Stealing, Stealing, Stealing

Rhythm of 1998

Four tunes on this killer rhythm came out last year on Fatis Burrell's Xterminator records. These are
NO FAITH Cocoa Tea
ULTERIOR MOTIVE Luciano
JAH CAUGHT THEM Capleton
DEM A TRY A THING Sizzla

So popular is this rhythm that extensive research by a Zinc Fence research team revealed that recently an astonishing 72% of visitors to this website were listening to one of the aforesaid records at the time of their visit.
OK, so I made that up to get your attention, but this rhythm really was everywhere to be heard last year, pure, bubbling and uplifting as a spring of water, truly an emperor among basslines.
Generally speaking, the story of the great reggae rhythms, like HEAVENLESS, FULL UP, or YOU DONT CARE is that they were laid down back in the distant past, more often than not at Studio One, and then were never allowed to go away, being constantly relicked and rediscovered over the decades as the music itself changes and moves on.
This rhythm however, most unusually, only ever had one single outing, all of a quarter century ago, before being rediscovered by Xterminator. The obscure STEALING, STEALING, STEALING, one of John Holt's lesser known vocal outings, was laid down at Treasure Isle back in the Seventies. Then it went back to sleep, a veritable Rip Van Winkle of reggae basslines, only to emerge once more near the end of the millenium in the capable hands of Fatis Burrell.
So how good is the John Holt original? It's good, how could it not be on a rhythm like this, but not one of John Holt's best vocal outings, a ballad which never quite marries itself to the rhythm and certainly doesn't mine its potential in the way that even the least successful of the four Xterminator outings is able to do. Many are doubtless now trying to track down the John Holt original on the strength of these four records, but it's probably not worth forking out silly collector's prices for it. Go instead for the Treasure Isle reissue which came out earlier this year.
Luciano's brilliant ULTERIOR MOTIVE is the best known of the four but the first to be put out by Xterminator was actually Cocoa Tea's NO FAITH. This came out in November1997 but did not get the attention it deserved. To me, it ranks up alongside Luciano's version, which is high praise indeed. The sweet voiced Cocoa Tea sings a thoughtful and interesting lyric which eems to argue the Rastafarian case for repatriation against American Black Nationalist demands for a separatist state within the US:

"In America they looking African state
Rastaman tell them wait, I & I we must repatriate
In Babywrong there could never be a Zion Gate"

His stately, considered vocal delivery works to perfection against the quick, supple onward flow of the rhythm. Could this be one of Cocoa Tea's very best records? Don't let it be the one that got away. For me, dare I say it, the Sizzla and Capleton outings are rather less successful although, such is the power of this rhythm, both records would be considered absolutely essential if the Luciano and Cocoa Tea cuts did not exist. I find both DJs too rushed and frantic, charging at the rhythm rather than riding it and making it their own, as though they're being paid by the word or there's a cab waiting round the corner.
But both these records sold like hot cakes over here in the UK so what do I know. And as the man say, there should have one thousand five hundred version of that riddim.