Headphone Highlights

Busy Signal

VP Records, Juke Boxx, Kingston

Still in his early twenties, Busy Signal's songs and the way he expresses them are now the pulse by which modern-day dancehall is measured. Taking dancehall charts with hits like 'Jail' by storm, one of Busy's trademarks is his diversity, driven by his outstanding mic technique and restless creativity. His sense of fun and mischief is allowed full rein on dancehall tracks like 'Wine Pon De Edge', 'Hey Girl', 'Tic Toc' and 'Cool It Baby', which the bwoy programmed himself. Yet it's his powerful commentaries on the ghetto lifestyle, like 'These Are The Days', that have lent Busy Signal's art its raw edge, and made him into such a potent mouthpiece for the disenfranchised youth of Jamaica and beyond. 'Knocking At Your Door', 'People So Evil' and 'Curfew', which he wrote after witnessing the Kingston police attempting to shut down local dances, are the latest examples of this, whereupon real life and his talent for storytelling combine to often spine-chilling effect. Busy's roots are in dancehall, and after spending part of his upbringing in Tivoli Gardens, Standpipe and Papine, his ghetto credentials could never be in doubt. Yet Busy's music is all about growth and it's no surprise to discover that he's recently been keeping company with artists of a rather different stature, like Damian Marley, Morgan Heritage, Alborosie, former Black Uhuru singer Michael Rose and the Queen of Reggae, Marcia Griffiths, after being initially introduced to Jamaica's dancehall crowds and given the royal stamp of approval by mighty Bounty Killer as well as cutting plates for for Kilimanjaro and Renaissance. One busy next generation signal indeed.