I try very hard to avoid overplaying or ‘over-selling’ when it comes to how I talk about certain albums, songs or just artists in general, because too many times I’ve done so with only a bit of information to go on, only to ultimately be disappointed and disappointed in short order (see Lexxus). Therefore, when I kind of find something which, despite my intentions to do otherwise, almost OVERWHELMS me to the point of me simply not caring if I risk sounding ridiculous or not, I definitely go with it. An example of this is the very fact that my choice for the leading candidate of the Reggae album of the year 2009, Nereus Joseph’s Real Rebels Can’t Die, remains terribly overlooked and underrated in my opinion and I really don’t care. That album is MAGIC and if you don’t think so then you and I can fight. I also do a similar thing when it comes to new artists. My constant readers can tell you exactly how much I’ve referred to both I-Octane and Bramma over the course of the last couple of years (and now we’re going to add Mr. Williamz to that list) and even though people either don’t catch on, or do so very slowly, I don’t have much of a problem being the only person on board of a bandwagon in that fashion. But sometimes I have to take matters even a step further. Besides declaring an album a full blown ‘MODERN CLASSIC’, which I absolutely love to do when I feel it is warranted (largely due to the fact that many Reggae scribes and music writers in general will have you believing that they stopped making classic albums in 197X) (I digress), I’ll also do the same thing, essentially, with an artist. So, that being said, I’m finding it increasingly difficult, if not downright impossible to figure out how eras from both the past and future would not and will not see Spanish Town chanter as one of the most SKILLED artists the Reggae world has ever seen. Period. No he doesn’t have the flare and pizzazz of several of his peers and that may always be what will holding him back from reaching the proverbial ‘next level’ in terms of popularity, but at this point, I don’t even know if that matters any more as the more and more I listen (even to the old stuff), I become progressively more convinced that the things this man is saying will continue to resonate for years within everyone so fortunate enough to hear them, as I have said countless times and will continue to say, lyrically speaking, the man is FLAWLESS at his very best. And just listening becomes a matter of an extended study, university level. And if it is in fact an ‘extended’ study then Lutan Fyah has been a roaming professor of sorts in 2009 hasn’t he? I’ll spare you the details (because I do have at least one more of these to write, after all), but the man has seemingly engaged himself in a recording schedule over the course of the last few years which has now pinnacled with probably what is the ‘best’ year of his entire career on all fronts. Dropping solid single after solid single, with occasional hit of varying degrees and doing so for the best producers on the planet, Lutan Fyah has to be considered in some type of ‘artist of the year running’ and were I to personally hold such a matter (and I just may), he has already won it, guaranteed. I ‘d also like to mention something of a ‘maturation’ or just a slight IMPROVEMENT that I’ve noticed in Lutan Fyah as a lyricist in the past couple of years or so also. This brings up the potentially devastating prospect that, at a relatively ‘advanced’ stage of his career (I think he is thirty-four) and having already reach what should have been the edge of his developmental years, Lutan Fyah may be getting better and that is ridiculous. And in terms of ‘international time’, he now brings forth the latest in an increasingly OBESE line of shining examples why my rather lofty lauds of him are fitting, the incredibly unexpected and ‘poof-like’ (right out of thin air) The King’s Son. Upon seeing that it was coming (literally a couple of days ago) and after my face surely lit up like Rudolph’s nose, I REALLY got into the album and was very happy to see that one of my more recent favourites from the chanter had apparently caught on with more than just me and was chosen to be the title track of his brand new album. That song didn’t do much damage, in retrospect, but because of its rather ‘simple’ nature (and it was truly brilliant lyrically), it definitely made an impact on me and in some parallel universe of album making where Achis is unquestionable king, ‘The King’s Son’ is a tune which has an album named after it. Hooray for me. Not only present is at least one of my favourite tunes, but also it comes via the always dependable Byron Murray’s In The Streetz’ on the surface, which was wonderful in and of itself, but when you get into the production side of The King’s Son album, what do you see? You notice that it comes largely via

• published: 20 Jun 2012
• views: 655