'd like to hear Gyptian rewrite and re-record World Caving In in a couple of years, it could be MAGIC. I Can Feel Your Pain's one official combination is another very poppy/alternative sounding tune featuring (unknown to me) New York based singer Yanique Sasha. Sasha's...
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by Gyptian 
