Ras Myrhdak

Ras Myrhdak came to the attention of producers Lynford "Fatta" Marshall and Andreas "Brotherman" Christophersen when his single "Blazer" hit the top of the Jamaican charts. Brotherman consequently brought him into the studio for his full-length debut, a neo-roots exercise featuring modern-sounding old-school beats played by such A-list studio sessioneers as Horsemouth Wallace, Sticky Thompson, Dean Fraser, and Nambo Robinson. Ras Myrhdak alternates between singing and chatting in the time-honored "singjay" style, an approach that yields a nice variety of sounds on tracks like "Only for a Time" and the soaring "Trod It Alone." Although he is generally known as a protégé of Bobo Dread firebrand Capleton, his vocal approach owes quite a bit to Sizzla, whom he particularly resembles when he slips into falsetto on songs like "Swept Away" and "Trod It Alone." But the album's highlight track is the brilliant "Pre Dem," a four-minute marvel of apocalyptic rockstone growling and brilliant hooks. Several other tracks lapse into standard-issue neo-roots grooves and resentful anti-Babylon imprecations (sample couplet: "The most successful business in the world is the pharmacy/'Cos the food my people eat fills them up with leprosy"), but at its best this album is very good indeed. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide