You might have caught this tune in my regular NiceUp column, but I thought it also deserved its own Track of the Week outing.
I always have a lot of time for Wayne Marshall, who came up in the early 2000s and gained a lot of prominence, particularly with some wicked bashment tunes in collaboration with producer Don Corleon and now-superstar Vybz Kartel.
It would be fair to say Wayne’s star has diminished slightly over the last ten years, as to be expected, but unlike a lot of artists he far from slid into irrelevance. Last year he had a serious hit on his hands with a big multi-artist collaboration – ‘Go Hard’ – featuring Aidonia, Bounty Killer, Assassin, I-Octane, Vybz Kartel and Damian Marley. You won’t find many bigger names in dancehall to pull together on a hyper-collaboration.
About to drop his latest album, ‘True Colours’, he has put out ‘I Know’ as a taster of what’s to come. Rather than the dancehall business you might have expected, the tune rides on a cutting, robotic roots riddim straight out of the early 80s, and is a stinging salvo to his detractors.
The tune is also a showcase of how strong the productions coming out of the Marley family’s Ghetto Youths International label are at the moment. Make sure you check their recent showcase album, ‘Set Up Shop Volume One’, for a taste of some of the strongest roots coming out of Jamaica at the moment.
Paradox
