The proper follow-up to
Beenie Man's excellent 2004 release
Back to Basics falls just short of its predecessor if only because it doesn't have a track to match the wonderful "Dude" and it feels a lot more thrown together. Course, it is thrown together with a couple new numbers scattered among a lot of previously released cuts from the past couple years, but chances are, if you aren't a singles-collecting dancehall fanatic, they're new to you. With so many aggressive, swaggering club tracks to choose from,
Undisputed will sound relentless to a fault to dancehall newcomers, yet there's barely any filler and
Beenie brings it with every performance. The slick tracks with producer Scott Storch ("Dutty Wine Gal") and crooner
Akon ("Girls") are satisfying, but the freewheeling
Beenie is on fire when challenged by the more skeletal, Jamaica-sourced production of "Chacka Dance" and "My World" featuring
Lady Saw. The pounding, hooky "Hmm Hmm" is infectious even if you can't keep up with his rapid delivery and patois dialect, and the massive club track "Heart Attack" playfully brings the party over one of dancehall's most techno riddims ever, the "Global" riddim. It would be a challenge for anyone to sort so much fire in a more cohesive way, so take
Undisputed as a snapshot of
Beenie's exciting work circa 2005-2006 and break it off in bite size chunks for best effect. [
Undisputed was also made available in a clean version, with all explicit material removed.] ~ David Jeffries