Spragga Benz’s Jack It Up is a sterling hardcore dancehall release, with skeletal digital beats epitomizing the hard-edged minimalism that characterized the genre in the early and mid-‘90s. While Spragga didn't achieve the same success as contemporaries like Bounty Killer, Ninja Man, and Buju Banton, his fluid delivery of tongue-twisting, patois-laden rhymes, plus his unfailingly witty lyrics, prove he was every bit their equal. On Jack It Up, Benz’s talents are matched by a roster of A-list dancehall producers, including Steely & Clevie, Winston Riley, Bobby Digital, and Dave Kelly, who supplied the insistent, bubbling production for “Things a Gwan”: a merciless battle rhyme on the Pepper Seed rhythm that was a sizable underground success in 1994. “Things a Gwan” and the Bobby Digital–produced “Show Off and Model” were Jack It Up’s biggest hits, but nearly everything here is worthwhile, from the ruthless gun talk of “Mark Death” to “Girls Hooray,” which features an ecstatic refrain borrowed from Naughty by Nature’s “Hip Hop Hooray.”