Down in the Ghetto (VP, 1995)

More sophisticated  rhythms and rhymes elevate this effort slightly above Roots Reality & Culture.  Even if all of the songs aren't great, each has some likeable element in it.  Several of Bounty Killer's more popular tunes are included here: "Down in the Ghetto," "Smoke the Herb," "Cellular Phone," and the "Flava in Your Ear" remix of "Not Another Word" -- but only the latter two do a whole lot for me.  Better are "Trespass," "Gal" -- with its unique sound effects -- "Inspired By God," and "If a War."  Compared to the last album, this one is more mature, both musically and lyrically, as the gun lyrics ease up a bit to refreshing effect.   Bounty Killer was obviously on his way up with Down in the Ghetto, and his output would only get higher on his next album.

My Xperience (VP, 1996)

Bounty Killer's magnum opus, this album sets a new standard for quality dancehall.  My Xperience is 20 tracks thick, and unlike many hip-hop albums, none of these are stupid 2-minute skits.  In fact, there is no filler whatsoever.  I like almost every song, and even the ones I don't like quite as much ("Living Dangerously" comes to mind) I can tell are nonetheless high quality.  There is enough material for two good albums here, let alone one.  Wonderful rhythms -- ranging from high-energy digital dancehall to a laid-back rootsy feel to hip-hop (limited to a well-chosen 4 or 5 cuts) -- and vocals -- with nice guest appearances by Dennis Brown, Jeru da Damaja, The Fugees, Beenie Man, and Raekwon, among others -- permeate this album from start to finish.  Bounty Killer displays the remarkable talent of being able to take familiar rhythms -- Sly Dunbar's "Unmetered Taxi" on "The Lord Is My Light & Salvation" and Sister Nancy's "Bam Bam" on "Gun Down" -- and songs -- Dennis Brown's "Revolution" on "Revolution III" and Michael Sembello's "Maniac" on "Maniac" -- tweaking them a bit, and making them completely fresh and enjoyable in another light.  It's hard to pick favorite tracks here, since they're all of similarly high quality, but "Mama" is darn good.  While not as original as the roots style that Buju Banton dropped on the world on Til Shiloh, the material on My Xperience is generally more entertaining.  It is bigger, better, and badder than most other dancehall releases out there.

Ghetto Gramma' (Greensleeves, 1997)

On the heels of his masterpiece My Xperience, Bounty Killer breaks away from VP Records for this British release (although his previous had been released on both VP and Greensleeves).  Like My Xperience, Ghetto Gramma' (not short for grandmother) is 20 tracks thick, but unlike the earlier album, Ghetto gives the distinct sense of having filler material thrown in, particularly the grating "Book Book Book," whose chorus is sung to the melody of "Rock Around the Clock."   Blech.  Still, with 20 songs, there is a good amount of more decent stuff here.  Several of these tracks are singles that had already been available on various compilations -- the weed anthem "Smoke the Herb," "You've Got Me Waiting," the minimalist DJ version of Dawn Penn's "No No No," and the DJ version of Junior Reid's "Gun No Have Sense," here titled "This World's Too Haunted."  These are all solid songs, but they've worn thin due to exposure on other collections.  More enjoyable are "Ancient Day Killing," "I'll Be Back," "Time to Realize," "Mi Heart Beat," and the funky hip-hop "Fat and Sexy" (the only hip-hop beat on the album).

Next Millennium (TVT, 1998)
 
Bounty Killer hasn't always released great stuff, but he's always been consistently good.  That is, until now.  Perhaps he's been hanging around the Wu-Tang Clan a bit too much, because half of this album is hip-hop reggae.  And most of these tracks have guest rappers, so they turn out sounding like hip-hop songs.  If I wanted a damn Wu-Tang album, I would've bought a damn Wu-Tang album.  Mid to late-'90s rappers like Noreaga, Mobb Deep, and Kilah Priest, while well-respected hardcore artists, are played-out in my book.  Except for a chosen few rappers, the entire hip-hop industry has become tired in the latter half of the '90s (ironically, as it has become more popular than ever).  Whereas in the '80s and early '90s, it was on the cutting edge of music, now it is mainstream, with white bread suburbanites pushing its albums habitually into the Top 10.  That said, even the dancehall cuts on Next Millennium aren't all that hot, with only "Eagle and di Hawk," "Big Life," and "Reggae Party" being OK (The latter would actually be better without Bounty Killer and Shaggy; it would be a solid Third World tune.)  Bounty Killer even explores his pop side in a couple of songs: "It's a Party" is a decent R&B/dance party jam tailor-made for the radio by Wyclef Jean, while "A Love That's Real" features an "Eye of the Tiger"-like rock guitar riff.   Bounty may have killed his fan base with this effort.

