Search - Various Artists :: Ragga Ragga Ragga 2005

Not Bad, Not Excellent, But Not Bad

Achis | Kingston, JA/Philipsburg, SxM | 03/30/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Ragga Ragga Ragga compilation from Greensleeves Records annually offers some of the most up to the time and hardest dancehall available anywhere. Everything is opened up, its totally uncensored and unforgiving and its probably one of the very few reggae/dancehall compilations you'll find anywhere that doesn't really try to fit in, it just gives you what the hardheads want in their ragga, usually.



While the only exception to that on 2005's episode would be the Nina Sky and (Baby)Cham combination on Turnin' Me On which is even given a new shiney dancehall backing and totally worked out, the rest of the album is pretty straight forward, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The album is pretty stacked with very nice riddims, you have nearly the cream of the crop when it comes to up and coming producers including Vendetta, Birch, Scatta and Beenie Man's in house producer Mario C. All the artists come with their absolute hardest material (for the most part) and this newest edition fits in well with recent installments.



Well then what's wrong with it? There really isn't a hammer here. There isn't really the one song that hits home on a level unlike the rest of the songs, and every album needs a hammer. With Greensleeves signees Macka Diamond and Vybz Kartel taking 7 of the 18 cuts, you would expect it would be somewhere in there. Diamond's tunes (for one reason or another) sound very similar to one another regardless of the riddim and Greensleeves seems to have specifically gone out of their way to find 4 Kartel songs which are amongst his dirtiest as the seemingly harmless sounding School Bus drifts and drifts and drifts. Spragga Korrection by Kartel, which is a song which goes out of its way to 'hide' its intended victim is truly one of the harshest clash songs you'll ever hear and at the end of it you walk away thinking somebody just got hit wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy below the belt.



The other star hear with 3 tracks and the one who actually stills the show is the Doctor. Beenie's Three Laws, Ziggy Zung and Chaka Dance are very entertaining and never get stuck in the too slack role. Also shining is Capleton, expectedly, on Free Up, Sizzla in a Rah on I'm With the Girls and Mad Cobra who probably finds the album's best single spot on Switch.



Overall, had they put one of Spragga's responses to Kartel on this album it probably would have offered a one-two hammer instead of just the one which I'm still looking for and just generally made the album more enjoyable. But Kartel is the big man at GS and he pretty much gets it his way. The RRR series has certainly seen better moments, but despite the average feel to this one, if you liked last year's and the year before that, you'll probably like 2005's as well."