I do believe Mavado has gone and changed up on us. Blogs are talking about the new lyrical vein he's mined in tunes like “Gal Over Gun” and “Change Right Now.” The spooky chords are still there and ‘vado’s unmistakable voice still swoops low over the track like an angel of death. But. Where’s the ghoulishness? The flying marrow? Maybe the whole Anger Management thing actually worked because the Gully God seems to have laid his sword and shield all the way down lately. Case in point is this exclusive new Daseca track “When You Get Lonely.” A classic panty-raid anthem, it shows the new lover-not-a-fighter ‘vado at his best and felt like the perfect centerpiece for a moody blend incorporating Macka Diamond’s “Don’t Talk to Me” and Busy’s sad-mad-bad diatribe over the Drake “Find Your Love” beat. Gyptian stays on some lovers rock shit, though. Good old Gyptian.
GP105 Moody Blend
Macka Diamond, “Don’t Talk to Me” (Stephen McGregor)
Busy Signal, ‘Who’s Gonna Take the Blame?”
Mavado, “When You Feel Lonely” (Daseca/Exclusive!)
Gyptian, “Nah Let Go” (VP)
Omega El Fuerte, “El Rompe Consola”
El General, “Boriqua Anthem”
Doneao, “Party Hard” (Doc Jones & D’Bandit road mix)
Which brings us to “El Rompe Consola”—an Omega track that dropped in '09 but has been destroying Geko Jones' Que Bajo sets at Santos recently, not to mention destroying La Mezcla inside my car radio. It also makes the perfect smoldering transition from moody mid-tempo to full on shantytown rave—call it mambo bipolado. So, since I was in the barrio anyway, I jumped into an El General nuyorican house throwback that’s been destroying the boombox of my cross-the-street neighbors ever since Puerto Rican day parade.
I'd like to close out with a quick round-up of some other things that've been going on in the Ghetto Archipelago in the past week or so: Brazil exported Surra de Bunda, a phenomenon which can only be described as the baile funk reverse-dagger assface dance. I was represented at the opening ceremonies of the World Cup by Ghetto Palms alums BLK JKS (live) and Esau Mwamwaya (in spiritual essence). Shakira apparently ripped off a well-known Cameroonian jam for her own contribution to the FIFA kickabout. And a nice lady named Kary Mabosa emailed me from the Eskom Republic of South Africa and offered to transfer 35 million dollars into my account in exchange for some personal information.
