Consumer Guide Album

Black Stalin: You Ask for It [Kalico, 1984]
Heir to the voluble wit of calypso tradition, Leroy Calliste is droller than any Jamaican Rasta you can think of whether he's being dragged kicking and jamming into soca clichés or talking back to a vocoder that won't shut up about "better days are coming." With its Cuban horns and displaced steel drums, the music has its own witty take on the tradition. And if I don't understand every topical reference, maybe it's just as well--any kind of Rasta going on about "corruption" can get me laughing out the other side of my mouth pretty quick. B+