Masicka – Forever Reign
Def Jam Recordings, a division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Text: Davide Bortot
If there’s one thing I hate, it’s a ”well-rounded” album that ”has something for everyone”, with an artist ”showing their versatility,” as if it were a goddamn decathlon or something.
It says a lot about Masicka that Forever Reign – his first album in three years and hence his rise from generational talent to gold standard – is, ultimately, exactly that, and still only allows for one conclusion: he is HIM. The youngins can outgore and outkink each other all they want; Kartel and Mavado can keep museumizing their merits with all the business savvy they can muster. Masicka is the king of dancehall. We can skip the debate; this case may be considered closed for the time being.
Forever Reign doesn’t deliver any dramatic twists in those proceedings, but it delivers plenty of further evidence. Masicka does Masicka things, across 17 tracks – consistent, smooth, and with exactly the right mix of cool head and warm heart, humility and the occasional flash of cheek. Whether feel-good folklore like ”Slip & Slide” or sadboy core like ”Boasty” (both monster tunes of the past few months feature on the album, of course); whether boastful bangers with a Y2K rap edge like ”Shakazulu” or fidgety, finely chiselled Afrobeats like ”Time and Place”; whether hard-hitting Amapiano like ”G Wagon” or super-sweet ghetto gospel that floats along so slick and suave you’d barely be surprised if Kenny G pulled up with the soprano sax: Masicka runs through riddim after riddim like it’s absolutely nothing.
It’s precisely this complete ease that sets the 32-year-old apart from his competition. In the world full of superhero personas and shameless self-promoters that dancehall is today (and, of course, always has been) he has remarkably few standout traits. No exceptional voice like Mavado or Popcaan, no flair for the dramatic like Vybz Kartel or Spice, no signature look like Alkaline or Ayetian, no monster melodies like Shenseea, no high-performance lyricism like Skillibeng. Quite the contrary, actually: Masicka knows exactly when a house/mouse or Ghana/Prada rhyme is what’s needed to stick. He knows exactly how to flash a screwface for a second, then look up with puppy-dog sincerity the next moment. And he knows exactly where the middle ground is – the one that’s actually golden rather than just boring as hell. He simply is on the beat like it’s a law of nature, like nobody else on this wide earth could possibly be there right now.
Forever Reign rolls out that gift at its own unhurried pace. The album is bookended by two moments of reflection: ”1 Psalm” with Damian Marley, whose hip hop reggae inna dancehall style Masicka grew up on, and ”Parables” with Lila Iké, with whom he’s shared a special connection for years. ”1 Psalm” is on the surface a call for groundedness and the fear of God: a prayer a day keeps the evil away. However, one can also hear the song as a mantra, a reflection of Masicka’s approach as an artist and as a human being: consistency is key, and constant dripping shapes the stone until a king is carved. The song sounds accordingly majestic – lion’s roar, melodies like myths, monstrous drums by Dunw3ll that make The Odyssey sound like a lil’ TikTok, and sharp one-liners from both heavyweights. Further highlights are the gleefully wired ”Spend” and the aforementioned ”Shakazulu,” on which Masicka switches to boast mode while never losing sight of the fact that his current run is also by the grace of fate. ”If Generation of Kings was concerned with becoming, Forever Reign is fascinated by having,” Donovan Watkis and Honi B state at World Music Views. That sums things up well – and this stretch of the album especially.
After that, it’s mostly filler. Remarkably, with Masicka, that is somehow a compliment – a testament to his talent and maturity, a genuine relief amid the wild overgrowth of the attention economy. Will he reign forever? In dancehall, nobody cares about what you said yesterday, let alone what you put out. Right now, though, Masicka sits on the throne, undisputed. The Leo Neugebauer of dancehall? If you absolutely need your decathlon in there: respect where respect is due.
