GOOD KARMA

What actually started out as a quest to find for my favorite COCOA TEA album ended in being left empty handed. I was planning on replacing my lovingly trashed cassette copy of 1994’s THE GOOD LIFE. Nobody has the CD listed for sale, at least at reasonable prices.

Cassettes…remember them? Half my reggae collection was on them damn things! They were the only portable means of listening to your chosen music if you were on the go back in the day. The only problem with them was if you stored ‘em in your car, like most people did, they froze in the winter and melted in the summer. That stretched the tape and distorted the sound. When cassette decks went the way of verbal throw downs like “word to your mother”, I donated my massive collection to the local Salvation Army.

Okay, while I didn’t find the VP Records release I looking for, I did come across this non-government sanctioned inflation beater and counter measure to illegal downloading. The series is called REGGAE LEGENDS but VP Records should call it the ANTI-PIRACY series because you can afford to add this consumer friendly priced box-set to your collection and have enough money leftover to buy several extra loaves of bread. No need to steal it.

The average price is $20.00. Yep, EBREGGAE has it going for $17.39. Think about it. Divide that number by four and the individually cost averages $4.35 a disc. This is RIGHTEOUS CAPITALISM! VP is pulling profit but still keeping the fans best interest in mind. Top artist choice too… These titles seem to be aimed straight at my age demographic, the young forty some-things!

The idea is to package together four individual album titles of an artist from a certain time period into one box-set. Usually long lost vintage stuff from the late 1980’s too the early 1990’s. For now VP Records seems to be zeroing in on the classic RUB-A-DUB era. Check the names…SUGAR MINOTT, DENNIS BROWN, GREGORY ISAACS, JOSEY WALES, YELLOWMAN, MIGHTY DIAMONDS, JOHNNY OSBOURNE, BEENIE MAN and SHABBA RANKS!

For a little guy COCOA TEA has a huge singing voice. Where the hell does all that power come from? I saw him live (he opened for the mighty KING SHANGO) and his performance stunned me! He is perfect on record but even better live. Is that possible?

The former horse jockey was on an amazing roll releasing one sure fire hit after another but he sort of became obscured stateside by the new millennium BOBO REVOLUTION. That is until he dropped 2008’s YES WE CAN featuring the massive single BARACK OBAMA.

Even though these four discs don’t contain any chart breakout hits like JUNJO LAWES produced ROCKING DOLLY or LOST MY SONIA, these releases are just as important in COCOA TEA’S big picture. Well not completely true because RIKERS ISLAND blew up at international level. For all those early hits and most of the SHABBA and HOME T get together check VP’S Reggae Anthology: THE SWEET SOUND OF COCOA TEA. Absolutely the best “BEST OF COCOA TEA” CD out there.

Both COCOA TEA and these releases restore my faith in humanity.
REGGAE fans win another round...I will fill in the blanks soon.