9. SizzlaBlack Woman And Child
This album was in some ways the soundtrack to my past, maybe my last three to five years in Barbados. At every party, in every area where a bunch of young people were congregating, this album would be playing. I think it’s a classic. I’d go as far to say that it’s influence is so big, that music of this style hasn’t really moved on from this point. It’s weird to think that an album can be so seminal that the whole genre stops in time around it, but that’s this album for me. It’s such a massive record that I feel in some ways it creates a problem. Conscious reggae or bashment or whatever you want to call it can’t get past the fact of this album’s greatness. The level of production detail is just crazy. I don’t know how other people perceive it, but for me it’s totally personal. You don’t have to even be a Rastafarian to appreciate it, it’s strange. Imagine if gospel music was cooler. Like, if someone made a God-praising gospel album that was so musically amazing that everyone in England for instance just wanted to listen it. It’s a strange phenomenon because the stuff he’s saying is deeply ingrained in this faith, with references to Haile Selassie and the values of Rastafarianism. But the music, how he’s rhyming, and what’s actually happening with the album as a whole is so strong that it makes the religious content subliminal. How do you make an album that strong that you can literally praise Jah and people with nothing to do with that religion just don’t care!
