Back in the day, you could peruse the liner notes of any edition of Strictly the Best and be confident in finding the names of familiar producers like Sly & Robbie, Bobby "Digital" Dixon, and Phillip "Fattis" Burrell, but looking inside Strictly the Best 35, it's evident that there's a whole new wave of digital wizards dictating the dancehall sounds that are redefining the pop charts. And they're making me feel old. I don't know Mark Pinnock, but his electric Gully Slime riddim on Tony Matterhorn's "Goodas" and Mr. Peppa's "Gangsta Guerilla" (Wouldn't you like to be a peppa, too?) has my toes tapping. I couldn't pick Curtis Cole out from a lineup, but his Sick riddim on Perfect's "No Badda Mi" is a such a welcome throwback to 1990 that I'm considering growing back my high-top fade. And Donnavan Bennett (Doesn't anyone have nicknames anymore?) may or may not be a distant cousin, but his Tropical Storm riddim actually outshines Capleton's vocal performance on "Hits Pon Toppa Hits." Ashoy Beharie's bruising Cashley Riddim meanwhile provides ample fodder for two dancehall legends, Buju Banton and Bounty Killer. Hearing them back to back, you can imagine they're doing a duet!  The true star of Strictly the Best 35, though is Chuck Fender's "Gash Dem and Light Them." Producer Shane Brown's Confessions riddim is actually straightforward roots, its bouncy, breezy flow belying Fender's scorching lyrics:

A big man like you rape off a six-year-old baby.
A big man like you pop off your gun and put nine 'pon a little old lady.
A big man like you burn down a school and a talk 'bout you mad, sick, and crazy...
Gash dem and light dem for all the negative vibes weh dem a bring.
Gash dem and light dem! Mi come fi mash up and wreck up dem senseless killing.

Unfortunately, the song was greeted with a radio ban in Jamaica, no doubt from overly reactionary people who took the scathing title far too literally. Dave "CD" Kelly, who provides the hip-hoppy Stage Show riddim on Assassin's "Good Over Evil" (and also featured on "Rude Boy Pledge" from Cham's Ghetto Story album), is one of the few producers I've heard of on this 35th volume, the other being Yogie, whose Old Skool riddim, like several on the album, is better than the artists' performance. In his case, he's both producer (as Yogie) and artist (as Courtney John), although as the latter, he delivers (along with Jovi Rockwell) a truly odd performance that conjures up visions of Gwen Stefani doing a duet with Curtis Mayfield. While many of the songs on this album are available on other reggae albums (mostly riddim sets), Sizzla's tranquil gem "Sail On (Play Guitar)" seems to be available only on producer K-Salaam's hip-hop/dancehall compilation The World Is Ours, and not on any of Sizzla's 18,000 albums (so far). That alone might make Strictly the Best 35 worth the money.