DEF JAMAICA (Def Jam/Universal) Rating: NN
Rating: NN
If the appearance of dancehall rulers Sean Paul and Elephant Man on a steady stream of Beyoncé and Busta cuts didn’t tip you off, there’s a long and obvious connection between hiphop and reggae. You’d never know it, though, from this poorly conceived collection. The collabos here are at best forced and at worst failures engineered by a marketing firm. The guilty party in this case is Heineken. Method Man gets shouty with a Marley kid, Buju Banton and Cam’Ron stomp on each other’s toes, and Sisqo makes an unlikely venture into the world of dancehall. Even a so-called dancehall remix of Pharrell’s roots-friendly hit Frontin’ misses the mark, with only a collision between Elephant Man and Ghostface Killah capturing the cartoonish mayhem of a proper dancehall cut. Stick with Sean Paul’s legit guest spots or the dozens of illicit, explosive dancehall/hiphop mash-ups available online.
