Voice Of Jamaica [Remastered]

17 TRACKS: 1) Searching (with Wayne Wonder) 2) Red Rose 3) Commitment (with Wayne Wonder) 4) Deportees (Things Change) 5) No Respect 6) If Loving Was A Crime (with Brian & Tony Gold) 7) Good Body 8) Wicked Act (with Busta Rhyme) 9) Tribal War (with Tony Rebel & Terry Ganzie) 10) A Little More Time (with Beres Hammond) 11) Him Take Off 12) Willy (Don't Be Silly) 13) Gone A Lead 14) Make My Day 15) Operation Ardent 16) Vigilante 17) Deportees (Things Change) (Tan So Back Haul Up Mix)

With the dancehall electro-beats and obsession with violence and homophobia that characterized his earliest releases, the then-teenaged Buju Banton (born Mark Myrie of Salt Lane, Kingston) couldn't escape troubling parallels with some of his early '90s American hip-hop counterparts. But a conversion to the popular Jamaican cult of Rastafarianism--and crucially, this album--seemed to mark a dramatic turning point for both Banton's soul and his music. Indeed, he quickly turned from the gay-bashing "Boom Boom Bye Bye" to promoting AIDS awareness and condoms on this 1993 album's groundbreaking "Willy (Don't Be Silly)." But it takes considerably more than a (shrewdly?) reformed social conscience to make great reggae. Still leaning on the electro-heavy production of early '90s dancehall and relying on a repetitive, growling delivery that doesn't exactly break new ground for either rhythm or rhyme, Banton bullies his way through heart-on-the-sleeve consciousness-raising songs ("Deportees," "Willy," "No Respect," "Wicked Act"), more typical boasts ("Good Body"), and romance ("Red Rose," "Make My Day," "Commitment") alike. Still, listen closely and you'll hear some organic elements (and pop consciousness) seeping through the bluster, harbingers of his breakthrough 1995 album 'Til Shiloh. This remastered reissue features two bonus tracks ("Vigilante" and a dub-heavy remix of "Deportees") originally available as promotional-only singles. --Jerry McCulley