One876 Entertainment.com

Dancehall critics are raving about the Brit Jam Reloaded riddim which boasts heavyweight acts such as Vybz Kartel, Beenie Man, Konshens,Munga, and Sizzla, as well as second tier acts since its release on FM radio last week.

The bouncy drum-heavy riddim, produced on the Good Good Productions label,  with ‘Zum’ as the executive producer, has been generating a lot of interest because of a Vybz Kartel single called ‘Dem Licky Licky’ which appears to mention the incarceration, legal woes and personal problems that the World Boss has found himself mired in. The single, a true-to-life breakdown of betrayals by former friends, is quiteinstructive given the events in his life over the last five months, and shows Kartel’s state of mind as he continues to make comparisons between his life and that of Jesus Christ and we know how all that ended.

The verse goes:

Mi roll wid the family, that's the way it goes

Nuff bwoy who ah run in bout dem a yu friend, dem a foes

Wolf inna sheep clothes, bredrin like those,

yu find pon handcart wid all the tag de pon dem toes

To the police, dem mek yu business expose

Judas sell out Jesus  and look how dem close

Arguably the best song on the riddim however is Munga’s ‘Season to Season’ where the deejay’s witty wordplay and offbeat metaphors show why heis rated as one of the best artistes of his generation. The single is astraight-up party song and it shows Munga’s  re-emergence as a top rhyme-slingerwith brilliant lines like ‘fresh like Dunn’s River Falls weh a run weh’ and he pulls off a great song with only a minimal amount of auto-tune.

Beenie Man sparkles with ‘True Gallis’ with his inimitable style as he bigs up ‘international gallis’, while red hot rookie, theMobay-based Flava Starr shows up with Nuh Fren Snitch,  a powerful song where he affirms his street credibility and declares where his loyalties lie. He uses  a complex rhyming scheme to talk about sellouts and he questions the sexuality of snitches and fishes with the line: ‘how a man fi say baby and a next man ah ansa?’.  

Konshens shows up with ‘Gi Yu a Gyal’, while Versatile shows off admirable mic skills with ‘We Do It Everyday’, a fun, rollicking rompthrough Kingston’s party scenes.

Another standout song is Merital’s ‘Money Bag’ where Merital show they still have that sense of humour that endeared them to millions ofdancehall fans two years ago. In a quick-fire delivery that compliments the riddim, they spit artful lyrics like “when yu hear mi a talk money conversation/when yu see mipon the road money/hand mi pon mi jaw money meditation/when yu see pon mi phone money situation”. And the chorus is infectious as the singer declares:  ‘money de ya fi dash weh, money de ya fi dash weh, Zum, weh di cash deh?’

Sizzla is not at his fiery best with ‘Gal Dem a Gwaan’ but he does a good job of delivering his lyrics.

Other standout songs on the riddim include the Fambo-Baby Chris combination called ‘Brit Jam Party’, just another  high-octane, champagne-swilling party jam bythe drunken master Fambo.

The weakest song on the riddim are Chi Chi Ching’s ‘Bring Anadda Bottle’ which is just fast forward material, especially since it hasregrettable lines like ‘mi nuh look pon another man backle’. However, the intro is where Ching is at his best as drives a dagger into the heart of the deadbeat‘beggy beggy’ party crowd with the declaration:  ‘every man to dem own bottle’.

All in all, it is a great effort by Good Good Productions to inject a surge of adrenaline in a dancehall scene that is missing the influenceof major players. Give it a listen, you won’t be disappointed.