Amazon.co.uk Review
Dancehall ragga-hop rips straight out of the Kingston-Brooklyn crossroads, with
Nice Up the Dance making up a big, brash set loaded with 13 hard-edged bouncers. Kenny Dope and Screechy Dan provide a body-blow opener with "Boomin' in Ya Jeep", strutting with a huge, crashing beat and deranged, desperate vocals spouting and drooling over a rumbling bass bottom.
Cutty Ranks favours shifty, slipping rhythms, toasting right on top of the beat, dodging and ducking, shunting rapidly between the two parts of his "Who Say Me Done". The entire collection seethes with uncontained energy, lightening up only slightly with Ms. Thing's
Tom Tom Club electro-feel on "Get That Money". The hardcore rapping side surfaces on J-Live's "Satisfied" and Pompidou easily qualifies for the most rasping voice, while Singer Blue's "If I Know Jah" has an almost oriental vibe, its tip-toe rhythm nimbly walking on eggshells. Other stand-outs are the hip-hop mix of Tenor Saw's classic "Ring the Alarm", the sheer pulsing drama of Sean Paul's "Infiltrate", the jogging robotics of Chaka Demus & Pliers' "The Boom" and the slab-hop wallop packed by Shaggy's "Gunshot", with Kenny Dope once more riding hard at the desk. Excessive jiggling is, of course, compulsory. --
Martin Longley