Reggae

Militancy Riddim – Winta James

The Militancy Riddim came out last year, but I never heard any of the songs until earlier this year.  Part of the reason I probably missed the boat on this one was because none of the artists I really listen to had used this riddim on an album, most were released as singles.  Anyways, for those that have not heard it before, it is a great riddim produced by Winta James.  In addition to producing, Winta James has played keyboards and toured with Damian Marley.  He also had some background vocals in the Distant Relatives album from Damian and Nas.  Currently, he is working with Protoje to produce his upcoming album called “Ancient Future”.  Clearly his career is taking off right now, and I expect to see great things from him in the future.

My favorite track on this riddim has to be the one with Protoje called “Resist Not Evil”.  It’s a great song, with great lyrics and a great video.  Protoje sometimes makes these “lyric” videos which are actual music videos, but they are very simple, and just have the lyrics for the song come up on screen in creative/artistic ways.  Even though they are so simple, I think they are kinda cool, and the lyrics are great for people who may have trouble understanding the words (if they are not used to listening to reggae).  As I mentioned, he has done other videos like this, but rather than dismiss it as being lazy or lacking new ideas for his videos, I think he does it because the lyrics mean so much to him.  During his concert in Miami, he deliberately went out of his way on many songs (this one included) to recite the lyrics very slowly, very clearly, while the band toned it down.  This man has a message for us, and he wants to make sure we overstand it.  And he wants to make sure that message is universal, not just for Jamaicans, not just for Rastas, and not just for reggae fans.  Check it:

 

 

The first track recorded with this riddim was “Preying on the Weak” by Jesse Royal.  It’s rare that one riddim has so many amazing songs, but this song is really good too!

 

Kabaka Pyramid also has a really good version as well, called “The Revival”, where he speaks about the movement known as the Reggae Revival.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0N4MfeZuBQ

Anyways, those are my 3 favorite track on the Militancy Riddim, but if you want to hear the others, you can find them on SoundCloud:

https://soundcloud.com/search/sounds?q=militancy%20riddim

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