Capleton is part of the priestly order of Bobo Ashanti, one of the Mansions of Rastafari and is head of David House Productions. Capleton is also know as the Prophet, King Shango, King David and the Fireman, and was given the name Capleton by his peers, after the surname of a popular Jamaican lawyer.
Capleton adds to his impressive album discography with his latest offering, I-Ternal Fire out on VP Records. To long-time Capleton fans this album comes a little softer in delivery but in terms of lyrical content, Capleton brings the fire as hot as ever.
On the opening track titled When I Came To Town, Capleton sings “When I came to town I came upon a mission I came to burn all these wicked politician make them know straight time bomb they sitting, have to go to Bobo Hill to tune my intuition.” This lyric sums up the Firemans now musical mission, although this was not so true when Capleton was signing slackness lyrics when he first started recording music.
Mama You Strong is a tribute to Capletons’ mother and to mothers all over the world. Same Old Story on the Rub A Dub riddim (which is the same riddim as Richie Spice’s big tune The Plane Land) is a stand out tune for me. I also highly rate the ganja tune Acres on the Discretions riddim (check Lutan Fyahs version Nuh Talk). The one-two heartbeat is prevalent in the tune Them Get Corel.
This album doesn’t have any heavy bashment tunes for which Capleton is well know for, although I suspect that in his live performances theses tunes will be adapted into firey one-drop rythems. I-Ternal Fire definitely showcases The Prophets sing-jay style more so than his trademark bombardment of firey explosive, yelling and screaming that propelled him into the top ranks of Jamaica’s DJs (meaning MC’s, singers, rappers) in the early 90’s.
I like this somewhat new approach, as it shows his diversity as an artist. Also after seeing live footage of the artist, it shows that he is perhaps slowing down his lyrical delivery, but is in no way slowing down his musical mission.
More info:
Capleton biography on United Reggae
Live Version of ‘Mama You Strong’ at Reggae Rising 2009
Bless Up
Hawk I
