Title
Artist
Label
Format
Date

 Ride The Rhythm ~ Flute
Various
Cou$ins Records - Black Arrow
CD/LP
July 31, 2007

Track list
  1. What Are You Fighting For - Gyptian
  2. Food - Chezidek
  3. More Love - Luciano
  4. Suffering Us - Lutan Fyah
  5. I Want To Know - Lukie D
  6. Too High - Anthony B
  7. Take Me Where - Jah Mason
  8. No More War - Natty King
  9. Babylon Boy - Perfect
  10. Guess What - Chrisinti
  11. There Is The Door - Turbulence
  12. Feeling Inside - Prestige
  13. Hey Girl - Nicky B
  14. Flute Riddim - (Kemar McGregor &) Flava Unit
Rating : from 5 (excellent) to 1 (poor)
Vocals : 4/5 Backing : 5 Production : 5 Sound quality : 5 Sleeve : 3
Following the dropping of two albums on the heels of each other in the Rhythm 2 Rhythm Series in august last year, with its 4th volume 'Watch This Sound & What A Feeling' and its 5th "Volume 5 ~ Warrior Charge & Drum Song", Cou$ins Records producer Donville Davis - who had already proven he's capable of relicking classic riddims in fine style with 'Rocksteady & Beatitude' and the strong various artists albums "Strictly One Drop Vol. 1", "JA2UK Singers Vol. 3" and last year also "A Tribute 2 Studio One & Treasure Isle Records" - also showed a nose for picking the right riddims to license on the three various artists compilations, as "Strictly One Drop Vol. 1"'s inclusion of CJ James 'Without Love'-riddim and of course Donovan 'Vendetta' Bennett's 'Heavenly' and then on 'Mo-Bay' & 'Desperate Lover' two riddims from Byron Murray's In The Streetz label were featured, strange as it may seem with In The Streetz not only being an outlet for Byron Murray's own productions like the very successful first attempt at a one drop 'Street Swing' but through their Rhythm Streetz Series Byron Murray (and Mr. Vegas) also released on CD and LP some extremely successful riddims by other extremely hot producers. Then Cou$ins Records released its 8th volume of the Rhythm 2 Rhythm Series "From Creation / Real Iron" compiling two older selections from UK producer Steve Martin a.k.a. Blacker Dread with the 'Real Iron' from 2003 and 'From Creation' from 1998 (though earlier in 1984 recorded).

Only 2 weeks after that release Cou$ins Records kicked off a new series of one riddim instead of two riddim albums called Ride The Rhythm with "Hail The I" featuring the first riddim on the Riddim Kings label produced by Stefan & Sean Shelton a.k.a the Riddim Kings and now just one month later they return with a string of one drop releases licensed from Kemar 'DJ Flava' McGregor's Flava Music and No Doubt Records, who of course cemented his name as one riddim producer with the 'Triumphant'-riddim backing Gyptian's "Mama" and then chipped in with the nice 'Road Block'-riddim and the very nice various combination album aptly titled "Combination". And now his "Flute Riddim" gets released in the same week as his "Trumpet" by Cou$ins Records, with a third one drop riddim album released just one week later.

The man who seems to be Kemar 'DJ Flava' McGregor's favourite artist, Gyptian is once more vocodered for the fine conscious tune "What Are You Fighting For", Chezidek whose strong recently released album "Firm Up Yourself" was also completely produced by Kemar 'DJ Flava' McGregor for his No Doubt Records and then licensed to Cou$ins Records, shows how comfortable he is singing over these No Doubt riddims in the beautiful "Food" and both Luciano with "More Love" and Lutan Fyah with "Suffering Us" deliver strong tunes, as does Lukie D singing the magnificent reality tune "I Want To Know".

Anthony B takes some revenge for his lacklustre effort over 'Trumpet' with the lyrically strong and in terms of delivery at least better (but still not very good) anti crime and violence tune "Too High". Jah Mason asks Jah to "Take Me Where" i always wanna be in his melodious yet fierce tune followed by Natty King asking the leaders of the world to help build a future in which there's "No More War" because there's enough education for the youths and Perfect excelling in his superb "Babylon Boy". Chrisinti is one of those often underrated and underrecorded artists, who especially on this type of melodic 'softer' one drop riddims always delivers good to great tunes and his thoughtful "Guess What" belongs to the latter category, the same can be said about Turbulence who seems to prefer to voice (gone) lovers tunes over these softer type of riddims and this time tells his girl to leave as "There Is The Door".

Newcomer Prestige has been voicing great tunes for Kemar 'DJ Flava' McGregor so far in his young career and his sweet "Feeling Inside" makes it both plausible and desirable that his debut album will be released on No Doubt Records. And talking about heavily underrated and underrecorded singers there is no excuse (do you hear me reggaeproducers of the world?) for not voicing (Mikey Bennett's son) Nicky B on every selection and he proves that with his wicked lovers rocking "Hey Girl". The Flava Unit (& Kemar 'DJ Flava' McGregor) make clear how brilliantly smooth this riddim is by the inclusion of the flawless clean "Flute Riddim"-version. The second No Doubt Records / Cou$ins release that is heavily recommended this week.