Papa San - God And I

Reviewed by Mike Francis

I could hardly wait to get the CD out of its case and into the CD player. After waiting three years for this follow-up to ‘Victory’, my expectations were very high. The first track, “Breathe Again”, features gospel superstar Kirk Franklin. Even though this is a reggae album, it was no great surprise that Kirk is featured considering that he is one of the biggest names in gospel at the moment and they are both on the same record label. The song has a nice R&B/reggae feel to it, however that’s not what I was expecting so I skipped to track two, “Pop Style”, again not what I was expecting from the former king of the dancehall. So I went to track three, the title track. I thought, “Yes, this is more like it, Papa San at his best.” Unfortunately only the title track lived up to my expectations. Hard core reggae fans will be disappointed. What you will get is a commercial type reggae album. I will not criticise Papa San too much for this because if you want to sell to a wider market you can’t be too radical. The presentation and production quality of the album is first class. I believe that more people will be exposed to gospel reggae because of this album. There are 12 songs on the album and the lyrics to the songs come with the CD, there is also a Jamaican glossary so you can catch up with all the latest Jamaican sayings to impress your Jamaican friends. Mek sure yuy guh get fi yuy copy.