Trojan Us
2006
Rule Dem
About This Album
Garnett Silk rose out of Jamaica's dancehall scene, and once he turned from toasting to singing in the early '90s, seemed poised to become an international star when he died in a fire in 1994, a tragedy that robbed the world of an increasingly graceful and elegant artist. Silk worked with an astounding number of producers during his career, which has led to a lot of left-on-the-cutting-room-floor-type releases since his death, so it's always a delight when a Silk reissue anthology has some internal coherence, which this one has in a very special way. Drawn largely from a series of dub plates Silk made for Kingston's Kilimanjaro sound system, these tracks weren't intended for commercial release, and aren't anywhere near as polished as Silk's official sides, but the joy, energy, and intimacy of Garnett Silk in a dancehall setting makes them an indispensable treasure. Silk was instrumental in bringing rasta and reality themes back into Jamaican music at a time when lurid slackness was ruling the dancehalls, and Kilimanjaro was the perfect outlet for him, since unlike most of the Kingston sounds, Kilimanjaro frequently demonstrated a cultural and roots inclination.
Track List (try tracks 3,4,8,10 and 16)

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