Frankie Paul - Promise Land 7'' [1992 Champion Original Pressing]
While many dancehall intrumentals/versions of Dennis Brown's Promised Land can be found, this FP tune is actually a straight cover of the original. Nice digital relick of the riddim for sure!
Carlene Davis - Rise Up (President Mandela) 7'' [1994 Jammys Original Pressing]
While many uninformed dancehall critics yammer about the genre being only materialistic and shallow, there were plenty of conscious releases speaking of Pan-African solidarity and freedom. Just like Frankie's tune above, this beautiful cut over Tempo exemplifies that unity, including the chanting in the chorus even sounding like some traditional Zulu singing.
Frankie Paul - Israel 7'' [1993 Shocking Vibes Original Pressing]
Here we see another FP tune singing about returning to Zion/Israel/Africa/Promised Land, but this time over a digital No More Will I Roam riddim. Kinda random that this appears on the Shocking Vibes label, as they didn't cut too much rootsy stuff like this.
Wickerman - Up In Class 7'' [199x 2 Tuff Original Pressing]
And we complete our early 90's conscious dancehall tour by coming full circle with the one Wickerman. Here he rides another cut of the Promised Land riddim with lyrics degrading the slackness trend. The riddim is actually more crucial on the version (happens sometimes), so I've included that too.Digging the label art here too haha...
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