Sizzla

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michael

Bring out the vacuum
I haven't heard much Sizzla, but does he do those weird falsetto parts himself?

Thinking of the chorus of the tune 'Rise to the Occasion' as a classic example - slightly strained falsetto through what will forever more be known as "the Cher effect".

Either way it's weird in a good way.
 
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droid

Guest
His best LP's are definitely Black woman and Child, Praise ye Jah, and Goodways, and are all still available. He also featured on '3 wise men' and '2 strong' at around the same period.. the jetstar 'best of Sizzla' from 97/98 would be a good place to start...

Personally I prefer his sing-jay style from the earlier LPs. I was shocked when he started to go slack in the late 90's... Now his records seem to consisit entirely of pathetic hiphop/r+b crossover tracks and slack dancehall tunes voiced with that ridiculous 'Buju Banton on helium' style he's developed. IMO he sounded much more natural in his earlier LP's, even his first record - Burning Up, shits all over the last 5 LPs hes done. (Solid as a rock being a rare exception)..

He still puts out the odd good 7" now and then, but i think hes lost most of the qualities that once made him stand out from the crowd...
 
hint

hint

party record with a siren
Black Woman and Child is a fantastic LP

Singles-wise, I also like Til It Some More

I agree that his later / more recent stuff is a bit of a let down.
 
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gumdrops

Well-known member
in response to someone who asked where his major deal is, supposedly dame dash is trying to sign him. i agree with droid's consensus on sizzla, im sick of the shitty crossover tracks.
 
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Eric

Mr Moraigero
droid said:
pathetic hiphop/r+b crossover tracks
Click to expand...

though it's not the case for every attempt of course sometimes I think it works, more than this assessment would give one to believe. *give me a try* for instance is beautiful.

and even a track like *boom and go through* from *da real thing* is not such a bad song really. of course it's no *black woman and child* but I certainly don't find it 'pathetic'.
 
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droid

Guest
I think Bounty was OTM about Sizzla with his tune 'Likkle dread bwoy' a few years back. Check out the lyrics: (from memory, so almost certainly a bit wrong)

Remember good good Sizzla, him a rise to di top -
With black woman and child and nuff tune like that,
Di yute so powerful - mek di crime rate drop,
But since from war day him start chat bare crap,
Bout under gals frock and how much him waan clash...

Tell him any day him waan him life gwann dun -
Tell him and di whole a bobo hill say fi come ,
Same bobo hill now turnn burial ground - diss Miss Ivey son - no!!!

Bounty no fraid of no likkle dread bwoy.....
 
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droid

Guest
Eric said:
though it's not the case for every attempt of course sometimes I think it works, more than this assessment would give one to believe. *give me a try* for instance is beautiful.

and even a track like *boom and go through* from *da real thing* is not such a bad song really. of course it's no *black woman and child* but I certainly don't find it 'pathetic'.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah - he pulls it off every 20 attempts or so - and its not like this is a new thing.. even BWAC had a couple of hip-hop crossover tunes on it.

In comparison to his dancehall tunes though - whats the point? They are nearly always inferior. Its the same when Ninja, Bounty and Capleton do it - it never really works, and some of Sizzlas attempts have just been SO bad, that i dont think pathetic is going too far...

Sizzla's turn to slackness with the zeal of the converted, and the way he now fills his LP's with 50% aspirational crossover tunes and 50% slackness just smacks to me of marketing, and a yearning for mainstream success. Slackness sells in Jamaica, and dodgy crossover tunes (have the potential at least) to sell outside JA, and I reckon thats just what hes doing - listening to the marketing man at VP, and following the money...
 
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Eric

Mr Moraigero
OK, yeah. I agree with some of that. But: I'm not sure that the problem is really the slackness thing. Some of his non-slack stuff is also pretty weak ... I don't know what his reasons are for doing the slack thing, and I never heard any response tune to *likkle dread bwoy*. I have the impression that I have heard more 'conscious' stuff out of him again since that tune came out though :)

My diagnosis is just quality control. As you say above S. has some good stuff now and then on 7" but a lot of the album stuff is terrible. Agreed. And a lot of his 7" stuff is also bad or at least undistinguished. Same for Bounty/Capleton/Kartel/whoever. But none of these other artists put out 3 or 4 or 5 full-lengths a year as S has done for at least the past few (VP, Jet Star, etc). IMO things might improve quite a bit if that number went down by a couple and someone actually picked out the best of his work to release large-scale rather than indiscriminately putting everything out ...
 
