BROOM PUSHERS NOT WANTED

ELEPHANT MAN was born Joseph Carey Merrick on August 5,1862. No…that aint right. ELEPHANT MAN was born O’Neil Bryan on September 11, 1975 in KINGSTON JAMAICA. I’m telling you, JAH hisself, had to have spiked the water supply. How else could you explain all that massive talent coming from one spot?

I don’t listen to ELEPHANT MAN for enlightenment.

If you want an urban Shakespeare, then be all ears at a poetry slam. Or pick up MUTABARUKAS amazing CHECK IT disc.

This is ELE yelling thru my headphones to shovel faster!

I listen to the “freak show” for entertainment purposes only.

On that promise, the MAN always delivers. ELEPHANT MAN is not for the faint of heart. At 46 years old I make sure I change the batteries in my pacemaker before pressing play and digging out my mailbox from yet another snowstorm. ELE didn’t fill the job description of ENERGY GOD by mopping floors. He earned it by sweeping the competition clear off the stage. I hold high regard for one MR. BOUNTY KILLER, but find it convenient that the ELE is part BOUNTY’S ALLIANCE crew. MR. BOUNTY KILLER even threw down a verbal challenge to friend and collaborator, BUJU BANTON and when BUJU inquired what’s up? BOUNTY laughed nobodies safe! I wonder if the elder could survive a toe to toe with his young protégé.

I ordered my copy of HIGHER LEVEL new from an Amazon associate seller for $3.98. That included shipping. It was the real deal from GREENSLEEVES. No bootleggers counterfeit surprises. Now Amazon pinches $2.30 out of the profit and it averages $1.90 for shipping. Not including the bubble wrap envelope. I am not complaining. I just can’t figure out the poor bastard made any money off me.

This 2002 release from Greensleeves feature a who’s who of producers (if names like “Scatta” Burrell, Donovan “Vendetta” Bennett, and Lloyd “John John” James Junior mean something too you) and only top shelf Riddims are used. ELE makes the best of these 23 tunes. BAD MAN A BAD MAN my favorite cut. I also picked up the newer GOOD 2 Go and LETS GET PHYSICAL both for $3.98 each.
I am far from a stranger to the ELE’S work. Figured it was time to have a copy to call my own. That’s what friends are for. If my friends got something good, they’ll burn me a copy. And vice-versa.

While I was lingering online, I browsed the comments submitted by fans on AMAZON.
I love how he is an either ya get him or ya don’t affair with the ELE. Thankfully most dancehall fans are blessed with extraordinary insight. Yeah, ya always get the one putz claiming that it doesn’t sound anything like real REGGAE, you know, like Slightly Stoopid. (they're Kali beach music-juss not my taste)

Masters of ART go through different stylistic stages. Picasso had his Rose period and his Blue period before pushing boundaries with Cubism. The ELE is no different. His rallying war cry of SCOOBAY developed into the rump shaking SHIZZLE MI NIZZLE. Two of very distinct phases of personal artistic growth for the maturing ELE.
Lowbrow? ELE is a master of being deceptively simple. There is some high art lurking around his locker room bragging. The scholars of French literature would of referred to him as an existential warrior.

No, seriously.