Rasta Love

iTunes Review

Few reggae performers can command respect from both modern dancehall audiences and older generations of roots stalwarts like gruff-voiced chanter Anthony B, who demonstrates an old-fashioned lyrical concern with social and political injustice while retaining a firebrand delivery that lets him compete with the most riotous contemporary dancehall DJs. Toward the end of the ‘00s, Anthony B began to move away from the more minimal roots and dancehall riddims of efforts like 2003’s Street Knowledge toward the more ornate, R&B-flavored productions of 2010’s Encore. Rasta Love more or less continues this trend, featuring heavily embellished productions and guest spots from newcomers like dancehall crooner Gyptian and roots veterans like George Nooks and Peter Tosh. Perhaps the most compelling items here are those that directly address the Jamaican sovereign debt crisis, most particularly the righteous denunciations of “White Collar Criminal” and Anthony B’s clever reworking of The Maytones' 1977 classic “Money Worries.”