Search - Kiprich :: Outta Road

BLAME IT ON THE SMIRNOFF ICE!

Locks Lion | Blue Mountain Peak | 02/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"OUTTA ROAD: There aren't many truly essential long players coming out of modern Jamaican dancehall, which is primarily a genre driven by singles and compilation discs, but Kiprich gets as close to compulsory as anyone else has managed in the last ten years. What's even more commendable is that he does this alone, without any of the usual mish-mash of guest appearances and crossover attempts. The result is a very cohesive and very entertaining album, highlighted by Kiprich's wicked sense of humour and versatile vocal talents.



OUTTA ROAD gets fired up right from the start with the swaggering LIQUOR, and doesn't let up the pace any with the hilarious BABY SONG, the rough-cut MIX UP, or the lunatic dancehall hoedown, TUN U ROLL. But to his eternal credit, Kiprich also makes room for a couple of tender lovers tunes - the hit TELEPHONE TING and its counterpart, THE LETTER - and even a roots number, PEACE, produced by Sheldon "Calibud" Stewart. Overall, OUTTA ROAD is a nice antidote to the usual one dimensional guns-n-girls template for dancehall records. Let's hope this catches on in a big way - nice one, Kiprich and all at Big Yard!

"

Giving Credit Where its Due

Achis | Kingston, JA/Philipsburg, SxM | 11/22/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not much of a dan of Kiprich's. The rather nasally voiced, whiny dj has always been the epitome of 'average' in the dancehall for me and his talents, in my opinion, have been best used as a sidekick to Elephant Man. I really honestly only bought this album because of the pretty girl that insisted that I buy it. But, you wake up one day and notice that reggae-giant VP Records has signed up Elly's sidekick for an album or two.



Why? I wouldn't at all be surprised it Elephant himself (a VP artist) had something to do with it, but also due to Kip's own merits, as 2005 saw the release of arguably his biggest solo hit to date, Telephone Ting.



Kiprich comes off as (and looks like) a big kid, and on his debut album, Outta Road, it seems as if he's having a ton of fun. He answers his own hit, Telephone Ting (instead of waiting for Gabriel to do it), on which he tells his woman that she has nothing to worry about, with The Letter on which he sits down and writes letters to all the other women in his life whom he can no longer called because his woman destroyed his cellphone. A truly hilarious turn, reminscent of King Yellow's I'm Getting Divorced, an immeditae answer to his own hit, I'm getting Married.



Also check the anti-drug We Nah Go, which finds Kippo sounding very unlike himself; the straight Macka Diamond aimed Gimme Back which is hilarious from the notoriously cheap Kiprich; check the ultra bubbly T-Spot and the cool Liquor.



All that being said, the single best tune on Outta Road is easily the hilarious Baby Song on the massive Military riddim. Baby Song goes about identifying certain characteristics by which you might be able to spot on missing children. "If yu see a baby, when him see Ninjaman him start kicking: Kartel baby. . . If yu see a baby, kinda ugly and a climb out him crib: Elephant baby. . . If yu see a baby, just born and a bawl fi money: Macka Diamond baby. . . If yu see a baby, you give him money and him nah waan spend it: dat a fi mi baby". The song is funny throughout as Kip tackles nearly all of reggae's modern royalty including Beenie, Bounty, Sizzla & Capleton.



Overall, perhaps most interesting here is that for an artist best known for his combination tunes, Kiprich offers enough vibes to carry Outta Road completely by himself. There is not one combination. Kip rides Big Yard's riddims very finely and shows his lyricism to be of a better quality than I originally thought. So, I'll swallow a swig of my pride and admit that although he is whiny (and I'll stand by that!) maybe, just maybe Kiprich's having a career isn't a sign of the inevitable coming of the end of the freeworld and maybe he is pretty good at this whole dancehall thing."