Step Out

Verbally nimble and sharp-witted Kingstonian Dancehall king Busy Signal hearkens back to an earlier era of Jamaican music. Though the riddims that he chooses are state-of-the-art dance-floor fillers, his light-speed delivery exhibits the sort of sly wit and sharply honed sense of rhythm that won acclaim for DJs like Eek-A-Mouse and Yellowman at the dawn of the Dancehall era. On "Where I’m From," Busy Signal turns a neighborhood pride anthem into a call for social reform, leveling lyrical barbs at politicians, policemen, and criminals all while managing to fit in a series of profoundly energetic calls to the dance floor. In an era in which free-wheeling Dancehall parties are becoming progressively more alienated from the dour didacticism of diehard roots artists, Busy Signal effortlessly combines these two impulses in the style of legendary DJs like Toyan and Lone Ranger, all while remaining bracingly contemporary. Busy Signal is even canny enough to court fans from other parts of the West Indies, including a hard-driving excursion into Soca on the album’s final track.