Life Teachings

iTunes Review

In 2011, the ranks of Jamaican artists making quality roots music are largely populated by battle-hardened veterans with careers spanning at least a handful of decades. Beres Hammond, Cocoa Tea, and Glen Washington all continue to make outstanding, socially conscious roots reggae, but their music mostly appeals to older audiences. The young singer I Wayne has proven himself an exception to this trend. In 2004, the twentysomething Wayne cut a series of singles that managed to evoke Burning Spear in his heyday even as they scaled the Jamaican charts and entered rotation at New York’s tastemaking hip-hop station Hot 97. I Wayne’s third album, Life Teachings, bears the winning hallmarks of his previous work, from its deeply worn one-drop rhythms and massed horn sections to its sensitively written songs praising herb and condemning Babylon. These classic roots themes are made more compelling not only by Wayne’s reliably silver-toned delivery but also the masterful instrumental contributions of legendary Jamaican session men like Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare.