Dark, Dirty, Raw Reggae Recommendations

[sean]

want heavyweight?you want scientist..dirty?what do you mean?scientist aint dirty..any good reggae aint dirty its clean..for slackness and sleaze check yellowman..good riddims, poor lyrics..

[tingjunkie]

want heavyweight?you want scientist..dirty?what do you mean?scientist aint dirty..any good reggae aint dirty its clean..for slackness and sleaze check yellowman..good riddims, poor lyrics..

I'll defend Yellow any day! Of course his lyrics are far more sexual and slack than roots reggae, but compared to late 80's/early 90's dancehall...? Harmless as a new puppy. Of course we are all entitled to our opinion, but for me, Yellowman's lyrics are anything but "poor."

Being serious about life 100% of the time is not a good thing. We need some humor and sex mixed in sometimes, otherwise we end up like Bush or Bin Laden!

As for the original question, I'm not sure I would describe the average Yellowman riddim as "dark and heavy," although for dancehall they are great.

[sean]

actually tingjunkie..youre right..his lyrics are very catchy and amazingly ingenious, i used to be a big fan of his when i was a youth...several top hits of his are hilarious beyond belief..so yeah..may be slack but not "poor"..check him!!!

[tingjunkie]

For dark, raw, and heavy, I'm surprised no one has mentioned Lee Perry's Black Ark productions, or Yabby You productions.

There are tons of great Scratch comps out there which are dark as midnight: Arkology, Open The Gate (out of print), Build The Ark (out of print).

As for Yabby You, the Jesus Dread album on Blood & Fire is 100% crucial.

Perhaps these were too obvious that people just skipped right over them? Either way, if you don't have these, you need them!

[sean]

the arkology 3fer cd set is amazing..a mixture of dub and vocal with 5 versions of police and thieves song n riddim on it..wowee..

[selecta bing]

For LEE PERRY check these 2 Heartbeat issues

SOUNDZ FROM THE HOTLINE
[cover=222,249]

UPSETTER IN DUB
[cover=237,263]

[rasdragon]

Being Canadian I must also recomend Kig Cultures productions. Also Half Moon from Toronto also are very good (recent rerelease Glory, Dominion, Power & Majesty PK Records) but mostly missed and very crucial from Toronto area is Summer Records (recent rereleases are on Light In The Attic Records). Very deep & dark sounds for the most part. Hope your search turns up some great sounds.

[Drella]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I got Trinity "Rock In The Ghetto" and the Sylford Walker and Welton Irie compilation and they're both great!