Music Reviews
Artist:
AssassinTitle:
Gully Sit'nLabel:
VP Records
Some things are infinitely better when they are polished: pop music; R&B; the cue ball in snooker. Dancehall, however, is a genre which is usually at its Babylon-scorningly violent best when it's a little more ragged and rough round the edges. Anyone looking for real emotion and excitement within dancehall music is much more likely to turn to the frayed and frantic screechings of Sizzla and Capleton than to the oily, self-satisfied swaggering of Sean Paul and Beenie Man.
Assassin, however, appears to be the exception to this – usually fairly robust – rule. While 'Gully Sit'n' is quite clearly an album with a great deal of sheen and polish to it, it still feels credible and raw and it's almost impossible to listen past the first few songs without: a) adopting a screwface, and b) experiencing a really quite strong urge to commit an act of intensely physical violence upon another person.
The beats are consistently slick – packed as they are with twinkling synths and military snare drums – but Assassin's ragged vocal style and excellent lyrical ability ensure that it never strays too far into the realms of pop. On tracks such as 'Money Haffi Make', 'Don't Make We Hold You' and the title track itself, the MC displays a combination of well-constructed, evocative lyricism with a raw – and often threatening – delivery reminiscent of dancehall legends such as Sizzla and Bounty Killer.
There are also a couple fairly comic moments – some intentional (a skit featuring a highly animated Nigerian sex therapist) and some unintentional ('Dem A Sissy', a song which contains the line, “dem a sissy, just a big fat sissy”; an insult which sounds more 1950s Schoolgirl than 21st Century Rudeboy).
With 'Gully Sit'n', Assassin has married polished, sparkling pop-dancehall beats with rough and ready, much-less-commercially-friendly lyrics and delivery, and it makes not only for a nice change of pace, but for an excellent set of songs too.
Words:
Tom Ellen
Label:
VP Records
Rating:
4/5