The Best of Bounty Killer (Artists Only!, 1999)

Although in 1999 it was perhaps a bit too early in his career for a "best of" collection, Bounty Killer was already a veteran inna the dancehall when this album came out, having 7 or 8 albums worth of material to choose from (unlike Sizzla, who only had 3 or so albums before his Reggae Max "best of" compilation, or Mr. Vegas, who only had one!).  Still, since then, he's released several more albums, and I'd wager that a Best of Bounty Killer Volume 2 will be a necessity by 2006 or so.  This album basically gathers tracks from 5 albums, including his Face to Face release with Beenie Man, but the great majority -- all but 4 or 5 -- come from Roots Reality and Culture, Down in the Ghetto, and No Argument.  Strangely, My Xperience, the Killer's grandest achievement to date, contributes only two songs: "The Lord Is My Light and Salvation" and "Mama."  Thus, missing are the hits "Benz & the Bimma," "Living Dangerously," "Maniac," and "Fed Up."  Not so strangely, there are no tracks from the disastrous Next Millennium, but while there are few hits on the Ghetto Gramma' album, there's enough good material there that the compilers could've used something from it to add more variety to this compilation.  Personally, I wouldn't have minded it if tunes like "New Gun," "More Gal," "You'll Never Know," "Statement," and the noxious "Mama Ivy Last Son" (which adopts the melody from, of all things, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas") were replaced by "Kill or Be Killed," "Trespass," "Inspired By God," "Ancient Day Killing," and other more "killer" tracks.

5th Element (TVT, 1999)

All I have to say is thank goodness this album is not weighed down by hip-hop beats.  Even if 5th Element is bad, at least it's a bad dancehall album, not a bad hip-hop album.  But, Bounty Killer fans, have no fear, for this effort (as hesitant as I was about it) delivers what the Killer is known for: hardcore dancehall riddims, brutal bad boy lyrics, and creative vocal flows.  While not a high point in his career, 5th Element is a welcome return to what made Bounty Killer famous.  As if to let you know that he's back, the first two tracks explode in a frenzy of lyrics and riddims, the catchy "Anytime" being particularly enjoyable, ranking among his all-time best.  Among the rest of the cuts, "Fortune and Fame" sticks out as the best, most of which are simple yet effective bare bones, hardcore dancehall that will get your head bobbing, especially "Lord of da Warriors," "Population," "Request," and "Mr. Tear and Bore."  A few tracks hold this album back from being truly memorable, however.   There's no other way to describe "Too Busy To Die," "Tempt Me," "Mr. Wanna Be," and the remix of "Anytime" than just plain sloppy -- the first two containing unimaginative generic dancehall rhythms, the third being a poor attempt to re-visit Bounty Killer's classic "Lodge," and the last sounding less like a remix than a recording of a recording of "Anytime," complete with craggly, distant sound quality.  The only hip-hop reggae song on 5th Element is a "hidden track," "Look," which was banned in Jamaica (as a sticker on the CD cover proudly proclaims) for its supposed promotion of violence.  While not the most enlightened song in the world, "Look" is catchy and enjoyable in somber way.  It's certainly not anything that is so incendiary that it deserved to be banned.  It is performed from the point of view of a desperate criminal who sees crime as his only option in his bleak life, but Bounty Killer, but Bounty Killer has always performed "gun lyrics," so why is this anything shocking?  If a song is going to influence someone's behavior, chances are that person will come across something else that will have the same negative effect.  He/she has bigger problems to worry about than a song.

Ghetto Dictionary: The Art of War (VP, 2002)

