Every week resident FADER selector Eddie STATS runs through dancehall riddims and other artifacts from the ghetto archipelago.
I was tempted to beat you (the reader) in the head about Mavado again today. I feel a certain amount of personal investment in his success seeing as how back in 2006, myself and photographer Martei Korley gave him his very first press outside of JA with a two-page lead Gen F profile in FADER #40, and then me and Max ran the set on his NY album release event . So the official release of his “So Special” video seemed like a good opportunity to milk it a little. What with Hot 97 giving it a big run, it seems he is finally cashing in some of the street capital earned with dark JA goth anthems that comprised Gangsta For Life --the kind of joints that owned Brooklyn streets but made radio DJs say, Maybe if you was to flip it on 45 so I could dance to it. With this tune, dude has clearly flipped it on 45, you can dance to it and all the other elements seem to be in place to drive sales of his new LP which drops March 3rd. (BTW, I am hereby predicting that Mr. Brooks will do for Mavado what Dutty Rock did for Sean Paul, with the disclaimer that even established platinum artists don’t go platinum anymore, much less slumdog upstarts like D. Constantine Brooks).
But then I decided to do what I was doing back then, which is focusing on the newest shit out of JA. This week that just happens to be a Daseca Livity rhythm featuring a killa Mavado tune, but also a full complement of younger guns eager to be the next gully god, (Flippa Mafia, I see you). Some revolutionaries go straight for the presidential palace and make a career out of consolidating and holding on to the power they’ve gained. Some fuck off to Bolivia and start a whole new insurrection.
Good Life Riddim Blend:
Mavado, “High Under”
Sizzla, “Di Yutes Dem”
Serani, “Dutty Badmind”
Flippa Mafia, “Mi House”
Laden, “Nah Lef’ the Gal Dem”
Chino, "Get the Cream"
Elephant Man, “Live it Up”
Vegas, “I Am Blessed”
Vybz Kartel, “Dollar Sign”
Download: Ghetto Palms Good Life Blend
The emotive strings and digital distortion of Good Life is textbook Serani, with it’s riddim section built out of scritchy-scratchy drums and the CD-skipping tempo of the big intro, but for my money it just may be the best beat he's done yet, like all the previous ones were just for practice. And like any truly great juggling it brings the best out of every artist who climbs on board — I restricted this blend to only the ones I was really feeling and it’s still almost ten deep. Get familiar.