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owen

Well-known member
being a bit of a dilettante here, my fave recent sizzla thing was 'got it going on', over square dancing riddim, cos it has a fantastically mental combination of cheap casio tinklings and barked lovers' lyrics. like max tundra had accidentally collaborated with him and banned him from bunning or chastising anyone
 
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Clubberlang

Well-known member
Yeah I checked that out, but unfortunately most of the mp3s (at least 3 or 4 months ago) were encoded at 128 kbps. So I still do the bad thing and slsk stuff I am curious about and then either pick up the riddim album (if there is one) or the odd 7" for the super great tings.
 
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Eric

Mr Moraigero
Remembered the title. This one: "Ain't Gonna See Us Fall" on He Speaks. This one is too nice.
 
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SIZZLE

gasoline for haters
I also like his 'Royal Son of Ethiopia' LP in his earlier more conscious style. I just heard a shocking special from him on the Immortal Sound from Birmingham's set (via Silverstar 1xtra), a very non-standard almost folk guitarry riddim and lyrics: 'I was born in a system/that doesnt give a fuck about you or me/keep my guns load/cuz you never know just in case/that's just the way I live'. The tune was a special so there may have never been a release, has anyone heard anything like this anywhere? I REALLY want this one. And I definitely agree that when he started in with a lot of his shouting style capelton-esque biz it was a real wrong turn... And on the me-too tip, Solid As A Rock is just a guaranteed WHEEL! Especially the Bonecrusher - Neverscared mash up. Crunk energy and violence with roots deepness and melody... I wish someone could investigate that vein a bit further.
 
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Eric

Mr Moraigero
SIZZLE said:
I just heard a shocking special from him on the Immortal Sound from Birmingham's set (via Silverstar 1xtra), a very non-standard almost folk guitarry riddim and lyrics: 'I was born in a system/that doesnt give a fuck about you or me/keep my guns load/cuz you never know just in case/that's just the way I live'. The tune was a special so there may have never been a release, has anyone heard anything like this anywhere? I REALLY want this one.
Click to expand...

"I Was Born". This is off Rise to the Occasion. Mighty Crown also has a hype special on this one ...
 
S

SIZZLE

gasoline for haters
Eric: THANKS!

Gonna go cop that today. I gotta get more focused on Sizzla's discography, there's just so much of it to go through though...
 
G

gabriel

The Heatwave
Eric said:
"I Was Born". This is off Rise to the Occasion. Mighty Crown also has a hype special on this one ...
Click to expand...

you can also get that on 7" on the CJ label IIRC. riddim called acoustic soul.

sizzla is an incredible talent, quality control is not his forte nor do i think he gives a fuck about it. the way i see it, he just can't stop making music - some of it is dodgy but a huge amount of it is amazing; certainly enough of it is so good that it eclipses all the bad stuff.

he's produced more classic albums in 8 years than most feted artists produce in their entire careers, and there's no sign of him slowing up or dropping off IMO. da real thing (2002), rise to the occasion (2003) and soul deep (2005) are all up there with his late 90s roots reggae work. plus there's countless brilliant singles that either never make it on to albums or only appear on his lesser-known and not-so-good albums e.g. life and speak of jah from last year.

now he's signed to the Damon Dash Music Group, he should go international in a major way. i hope so at least.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
on some dancehall mix I downloaded somewhere there is a Sizzla track buried about 30 or 40 minutes in, and the computer voice that introduces it says "Sizzla on Red Alert", and then the track begins with what sounds like Flamenco guitars. killer tune. but I've since bought Red Alert riddim album hoping that track to be on there, but not only is the track not on there, but the riddim itself is not even the Flamenco one. anyone know what the hell is going on here?

oh and thanks for all the recommendations of Eastern soundin riddims. I've been able to get all of them except 1 or 2 and Pharo which apparently is only available in Germany (already put my friends in Berlin on the hunt) :)
 
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Tim F

Well-known member
I think the Sizzla tune you're talking about is "Only Takes Love". It <i>is</i> on Red Alert, they just switched up the instrumentation a bit for his voicing - added some Flamenco guitars and some handclaps if I recall (haven't listened to the tune in a while).
 
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gdw

Active member
the sizzla on red alert is a south rakkas 7". think its got a reggaeton cut on the back from some latin (presumably miami based) crew...worth tracking down.
 
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