It's All About The Music: Dancehall Reggae From Centron Music

October 22, 2004 (Press Release) -- By Mark Kirby

Centron Music (http://www.centronsound.net/) is a
combination artist management and publishing
company and an independent record label. It
started as a touring sound system, a truck with DJ
turntables and booming system where DJs spun new
records and instrumental backing tracks for live
performers from 1985 to 1989. The talent they
worked with included Ninja Man and Shabba Ranks,
amongst other giants of dancehall.

They launched hit dancehall artists like Johnny
P., who shocked the world in 1993 by topping the
U.S. rap and reggae charts. This lead to a
production deal with Relativity Records. They
started doing artist management during this time,
culminating in Centron's CEO Dennis Allen
partnering with and managing superstar Spragga
Benz in the late nineties.

With the release of their new records, Centron is
poised to come up as a company as they present old
and new talent. The artists on the label's two new
releases, Buss Loose and It's All About the Music,
are a virtual who's who of the underground
dancehall scene.

Spragga Benz is one of the roughest of the crew.
Known to the world via his 2001 collaboration with
Foxy Brown on the hit "Oh Yeah," and with a role
in the Jamaica film Shootas, he's one of the
label's largest artists. The cut "Mad Love" comes
with a style that is unique. Over a driving rock
and roll style back beat he sings/chants/raps with
a voice that is a surreal, extreme baritone that
is so stylized that it's beyond the pale. Think
Barrington Levy and Eek a Mouse grafted
genetically to Sizzla and infused with steroids
and you'll get the idea.

Johnny P. spits hard dancehall on the cut "Pum Pum
Cream" and sings with a smooth, soulful croon on
"Money & No Love." On Buss Loose we find the
artists in studio record version of an
old-fashioned dance party and toasting contest.
Each artist DJs (the Jamaican term for rapping and
MC- ing) over variations of the same dancehall
groove - ratatat synthesizer, piano loop, and
loping drum machine beat. The artists Egg Nog
Lexxus, Frisco Kid, Bobby Crystal, Powerman,
Determine, Anthony B. and Emanuel Stain do their
thing with style and flair.

But the disks stand outs are Sizzla, the veteran,
who delivers a funny story about his girl with his
classic, bugged out style, and the girl of crew,
Lisa Dainjah. She rocks a style that nods to the
Sister Nancy and Sister Carroll style of elegant
chatting mixed with singing, a classic old school
dub technique. Her voice is deep and in control,
with a ragged edge that radiates pure ghetto grit.
If only females in American hip hop not named
Bahamadia could come this correct and real.

With the records in full release by the time you
read this, Centron is sure make power moves is the
under served musical world of dancehall reggae. We
caught up with Dennis Allen, who is always on the
move, earlier this month. Read the interview at
http://www.musicdish.com/mag/?id=9753

Centron Sound online at
http://www.centronsound.net/