Does Kelefa Sanneh have issues (round 2)?
faux_rillz
14,343 Posts
Sanneh takes on a more authentic reggae artist in today's Times:March 9, 2006Critic's NotebookA Reggae Star Forged in the Dancehall Furnace By KELEFA SANNEH[/b]One of the season's most entertaining new hip-hop albums has just been released. Although, strictly speaking, it's not really hip-hop at all. Or new. Or an album.It's called "J.M.T.," which stands for "Jamaica Mean Time," and it's a collection of new-ish tracks from Vybz Kartel, a wicked and witty rhymer who has spent the last four years near the top of Jamaica's dancehall reggae heap. He rushes through 20 songs in less than an hour, sometimes rattling off his smutty puns so quickly that the words disappear into a blur of clickety-clack consonants. Keeping up is hard work, especially for any listener not fluent in Jamaican patois. But it's worth it.Even as the American recording industry searches for new ways to make a buck, full-length albums still drive the market. But in the singles-driven world of dancehall reggae, the full-length album is less a product than a byproduct. An album is what happens while you're busy making other recordings. That helps explain how "J.M.T." sneaked into record shops so silently, despite Vybz's reputation. (He has recently appeared on CD's by Missy Elliott and Rihanna.) Reached by phone in Jamaica, where he was ??? where else? ??? back in the studio, Vybz said that Greensleeves, his label, hadn't done enough promotion. But he also suggested that it didn't really matter. "In dancehall music, it's not really based on an album per se," he said. "You just need to have a lot of songs ??? a lot of hits."Few of the songs on this album have more than two verses, since no D.J. would let a song play longer than that. For Vybz, the real money is not in album sales but in live shows, and in dubplates: customized versions of singles, each one personalized with a salute to the D.J. who commissioned it. He often charges $500 to $1,500 for dubplates (though some important D.J.'s get them cheaply or even free), and he might record more than a hundred dubplates of a big hit. His biggest recent hit wasn't even really his. A verse from his song called "Gun Session" (which is on the album) was on an unauthorized remix of the hip-hop song "Soul Survivor." "The remix was a surprise to me," Vybz said. "I heard it in a dance, and it tore the dance up." Soon requests for "Soul Survivor" dubplates came pouring in, making it one of Vybz's most lucrative records ever, even though it may never be officially released. (He says he has recorded about 200 versions.).Vybz's has been making Jamaican hits since 2002, when he established himself as one of dancehall's deftest lyricists. In one popular song, "Tekk," he addressed a woman who had taken his time and money, slyly inviting ??? or commanding ??? her to help herself to his body, as well: "Yuh tekk mi things and tekk mi money, too/ So tekk buddy, too." In the verses, he enumerated specific ways she could pay him back; you can't imagine what he charges for a refrigerator.In 2003 he released his impressive debut album, "Up 2 Di Time" (also on Greensleeves; it was updated and reissued the next year). Since then, Vybz has found himself in a tricky position. There has been a resurgence in the more earnest, more old-fashioned sound of roots reggae. For a time, the Jamaican pop charts were full of high-minded love songs and tributes to the Rastafarian faith. The futuristic beats and dirty jokes of Vybz Kartel sounded somewhat out of place next to I-Wayne's antipromiscuity parable "Can't Satisfy Her," or Jah Cure's aching ballad, "Longing For."Needless to say, Vybz professes not to be bothered. "It's conscious music on one side, Vybz Kartel on the next side," he said, proudly. In fact, he's happy to take credit for the revival of Rastafarian reggae. "Ain't no artist in secular dancehall can even compare to Vybz Kartel," he said, starting to sound a bit like that outspoken fellow on the records. "So all these Rasta artists come up.""J.M.T." doesn't quite sound like unconscious music. (Though that description does sound appealing.) But there's nothing rootsy about it. Propelled forward by skeletal electronic beats (known in reggae as riddims), Vybz nimbly holds forth on