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RAS Portraits (RAS, 1997) One of the most recognizable reggae artists due to his albino condition, Yellowman has managed to overcome that potential handicap to become a legend in dancehall music. In fact, he's used his pigment deficiency to his advantage, deriving his stage name from it and playing off of it on songs like "Yellow Like Cheese." The title of tunes like this one gives a hint of Yellowman's sense of humor -- one of his greatest assets, since he generally doesn't use it to gimmicky effect. So, while you're slow winin' to sultry grooves like "Yellow Like Cheese" or "Love King Yellowman," you can simultaneously smirk at lyrics like "Yellow like cheese, you can have me any way you please" or "Ice cream and Jell-O, tell me if you love King Yellow" (What's with the food references?). The best track on this compilation, however, is probably "God Alone," a simple yet forceful and righteous ditty, that, along with "AIDS," shows that he can put forth serious messages as well. The tunes on this Ras Portaits collection are selected from Yellowman's RAS albums released between 1987 and 1995 -- admittedly, after his peak in popularity, but I think while these tracks aren't necessarily all his best, as a whole they represent his sound fairly accurately. Other standout tunes include the catchy anthem "Dancehall," the old-school "No Touch Ya So," "The War," and "Prayer," which adapts the Mighty Diamonds' incomparable "Have Mercy." |
| Track Listing 1. Reggae On the Move 2. Party 3. Yellow Like Cheese 4. Prayer 5. God Alone 6. AIDS 7. Love King Yellowman 8. I'm Ready 9. Wild Wild West 10. Gone Up 11. Dancehall 12. Reggae Music 13. Maximum 14. The War 15. Got the Rammer 16. No Touch Ya So |
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Live in San Francisco (2B1, 2006 [orig. released 2002])
I don't pretend to be a big Yellowman fan (or a big live album fan, for that
matter) -- but then again, I don't pretend to have heard too much of his material -- so it's hard for me to judge how well this concert album will satisfy the diehards. Originally released as
Live at Maritime Hall in 1998, Live in San Francisco does seem to contain
many of his most famous hits -- albeit mostly in medley format -- including "Yellowman Getting Married," "Yellow Like Cheese," "Zungguzungguguzungguzeng" (Did I spell that right?), "Girl Watcher," and "Mad Over Me." Yellowman's performance is crowd-pleasing and spirited, especially considering he'd gone through some bouts with cancer before this was recorded. By this time, he had ceased recording the lascivious lyrics that distinguished his early career, but I guess he's OK with performing
bawdy material live on tunes like "Yellow Like Cheese" and a
"Banana Boat Song" adaptation on the "Me Believer/Summer Holiday/Love Letter"
medley that slyly requests, "Come, sister
Lana, come eat mi banana." For me, though, the amount of covers on this set
proves a bit distracting, from "The Banana Boat Song" to the Folkes Brothers' "Oh Carolina" to
Bob Marley's "Comin' in from the Cold" and "Keep on Moving" to Fats Domino's (painfully straightforward) "Blueberry Hill" to
Shaggy's "Boombastic," Beenie
Man's "Romie," The Maytals' "54-46" (on "Nobody Move Nobody Get Hurt") and "Bam Bam" ("Ran Ban"), even John Denver's "Take Me Home Country
Road" and Stephen Bishop's "On and On" (both on "Jamaica Nice"), not to mention the fact that "Girl Watcher" and "Yellowman Getting Married" are adaptations. That said, I enjoyed exposure to tracks I hadn't previously been familiar with, like the skanking "Two to Six, Supermix," the grinding "Operation Radication," and the brutal "Lost Mi Love" -- all, conveniently enough, on one medley that doesn't skimp on material, running a full 13 minutes in length. Even if the remaining material on
Live in San Francisco is an up-and-down affair, this one track is enough to warrant further digging into Yellowman's vault. And I think I'll do just that.
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