ZINC FENCE RECORD OF THE WEEK

 

OUTCRY

by BOUNTY KILLER

 

Perhaps the most consistently successful Jamaican DJ of the last decade, Bounty Killer first alerted reggae fans to his talents as a vocalist with his stinging reality lyric Look on the Mad House label in 1999.

Outcry is likewise sung rather than toasted and is a record of awesome quality, surely prime candidate so far this year for the record of 2001.

Reggae lyrics have often been characterised as a kind of news agency for the Jamaican grass roots, reacting swiftly to matters of topical concern. If that's so, then lyrical reaction in reggae music to the tragic events of early summer, in which nearly thirty residents of West Kingston lost their lives at the hands of the Jamaican security forces, has so far been muted.

Outcry is probably best read as Bounty Killer's response to those events, featuring a reality lyric which delivers an uncompromising verdict on the current desperate state of Jamaica:

 

Tell me what's your views when you watch the news
And see the whole a Jamaica turning in a danger zone
Enuff Jamaicans deh a foreign seh dem don't like the system
They're afraid so they don't come back home
They turn abroad, they prefer to live in the cold
They run away from the sunshine
They say police and bad bwoy blow too much carbine

The rhythm is a stepping roots juggernaut far removed from the staccato dancehall basslines over which Bounty Killer is normally accustomed to deliver. To be heard in its full glory on the B side, it is further adorned by a plangent, keening guitar solo much in the style of Bob Marley's Catch A Fire album. You don't often hear a full scale dub on Jamaican 45s these days and this one is not to be missed. Aptly named the Rootsman rhythm, this will doubtless become a standard item in the sound box of roots selectors who normally would not give Bounty Killer or any other danchall DJ the time of day.

The output of music on Ritchie Stephens' Pot Of Gold label is not large by current Jamaican standards but is always of consistent first rate quality. Bounty Killer had another outing on Ritchie Stephens' Gold Pot label earlier in the year with Question, another hard hitting reality lyric, Pot Of Gold also gave us Satan Strong by Professor Nuts last year, which for me was the record of the year 2000, on the Busta rhythm.

The other cut on the Rootsman rhythm is Healing Of The Nation by DYCR featuring Natural Black who delivers a fevered DJ rant to the healing properties of the herb "grown on the grave of King Solomon" and this too is well worth a purchase.

 

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