matters momentous and frivolous, with a decided emphasis on the latter.The CD starts with his hit "U Nuh Have a Phone (Hello Moto)," a frantic elaboration on the simple observation that men without cellular service have a hard time attracting women. "Car Man" makes the same point about automobiles, using a reworked version of the evergreen instrumental "Axel F." ("No vehicle? No romance/ Di taxi driver stand a better chance.") And in the current Jamaican hit "Bad Man Party 2", also known as "Got Funds," part of the fun is hearing Vybz rush to keep pace with the frenetic riddim.The new CD also includes about half a dozen new songs. One of the best is "Vybsy Versa Love," which is built on a sped-up sample of Barrington Levy. It's an unusually sentimental track, and Vybz's lyrics plead for a better world. He rhymes globally: "To Uncle Sam, now/ Pull out di troops from Afghanistan, now." He rhymes locally: "Rude boy, stop war with a youth you know from Grade 1, now/ Stop gwan like you want fi be di man, now." And he finds time to rhyme frivolously, too: "Gal, if you a chickenhead, go inna di coop, now."Yet for anyone intent on keeping up with Vybz, the 20 tracks on "J.M.T." won't be nearly enough. To hear his indispensable recent dubplates and remixes you'll need a mixtape, like "Return of the Crime Minister," a great 44-track CD compiled last year by the Soul Controllers (available from your local street vendor, or from sites like mixunit.com). And if you want to hear his fierce new single, "Gunshot," based on a stark riddim called "Redbull & Guinness," then you'll have to buy the "Redbull & Guinness" compilation CD (Greensleeves), which compiles nearly two dozen new songs based on the same riddim. Maybe "Gunshot" will be included on Vybz's third album. Or maybe it will be appended to the next iteration of this one. In any case, there's something seductive about the knowledge that no Vybz Kartel CD will ever be definitive. Even more than most albums, this one is a happily hopeless attempt to capture something that just won't stay still.
Comments
Man up and take it to the PM.
This gets the award for most stupid musical concept song ever done by a dancehall artist that i've ever heard.Why would anyone want to use the theme song from Beverly Hills Cop... SMH.
man[/b] up? oh you would say that you misogynistic homophobic antisemite. i bet bitches totally hate you cuz you dont treat them how they want to be treated. you effing queer.
ps
i forgot to mention my dick and my sack. wussup, these new flappable raver jeans are kinda nice on my junk. they dont bunch my shit up like them eurofag nuthugger joints. or like a kelefa sanneh thread. and you.
but go ahead. im totally through with posting in this thread.
yahahahahmeanie?
i said im through posting in this thread!!!
Are you completely incapable of respectful interaction?
And is it not true that you are completely blind to such qualities as cut and fabric weight/drape but instead see jeans only for their blue color? And that you wear your raver jeans while tooting on your little plastic whistle not because it brings you genuine pleasure to do so but because you perceive it as some sort of status symbol?
Jeans are just a "fashion accessory" for shig.
I agree, but in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, "Dude, Dipset are pissed they didn't think of this first."
You STILL mad, Doggie?
I remember when I sent you an mp3 of that a while back and your reaction was, "If Jeremy Harding produced this, I'll slap 'im in 'im neckback!"
Yup i'm still mad,but so that i dont seem like i'm a complete hater,i liked the song Kardinal and Vybez have together.
Not sure of the name of it,The chorus goes "everybody gone gangsta" Vybz say "Bloodbath no Blood Jacuzzi" "Bigman a scream like suzy" very uplifting lyrics
Who did the production,and what the title of it?.
last night and dude said "I don't respect rappers, I
respect Kevin Federline" and I laughed and laughed.
But that was nothing compared to when they
played some new Guru shit. That was hilarious!
I swear Guru signs with G-Unit by Christmas, his
lyrics sounded like he was begging for a tryout.
"E.G.G. (Everybody Gone Gangsta)" with Kardinal Offishall. Don't know who produced it, though.
I'd buy that and the coconut bread but it's so greazy.