Dutty Rock [PA] - Paul, Sean (Reggae) (CD 2002)

I bought Dutty Rock on a whim shortly after a winter vacation in Jamaica, where Sean Paul seemed to be on repeat loop on the radio. When radio/video play of Gimme the Light and Get Busy started up here in the States, I couldn't resist the purchase, but more for nostalgia than cause.

I expected to hear the two hot jams getting air time and a whole lot of trash, but trash that would take my mind's eye back to hot sun, hotter pork jerky, and cold Carib. Instead I got one of the greatest CDs I've ever purchased.

First, the genre. As explained to me by my driver on a twisty and breathtaking cross-country road trip from Negril to Port Antonio, Reggae has fallen out of favor with the Gen-D crowd. (at least I think that's the right term, I'm on the cusp of gen X/gen y if I'm 27, my brother 21 is solidy gen y, my sister, 17, should be generation digital. Or so I read, I think...God, I'm old and pathetic.) The point: reggae is old hat for the whippersnappers, who are trippin' on hip hop. The response: mix the genres. The result: Dancehall.

On to the lecture at hand: The first track, Shout (ok, it's actually the second track; the first is one of those loathsome intros. Again, God I'm old.) hooks the listener in and sets a Shake-dat-booty vibe. Throbbing bass and undulating beats coupled with Paul's smoky-choppy patois inflections and faster-than-a-speeding-bullet delivery aurally delight and carnally beckon. After a hearing/feeling a few of these bass vibrations, how could one come away with any intention other than to "turn up the treble and the bass make it play/party non-stop from a night till a day?"

Thus prepped, we get a familiar gem in track 3, the aforementioned Gimme the Light (and pass the dro). You've seen the video 100 times, you've heard both it and the Busta Rhymes dro-vasier remix (track 17) on the radio 1000 times each, but the jam is still hot. Somehow, Sean Paul has Staying Power the likes of which we rarely see in the music industry. (Kudos if you caught the Barry White allusion. I'll get you a t-shirt.)

Amazingly, Paul has staying power in both the Twinkie-like indestructable freshness of his music and in the consistently great tracks he delivers on the album. Paul hits stride and keeps pace with the next tracks, Like Glue, Top of the Game, Ganja Breed and the other MTV darling Get Busy. Worth mentioning, Concrete (track 9) gives props to my favorite Debtor-in-Bankruptcy, MC HAMMER! "Every time you pass 'pon the road you a flash it, a so we get fi know say that you physcially fit, you too legit to quit."

Try not to love this guy. I DARE you.

Just when you think you know what's up, Paul flips the script and gets OLD SCHOOL in track 10 I'm Still in Love with You. A tip of the hat to Alton Ellis, and a reggae vibe so legit if you close your eyes you can smell the seabreeze.

Track 11, International Affair keeps the old school vibe, sampling from Eric B and Rakim, but brings us back into the Dancehall. Not only is this track utterly irresitable, and impossible NOT to move to, this song (esp when considered in combination with I'm Still in Love with You) shows that Paul recognizes and rejoices the roots of his musical genre.

Paul keeps in hot right up to the end of the CD, most notably with Punkie (track 13 in English, track 22 en entertainingly-accented espanol) and track 18 Bubble, featuring the ubiquitous and mind-blowingly talented Neptunes.

You know how sometimes you buy a CD and you smack yourself in the head after either 1 or 10 plays and wonder why you ever were so stupid as to drop $20 on junk? Dutty Rock is the 180 degree opposite. Even after several months multiple-times-per-week play, I'm delighted and coerced to move by this CD. It amazes me what a bargain it was and how giving into whim could be so smart!