Search - Majek Fashek :: Best of Majek Fashek

Majek is the King of Nigerian Reggae

majekfashek@totalise.co.uk | Lagos, Nigeria | 04/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You can read more about him at the Majek Fashek Unofficial stopover. The tracks on this album are the best of Majek. But try the Rainmaker album too. He is even better."

Down- to- earth

TJ | 06/16/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Growing up in the same neighborhood as Majek in Benin City, Nigeria, I never imagined he had so much talent until his first album, "Prisoner of Conscience" was released.However,the tracks in "Best of" are really down-to-earth and refreshingly uplifting, spiritually so too.His blending of talking drums,slick guitar licks and Indian/Hindu music is a real and raw mixture of pure musical artistry with lyrics of spiritual, socio-political and economic awareness and consiousness, especially in tracks like "Religion na politics", "Jah People","So long too long", "Holy Spirit", the endearing "Mother".Unfortunately though, tracks like "My Guitar", "Free Mandela" as well as those from his "Prisoner of Conscience" album(my favorite of his) are awkwardly missing.I would have liked to see hard-hitting tracks like"Police Brutality","Genesis","Let Righteousness Cover the Earth" on his "Best of".Obviously this may not be the best of Majek,but it is certainly a winner any day.Buy it and enjoy this artist whose music is as down-to-earth as his lifestyle!"

MAJEK FASHEK - EVOLVING REGGAE GENIUS

AYODEJI OLAYEMI | NIGERIA | 05/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Majek Fashek, the Prisoner of Conscience, appeared on the scene in 1988 wearing a top hat, large baggy knickers and black army boots. He carried a pair of handcuffs round his wrists and a bell that tolled, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand!...Repent, for the kingdom of Jah is come!" With large dreamy eyes and locks that drooped over his forehead, he conveyed genius reminiscent of the master himself, Bob Marley. Indeed, two tracks on Majek's first album are heavy with the late reggae legend's influence: LET RIGHTEOUSNESS COVER THE EARTH, which carries a Bob Marley baseline, and REMEMPTION SONGS, a Marley track that Majek "kpangolorizes" into a much sweeter version - kpangolo signifying in Majek's native Yoruba parlance music made from tins and sticks, music of the streets. But the most memorable song from the PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE album, a song where Majek sheds his handcuffs to wield a hoe, is SEND DOWN THE RAIN. The song featured at number one on Jamaican charts for several weeks, an unprecedented achievement for a Nigerian. And, as if in answer to the rainmaker's invocations, Nigeria witnessed exceptional downpour that year.



If Majek Fashek displayed genius in his debut album, in the BEST OF MAJEK FASHEK, rallying fellow Africans and Americans from sleep on the first track SO LONG TOO LONG, he is more mature, more original. We know of the talking drum in Nigeria's native Juju and Fuji music genres. But in reggae? Majek employs it beautifully, brilliantly, providing through it the gentle rocking percussion that starts out and steers a song like JAH PEOPLE. The talking drum also supplies the thunder and sense of urgency in the apocalyptic SODDOM AND GOMORRAH, where a frenzied Majek proclaims, "The end of the world is Armageddon!" - pronouncing it Arma-g-i-d-e-o-n. And if Majek's tone was somewhat controlled or constrained in PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE, in BEST OF MAJEK FASHEK he is more expressive, less inhibited; more of his old playful self, rowing through the rain and singing lustfully amidst a boat-load of kids in the video of MOTHER.



For some time Majek has been off the scene, sorting out some personal and professional problems, we hear. But now he's back. And as if sensing the anticipation that has attended the release of his next album - especially that of we fans who have closely followed his evolution through the years - Majek has named his latest effort LITTLE PATIENCE. How apt. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of the CD.

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