Following up on Greensleeves’ first official Bobby Konders/Massive B Dancehall mixtape, Mad Sick Head Nuh Good, comes the second installment of the series in the shape of a real proper hardcore ragga retrospective. Avoiding the obvious pitfalls of a ’90s’ mix, Brooklyn’s Bobby Konders manages to pull out all the stops without resorting to the, well… tired ‘classics’ that Greensleeves and other labels are usually guilty of filling ‘best of’ albums with.
This only makes more sense when you consider Bobby Konders and Massive B’s history in the game. Massive B was co-founded in the early 90s by Konders and Jabba to serve as Record Label, Sound System and Radio presence and since then has produced a slew of hits including classics such as Super Cats’ Ghetto Red Hot and more recently the popular No Borders riddim, just to touch on a couple.
Massive B lean towards the 90s era as their foundation, so here on this mix they are right in their element and it shows. The mix features some heavy production from the likes of King Jammy, Steely & Cleevie, John John, and a heap more top contenders from this period. If you like your riddim strip back and raw, this one’s for you.
Vocally we see major input from Bounty Killa and Beenie Man who were both at the top of their game at the time, dominating the Jamaican charts and mashing up the annual Sting festival. Although, for me, the contributions of Mad Cobra, Ninja Man, Cocoa Tea and Buju Banton are the highlights of the mix.
As far as retro mixes go, this is the one to pick-up, I can’t see myself tiring of any particular tune or section of this in the near future. Solid.
Sidenote: If throw-back isn’t your thing or you’d like to hear what Bobby Konders and Jabba are running these days, head over to www.massiveb.com/web_
Grafta
