So its not that I have a particular problem with crossover dancehall albums, its just that. . . well, they generally end up being way more crossover than dancehall. The bottomline is that the same problems that exist in crossing dancehall over to a bigger (i.e. US) audience will always exist. The language will never be understood, the artists will never be as identifiable, their skill never as appreciated (in the US) as in Jamaica.
That being said, with Sean Paul, Elephant Man, and Wayne Wonder taking a greater place in the US music scene since the Doctor's last effort, its only right and proper that the real big man come back to reclaim what's rightfully his. Back to Basics is pretty straight forward, jumbled sounding dancehall album, and despite what's been going on lately (both in US and in Jamaica) there isn't a living artist who does those better than Beenie Man. The best tune here is arguably the 'first' single Dude (actually the second single from Def Jamaica), also love the real first single King of the Dancehall, really pretty much typical Beenie Man fare on that one, very familiar sounding. Also, old school real dancehall heads take a listen to the basic chorus on the curiously titled Grindacologist, strictly from an old Yellowman tune (Soldier Takeover). Love Get on Bad (no relation to the soca kaiso tune of the same name), Doctor Mi Rate Yu with protege Ms Thing, D-O or G-O, with odd machine computer sounding vocalist Ghost. The only 'crossover' attempt is the Timbaland produced All Girls Party which ends up amounted to the noted hip-hop producer's best attempt at making a riddim. The album ends on a very high note with Back Against the Wall, backed by a acoustic guitar riddim on which Beenie strictly tells a story, very cool, very meaningful way to end a great project.
Overall, this is leaps and bounds over Tropical Storm, while that album had its spots (mainly centering around Miss L.A.P. and Bossman). Its the greatest dancehall artist ever digging in his bag of tricks and pulling out a show stopper. Its the Trendsetter album new and improved; and in a summer where there are so many huge reggae projects out and about (i.e. Baby Cham and Assassin's big label debuts, Da Real Followup album and of course the return of the Empress) Back to Basics is everything it should've been and slightly more.
WARNING: BADMAN LYRICS PON DESE TUNES
Learning From One's Mistakes. . .
He advocates the killing of gays
