Bolistik (Good Worx, 2008)

Bolistik is a new collective of hip-hop and reggae artists formed by San Francisco Bay-area musicians Ben Krames and Jetsun Bradford-Ebey. For the most part, the hip-hop and reggae elements remain separate, with about four straightforward rap songs, five reggae, and a couple of hybrids. The switching back and forth give the album a schizophrenic feel that's eased by the presence of respected reggae artists like Yami Bolo, Junior Reid, Lutan Fyah, Ras Attitude, and Rankin Scroo. The reggae portion is easily the stronger of the two sides of the Bolistik equation (granted, I'm biased), with a pair of lovers rock tunes by Yami Bolo ("Love and Care") and Nic Numan (the digi-groove "Deena") serving as the highlights along with "Open Fields," a great throwback roots affair featuring DJ Tony Moses toasting in an old school U-Roy style. The hip-hop songs -- notably "Music Is Love," "Fresh Air," and the Latin-inclined "Lets Get Away" -- tend to favor throwaway R&B-styled choruses sung by female singers, which add a layer of cheese to the proceedings. The quality of the music and the performances by the artists vary erratically, succeeding on "Passing Over," which features Lutan Fyah chatting and Junior Reid singing over a kinetic hip-hop beat, but faltering on tracks like the saccharine R&B ballad "One Day," the generic dancehall of "Feelin Us," and "One Big Family," a painful dancehall posse cut which whiich neither the performers nor the producer brings much to the table. Bolistik has some nice moments, but it's too all over the place, both sound-wise and quality-wise.