The Art of War is the first part of Bounty Killer's ambitious 40-track Ghetto Dictionary, whose goal seems to be to establish the DJ as the force to be reckoned with in the dancehall.  This first volume is an aggressive, hardcore fireball that aims to scorch the Earth and makes not apologies for doing so.  And yet, how is it that I initially found this album to be boring?  Well, it's largely a matter of been there, done that.  The Killer gives us nothing new here; we've heard it all before from him.  Even his nihilistic dissing of other DJs seems old-hat.  But, given time, I came to appreciate his dedication to what he does best: giving the fans what they want.  The Art of War can be seen in many ways as the antithesis of arch-enemy Beenie Man's Art & Life.  The title aside, musically, Bounty Killer eschews the light pop and R&B crossover sound of Art & Life in favor of a blistering dancehall flavor that only occasionally incorporates a hip-hop edge.  Of course, let us not overlook the verbal haymakers that Bounty Killer hurls at his rival, most notably on "Look Good," which focuses largely on the assertion that Beenie Man is gay. (Unbeknownst to many in the US, Bounty Killer caught flak from Beenie Man and others in Jamaica for he video for the god-awful hit "Hey Baby" by No Doubt, in which a poorly-timed edit shows a naked male member of the band cavorting as Bounty Killer chats about how he likes the way you shake it, etc.  No doubt that No Doubt was aware neither of the implications nor the hyper-machismo and hyper-homophobia inherent in Jamaican culture.)  While I can't say that there are any particularly great songs on The Art of War (my favorite being "Sumfest"), there aren't any bad ones either (although "W.A.R.R.," which incorporates the whistling from the theme to "The Andy Griffith Show," is a tad disturbing); it's quite consistent throughout.  No doubt that fans hard up (or even not so hard up) for Bounty Killer material will find what they want here.

Ghetto Dictionary: The Mystery (VP, 2002)

It's appropriate that Bounty Killer utilizes the ying-yang symbol on The Mystery, the second chapter in his Ghetto Dictionary, for it is the ying to The Art of War's yang (or vice versa).  Whereas Art of War featured the aggressive, shit-talkin', kill-or-be-killed Killer, The Mystery "mysteriously" reveals a softer, gentler Warlord.  Musically, this album features more laid-back rootsy tracks ("Ghetto Dictionary," "Outcry," "Gunz in the Ghetto," "Petty Thief"), as well as more R&B/hip-hop-influenced cuts ("Bakardi Slang Refix," "No Other Like Me," "Party 2 the End of Time," "Pot of Gold"), while lyrically, he chats more about social ills than about gunning someone down, dissing fellow DJs, or calling someone out as gay.  Message tunes like "Outcry," "We Need a Leader," "Petty Thief," and "Eyewater" might make you forget who you're listening to and might even make you think a bit ("Tonight, on a very special episode of The Bounty Killer Show...").  Whether you prefer The Art of War or The Mystery depends at least partially on which face of Bounty Killer you favor, but fans of the hardcore Killer shouldn't totally discount the latter, however; this is still Bounty Killer, not Pato Banton.  Edgy, hard-hitting numbers like "Arrow" (also on Strictly the Best Volume 27, along with the lesser "Mystery"), the Indian-edged remix of "Fed Up," and the ganja-themed "High Grade Forever" should appease the hardest of fans.  And overall, although the relatively (this being the key word) soft sound of The Mystery might initially catch you off guard, it turns out to be equally as fulfilling a journey as the first half of the Ghetto Dictionary.

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Nah No Mercy: The Warlord Scrolls (VP, 2006)

Back when The Best of Bounty Killer came out in 1999, I predicted that another "best of" set would be due by 2006, and voila, here it is! (My prediction about Lou Bega becoming a musical powerhouse: not so good.) The Killer is certainly worthy of a 2-disc set, but since he's released only two albums since 1999, there's not as big an advantage in buying Nah No Mercy over Best of as there could've been. The new set does, though, correct previous omissions like "Benz & Bimma," "Fed Up," "No Interview," "Living Dangerously," "Bounty's Nitro Mix," "My Experience," "Smoke the Herb," and the controversial "Look." The only three tracks that Best of includes that Nah No Mercy doesn't is "Action Speaks Louder," "You'll Never Know," and "Mama," the latter one perhaps the most glaring tune left off of the new album. There aren't many other obvious hits that were overlooked, but since everyone has their personal favorites, there are bound to be debates over what should've and shouldn't have been included. I was a little surprised that "Mystery Is the Man," which found its way onto Strictly the Best 27, didn't find a slot here. Likewise with "Anytime," "Maniac," and the remix of "Not Another Word," songs that I thought had gained a bit of a following. Still, the additions far outweigh the omissions, as this is the Bounty Killer collection that fans have been waiting for. It showcases the DJ's powerful flow and brooding, husky presence that has made him a force in the dancehall scene for 15 years. To those just discovering him, some of this material may sound a bit dated, and honestly I can't look at the older tunes objectively enough to say that they will immediately draw in new listeners, but in the '90s they were as hot as fire. There was no other dancehall DJ who commanded the attention that Bounty Killer did. Let's hope that Nah No Mercy is a precursor of a return from the Killer.