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African Rebel Music: Roots Reggae and Dancehall

 
Album Review: African Rebel Music: Roots Reggae and Dancehall

  • Artist: Various Artists
  • Release Date: March 07, 2006
  • Type: Collection (various artists)
  • Genre: Reggae

Review

African reggae has always been a hit-or-miss affair. While there have long been reggae artists working the local music scenes of South Africa, Mauritania, and Uganda, the continent has produced only two real international stars: Alpha Blondy (from Ivory Coast) and, even bigger, Lucky Dube (from South Africa). This compilation of tracks presents a wide variety of artists from such disparate locales as Mauritania, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal, and it raises hopes for the future of African reggae while still revealing a pretty uneven musical landscape. On the evidence here, it appears that the most exciting developments are taking place in Nigeria: there's a subtle complexity to Mad Melon and Mt. Black's "Sinsemilia" that you wouldn't necessarily expect from a song by that title, and Bantu brings a nice hip-hop flavor to "One Vive One Flow, Pt. 2." In fact, there's quite a bit of hip-hop-reggae fusion going on here, as well as some fine Afrobeat/dancehall (courtesy of Peter Miles and Leo Muntu). There's also the odd sprinkling of political banality (Alif's "Wooyo") and musical banality (H2O's "African"), but overall this is an exciting and encouraging compilation. Recommended. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Owange RMX Peter Miles Peter Miles, East African Reggae Bashment Crew (3:03)
Africa Unite East African Reggae Bashment Crew (4:21)
Bad Boy 994 Crew (4:02)
Tonton d'America Tyrone Downie, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Magyd Cherfi Tiken Jah Fakoly (4:05)
Wachita Over Leo Muntu (4:07)
Handsome P-Funk Prince Dully Sykes (4:07)
African Jazzie B. H2O, Zubz, H2O (4:46)
Sensimilla Mad Melon Mad Melon, Mt. Black (6:17)
Bless My Room Necessary Noize (5:12)
Wouty Zion Country Man, Carlou D., Baay Sooley (3:41)
One Vibe One Flow, Pt. 2 Didier Awadi Adé Bantu, PBS (4:35)
Wooyo Alif (3:45)
We Must Rebel Rebellion the Recaller, Suns of Light (4:02)
Shashamane on My Mind 12 Tribes of Israel Band, Sydney Salmon & the 12 Tribes of Isreal Band (4:10)
Gatyeni Teba (3:55)
Love Somebody Robert Slay Small Axe, Robert Slay (3:04)
Lambori Batman, Gogome, Batman (5:37)

Credits

Michael Heilrath (Mastering)
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Copyrights:

Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more