Shabba Ranks

• As Raw As Ever [Columbia, 1991]
• X-Tra Naked [Epic, 1992] C+
• A Mi Shabba [Epic, 1995] *
• Greatest Hits [Epic/Legacy, 2001] **

Consumer Guide Reviews:

As Raw As Ever [Columbia, 1991]

X-Tra Naked [Epic, 1992]
Like any dance music, dancehall is for acolytes. Trick cuts can divert the uninitiated, but there's rarely reason to buy a whole album by one artist, this one included. I'm ready to believe his crossover is rooted in rhythmic authority, but I can't help believing that his heinous sexual politics contribute--finding-fooling-feeling-fucking-and-forgetting or declaring oral-genital contact an abomination, he must seem quite the noble savage to young pan-Africanists seeking new horizons in male supremacism. C+

A Mi Shabba [Epic, 1995]
crossover beats, crossover 'tude--hey, "You do me and I do you" ("Ram Dancehall," "Let's Get It On") *

Greatest Hits [Epic/Legacy, 2001]
it's all about the beats ("Mr. Loverman," "Ting-a-Ling") **