ENTITY · RECORDING
"Not an Easy Road" — Buju Banton
Probable
"Not an Easy Road" is associated with Buju Banton's shift, through the 1990s, from harder dancehall material toward a more roots-conscious, Rastafari-influenced songwriting style - part of a broader turn many dancehall artists of that decade made toward "conscious" lyrics.
At a glance
- Type
- recording
- Confidence
- Probable
- Era
- Open era →
Connections
No published connections yet. Relationships are bounded by type and publication state.
Debate & reception
How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →
commentary
'Til Shiloh and dancehall's turn to consciousness
Buju Banton, who had ridden slackness and gun-talk hits to stardom, converted to Rastafari and released the roots-inflected 'Til Shiloh in 1995, with 'Untold Stories' drawing frequent comparison to Marley's 'Redemption Song'. Many critics and fans read the record — alongside the parallel rise of Garnett Silk, Capleton and Anthony B — as dancehall redeeming itself and easing the slackness-vs-culture rift, an argument that neo-roots consciousness had matured the genre. Skeptics saw the shift as either a moralistic retreat from dancehall's raw street energy or a shrewd repositioning toward the greater respectability and export market of international roots reggae.
Stance: redemptive maturing of dancehall vs. moralistic retreat or commercial repositioning