TELL ME A KINGSTON STORY

I hate VYBZ KARTEL. 

Why you ask?

Because that mother f'er released his latest drop, Kingston Story, as a digital only copy. (Sure Ce'Cile did the same thing with her latest, but I could never hate her!) 

I never need a reason to paste up a pic of this lovely lady

 I heard this collection of tunes is the essence of summer listening and up here in the north corner we only have a couple of weeks left of that warm season. I don't wanna be left out in the cold. So that tabloid darling Vybz made me do something that was completely against my untrusting cheap bastard nature, I purchased a handful of intangible MP3 files. I even signed up to online service. Yeah. I figure I can't continue fighting the future! While I was desecrating my morals, I picked up his EMPIRE SUMMER as well. Oh the shame...

Why am I so against online downloads only? 

Well for starters...

I am a used vinyl and compact disc seller. An independent mom and pop underground music store. I'm pop. My music habit has always been bought and paid for by pushing great "like new" used music on unsuspecting ears. My habit has a huge appetite.

Now...

 It's not like I am gonna come across a few crates of old MP3 files tucked behind a stairwell in someones basement. I spent half my adult life slinging pipe wrenches in peoples basements. You would be surprised what homeowners forget what's stashed down there! 

Alright back to the mother f'er whose fault this all is. VYBZ. That tattooed cartoon character straight outta of a big budget sci-fi movie. (The one where he portrays a brilliant but mentally damaged soul survivor.) 

The music? The usual topic of girls and what he likes to do to girls. That much hasn't changed. Vybz's amazing flow has evolved into a more subtle sing song stream of lyrics these days. Is the hard blunt of gangster rhetoric he uses to bludgeon our ears into submission beginning to fade with age? Or is it wisdom? Maybe success? VYBZ delivers all those odd and clever vocal mannerisms that add a difficult depth to his work. Is KINGSTON STORY a worthy successor to say...THE TEACHERS BACK? No it's not meant to be. This is something unique and yeah it was worth losing my innocence.

Epilogue... I'm still leery of MP3 only copies and this is why...a day later for reasons unknown to me I had to re-load the site's download manager into my applications folder. In doing so I deleted all traces of two MAVADO singles. F-ck off! I'm not blaming the online music service but they need to make the process idiot proof for all of us technically challenged idiots. I'm going back to using my stone tools.

THE LINE IS STILL BUSY

I'm gonna revisit a release that I heard all wrong the first time I spun it.

A quick note about BUSY SIGNAL... He has the mixed blessing of being mentioned in the same critical breathe as Vybz and Mavado, but hasn’t made the same overall impact as his Alliance crew brethren. Well, with Vybz, former crew. Maybe he is leery of committing controversy for the sake of self -promotion. Maybe BUSY is just to smart to be a tabloid darling.  

A quick note about AUTO-TUNE...“Do you have the look but don’t have the talent? Don’t worry baby we have tha machine for you! “ Correct pitch at the flip of a switch. I watched an interview with Rihanna and she enlightened us to the fact that the record companies can make anybody a STAR! Umm...Is that her confession? Alright... I'll grant you that there are performers out there not using auto-tune to sound pitch perfect but to exaggerate their vocals to the point of sounding cold and inhuman. (Like a ghost in the machine.) Depending on the talent in question...It either gets distracting or gives you goosebumps.

I was about to dump Busy Signal's LOADED from my I-Pod's playlist to make room for more frequent spins. The physical copy of course is safely filed away alphabetically. After getting hooked deep on his debut drop, STEP OUT, I tried getting this sophomore release stuck under my skin but it just wouldn't stick. After that I even began to question my opinion of that first drop. So I spun STEP OUT a few more times. Yeah... that's Busy off to big pushy powerful thug of a record. So I must be wrong with LOADED. So before I pushed delete on my I-Pod...

Timing had to right. The planets had to be aligned in a row or something because LOADED completely fried my brain cells and shorted out my nervous system. 

My first impression of LOADED when it dropped? I remember hearing a rock-solid effort buried under the latest trend in fashionable pop. I remember thinking that if the production team toned down the vocal effects to a minimum that the gritty tales of urban realism buried underneath would shine. 

Tune by tune breakdown....

*PEOPLE SO EVIL-The brainiest decision to make when making a record is what tune you stick up front. It has to serve as a welcome mat of sorts to the rest of the album. It invites you in for a full listen. Give up your biggest tune and everything that follows is downhill. Stick a mediocre tune up front and you may lose interest and shelve the record without giving it a chance. A delicate balance of choice. People So Evil is the perfect lead in. And so true...just take a look at all the shit going down in the news. Or my x-wife.

*JAIL- Sure...the free room and board is fine, but it is the possible unwanted attention from male suitors in the showers that scares the shit out everybody. Not necessarily their loss of freedom. As such this particular hit tune and video is not a picker upper in mood! It also isn't the violent dirge that the subject matter warrants. 

*TIC TOK- As soon as this tune begins my synapses immediately start miss firing and all my neurotransmitter breakdown. WTF?

 Nothing. I repeat nothing...in any genre sounds like this tune! What a mind blowing Riddim! My obvious favorite from this release. 

*WINE PON DI EDGE- Probably a hit tune. If not...it should of been a hit tune. Damn catchy refrain and clever use of AUTO-TUNE. Yeah...I'll admit when I was wrong. This tune has that mass appeal that only a finely crafted blend of riddim and lyric can attract.

The other 11 tunes soon..