Big Blunts Volume 3 (Tommy Boy, 1996)

The tracks on Volume 3 are perhaps a bit more obscure than on Volume 2, and they are certainly weaker. The best-known -- and easily the best -- song here is Steel Pulse's "Macka Splaff," here appropriately called "Macka Spliff" (I get confused because some places it's "spliff" and some it's "splaff," but although I know what a spliff is and not a "splaff," "Macka Splaff" is what is listed on Steel Pulse's albums.), a fun, bouncy tribute to the herb. (Of course, this compilation shouldn't be the only album of yours of which this song appears, though -- Handsworth Revolution is a MUST.) Other than this, the only song that jumps out is "Weed Life" by Rahsun & Skeeta Ranks. There are actually two versions of this track -- one dancehall, one funk -- and the funk one works better, partly because the song's melody is taken from The Crusaders' funk classic "Street Life." Strangely, another straight funk song is included on Big Blunts 3, Barrington Levy's "Gimme the Grass," which doesn't work quite as well as "Weed Life." A couple of dancehall tunes -- "I Need More Chronic," by Bounty Killer cronies the soon-to-be-deemed Scare Dem Crew (plus Daily Bread), and "So Many Spliff," by Sluggy & Tuffest -- and a couple of rootsy songs -- "Sensi Addict," by Horace Ferguson, and "Trodding Through the Jungle," by Carlton Livingston -- are solid as well, but overall a step below Volume 2.