Reggae's Return to Roots
Just in time for summer, the Jamaican crossover pendulum swings consciously back
by Baz Dreisinger
May 26th, 2005 4:03 PM
For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction. As it is in physics, so it goes in Jamaica—where songs ever oscillate from the joys of Jah to the pleasures of pum-pum. Reggae's recent Billboard strides—i.e., dancehall ambassadors Sean Paul, Elephant Man, and Wayne Wonder—have privileged the latter. The task fell on their lockless heads: Make it known that contemporary reggae need not look or sound like your father's reggae; we can even steep in sexy, electronic vibrations more than acoustic, Rastaman ones.
But the pendulum has swung back. This summer's sound—old stereotypes about reggae as beach music, not fit for the less-than-irie winter months, make reggae crossover a warm-weather sport—is looking like a return to roots. It began in Jamaica last year: A Rastafarian-reggae renaissance led by a spate of young, conscious artists turned the dancehall into a tuneful house of worship, where the songs earning the most forwards were brimming with righteous indignation or sweet and nice as fresh cane.
Two such tunes have migrated to our airwaves; the artists behind them are front-runners for the poster child post that Sean Paul has momentarily abdicated. Damian "Junior Gong" Marley's "Welcome to Jamrock," off his much anticipated album due in August, suggests that the youngest Marley might be the best one yet. Over a haunting sample of Ini Kamoze's "World-a-Music," Marley unleashes stunningly incisive lyrics about the hardcore Jamaica that Sandals-loving tourists, "on di beach wid a few club sodas," never see. Never mind that this Marley grew up far from his father's tenement yard; his tune is a brilliant marriage of old-school music and new-school vocals, a roots ethos and a dancehall vibe—which is just what Junior Gong represents: not a simulation of his father's sound but a vibrant updating of it.
rest at: http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0522,dreisinger,64433,22.html
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