(05.24.08) As an intrepid Igloo reporter, I travel the lengths of the Earth to bring you news about music that matters. Currently, I’m in San Francisco, listening to music from Oakland by way of Jamaica, New York, and Hawaii, but my mind is struggling to escape a paradox. How can I both like Rankin’ Scroo, and not like Rankin Scroo? How can I resolve the part of me that believes in the purity of truth and beauty with the part that cringes when the self-styled Urban Reggae Godfada rhymes “near and far” with “shining star”? How can Rankin Scroo make me believe that life is really very simple, yet leave me wishing it were just a bit more fucked up?
I need to get out, clear my head. Intrepid reporter for the people that I am, I wander down to the Cannabis Awareness Day festival at Civic Center. So many dreadlocks. So much for clarity. Things get murky, strange. But the strangeness helps me see a way out of the problem. Pass the dutch and I’ll explain.
First off, I need to elaborate on the problem. This is Rankin Scroo’s return to roots reggae, so certain topics are inevitable. Still, “community” is a terribly un-lyrical word. Just try rhyming something with it. Unity? Opportunity? Even the 16-year-old poet in me winces a little at that. Rankin Scroo’s lyrics are breezy and sweet, but their meaning is compromised by their inelegance. This is a man who uses “evilus” as an adjective in his liner notes. But, then again, his message is impossible to argue with. Humanity, love, peace, art. What kind of Nazi-reviewer would harsh that?
Lyrics aside, Rankin Scroo’s production has never sounded better. Compared to his last outing on Godfada, the synths are better integrated, the instrumentation more memorable, and overall the sound is tighter and punchier. But every once in a while, something fully lame sneaks in, like slow-jam chimes cascading into a verse. Especially on the love songs.
Gah… I’m shuddering at these sappy love songs. I mean, I’m a romantic at heart, but this guy is teddy bears and chocolate. On the R&B jam “Lovin Everything About You,” when Rankin Scroo croons, “Let’s get married,” it makes me wanna go shooting. “I wanna get married to you.” I wanna cut my heart out with a spoon.
The love songs miss the mark, but I can’t help liking the roots rhythms on tracks like “Jah Bless.” When I reviewed his last album, I admired Rankin’ Scroo’s ability to be soulful and direct, even if it was unsettling. After all, it’s good to feel unsettled and weird.
But then I started thinking: Wouldn’t it be creepy if these songs were really the ravings of a madman, and we heard them as art? You see, Rankin’ Scroo is an outsider. He believes in the purity of love. When he sings about truth and strength and beauty, he doesn’t add qualifiers. There is. And there is not. And there are things that should be. And there are things that shouldn’t be. There is Good. And there is Bad.
Rankin’ Scroo’s challenge is to make you lose yourself in that message, to coax your spirit out of its hiding place, to –for lack of a more elegant word –inspire you. And when he hits it, it really works. “Hips Like Wha” makes me want to dance around like Mick Jagger. And I start feeling that maybe it’s the world that’s crazy, not Rankin’ Scroo and me, struggling in Babylon.
So, this may be unusual, but I want to end this review with prayer. Dear Jah: Give me the strength to carry on, to lose myself in music, and to forgive Rankin’ Scroo’s inconsistencies.
Amen. Or whatever. Just pass the dutch.
Solid will be released on May 27 on Crucial Youth. [Purchase
