ON THE cover of Macka Diamond's debut album, Money O, she lies on a bed of 'Benjamins', her wig and metallic looking outfit blending with the pile of cash as she digs her hands in and looks pretty happy.
Unfortunately, many of the songs on the album, her first after spanning three decades and three names (Lady Charm, Lady Mackerel and the present persona) in the dancehall game, are not as crisp as her bed of bills.
In fact, it comes across as a collection of dated singles, plus a few more tracks.
Of course, in some circles being old money does have its advantages. And a well-worn note does not lose a cent of its value (even if it loses that mint fresh scent, if you know what I mean). Me? I come from the music school which believes that an album ought not to be a collection of songs which have been rotated and rotated and, you know what I mean. And it is not as if they are songs with great lyrical depth and thematic focus (money, sex, abortion, gender relations, more money, more sex), OK, so staying power is not quite an issue.
Among the very familiar of the 20 tracks, and these are the better songs on Money-O, are Bun Him, Chase Money, Lexxus and Benz, Ugly Man, Done A Ready and Tek Con. But among the newer tracks there is still an element of 'I heard his before in the same way already'. So even a song I quite like for its content and delivery, the mento rhythm based Lilly, done with Black-Er, smacks on Pinchers crooning "so she went in to her handbag for pen and paper for me to write" in its melody. Stop Tickle Me gets a sprinkling of Salt N Pepa rejection of the "short short man" and No Fren Mate begins with a flicker of the Fireman's "dem no like me an' me no like dem".
Added to this are pinches from Shabba on Bad Macka down to the opening chant of 'Bad bad bad Macka' which is a few octaves and a voice change away from 'Bad bad bad Shabba'.
If you are a Macka Diamond fan who gleefully answers Diamond's stage tease "whe all de girls whe tief like me", you will have fun with this one. If you are looking for something that will last and last - well, a lot of this one has already outlasted its 'dance by' date.
Track listing
1. Bun Him (featuring Black-er)
2. Think Mi Easy
3. Murderer
4. Lilly (featuring Black-er)
5. Bad Macka
6. Chase Money
7. Horny
8. Big Speech
9. Lexxus and Benz
10. Ugly Man
11. Wifey Ketch Mi
12. Stop Tickle Mi
13. Done A Ready
14. Washing Money Machine
15. Our Mistake
16. Mr. Teki Back
17. No Fren Mate
18. We Nuh Deh
19. Tek Con
20. Mi Nuh Dun
- Mel Cooke
