SHABAKA

The Black Loyalist

(p) 2007-dec

 

Tracklisting:

 

CD 1:

The Story

 
01 African Spirit  
02 Black Loyalist  
03 Black Loyalist II (Remix)  
04 Mr. Jackson  
05 See Dem A Come  
06 See Dem A Come II (Remix)  
07 Who Is The Enemy / African Mafia  

-

The Bonus Tracks

 
08 Reggae Music  
09 Nightshift  
10 After We Talk  
11 Allez-Vous Dancer  
12 Tell Me About The Half  

CD 2:

The Instrumentals

 
01 African Spirit  
02 Mr. Jackson  
03 See Dem A Come  
04 Who Is The Enemy  
05 Black Loyalist  
06 After We Talk  
07 Reggae Music  
08 Nightshift  
09 Allez-Vous Dancer  
10 Tell Me About The Half  

-

The Dubs

 
11 Nightshift  
12 Reggae Music  
13 Mr. Jackson  
14 Who Is The Enemy  
15 African Spirit  
16 After We Talk  
17 See Dem A Come II  
18 Black Loyalist  
19 Tell Me About The Half  
SHABAKA PRODUCTION, SP-FC0001 2-CD

REVIEW IN ENGLISH:
SOURCE: ROOTS MUSIC Reggae & Dancehall
AUTHOR: Teacha Dan



The Black Loyalist is not only the title track of Skabaka's album, it also reflects his approach to music. He is black and a loyal descendant from the people of Sierra Leone, a mixture of freed American slaves, Jamaican Maroons and Africans, and it is exactly this musical mixture that is put forward on Shabaka's album; reggae, rap, blues, soul and African.

The album has been divided into two discs and four sections; the story, the bonus tracks, the instrumentals and the dubs, the most interesting part being the story. It consists regrettably of only five tunes and two remixes with rapper/poet Joaquin Evans. As an unwanted side effect the double inclusion of the two tunes does also mix up the listener's experience of the story that is an account of the journey of a generic African spirit. It is not a traditional cohesive narrative but a poignant one none the less.

'African Spirit' is a celebration of emancipated souls and serves as a cleansing to get the audience in the right mindset for the story. 'Black Loyalist' relates the predicament and victory of Thomas Peters, who brought nearly twelve hundred freed slaves with him back to Africa in 1792 and founded Freetown in Sierra Leone. 'Mr Jackson' is from Mississippi, a descendant of slaves who comes to Africa to seek his roots and finds the continent to be very hard and disorienting, finding more questions than answers. 'See Dem A Come' tells of aggression and the subsequent suffering within African communities worldwide while 'Who Is The Enemy / African Mafia' is about corrupt leaders.

Of the bonus tracks only two satisfy the expectations planted by the preceding story tracks. 'Reggae Music' is a too clean soul reggae tune but 'Nightshift' is fine and boasts some nice deejaying by unknown vocalist Sprouti. 'After We Talk' is a very potent and sexy lovers-reggae tune featuring Nyl Medina and could easily become a classic. The last two tunes are a bit out of place musically and so brake the album's spell by introducing light-hearted and up-tempo township flavoured afro beat to the mix. 'Tell Me About The Half' could also have served as the story's ending, thus introducing the African music earlier and in it's rightful place.

The second disc holds the instrumentals and the dubs which means that some of the tunes that have been presented to the listener twice already get two additional treatments. In my humble view the second disc is superfluous especially since the first disc only takes forty-six minutes and so has plenty of time left. If the album had focussed solely on the story and on Shabaka, maybe adding another chapter or extending some mixes into dubs, it would probably have deserved a four and a half star rating.

(Teacha Dan, February 2008)