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Unquestionably, Baby Cham is Jamaica's hottest property right now. As the Beenie's, the Bounty's, and the Buju's achieve notoriety stateside, young Cham is ruling "down a yard," and plans to infiltrate the U.S. with the October 24th release of his ambitious 2-disc debut WOW...The Story. With a deadly combination of boyish good looks, thunderous baritone, spitfire lyricism and a string of Top 10 hits - courtesy of dancehall's answer to Rodney Jerkins, Madhouse's Dave Kelly - Baby Cham has become one of reggae's brightest young stars, the long-awaited WOW...The Story sets out to prove it.
WOW...The Story rolls out like a true portrait of the artist, it's two distinct discs illuminating different musical ideas, styles, and themes. The first CD, entitled "The Beginning,"tracks Baby Cham's rocketing career from it's inception, kicking off with his very first hit single "The Mass". The tracks that follow, including Cham's breakouts - "Que Sera," "Funny Man" (on the enormously popular Joyride rhythm) and his best-selling single to date "Gallang Yah Gal"- are all Top 10 hits stamped with Kelly's signature sound, innovative, cutting-edge riddims infused with surging bass and catchy hooks. Also included here is Baby Cham's controversial smash "Desperate Measures" - which currently sits atop the Jamaican charts at #1 - with it's challenge to the Jamaican system : "I wanna talk to the MPs, the opposition leader, the muthaf@#%'n Prime Minister ! Cut back on school fees, give us the jobs we need, make sure this one register!" Cham continues with politics on the next two tracks, the anthemic "Ghetto Pledge" (on Kelly's "Bug" rhythm, which yielded several of 1999's biggest tunes) and the brand new "Babylon Bwoy." The Track, a scathing indictment of Kingston's police commissioner, stopped the show at this year's Sumfest - where Cham staged an escort off - stage by police officers, only to bounce back and mash di place! Finally, the unreleased "Man & Man," voiced to Kelly's newest rhythm, "The Bounce," is already blowing up sound - systems and radios across Jamaica, and is virtually guaranteed to be a #1 boomshot.
Disc two, appropriately titled "Another Level," ups the ante as Cham and Kelly attempt nothing less than a whole new direction for dancehall reggae. From the intro to "Who," where an incredulous Kelly kicks it with his young protegee on playa haters and false pretenders, "Another Level," sends a message to the reggae scene as a whole. Rinsing down the tempos with heavy doses of hip-hop, R&B, and soul, Cham flows over this hybrid with ease, spitting the same fire the massive has come to expect. While appearances by Foxy Brown on the harpsichord - and string tinged bounce of "More," and radio-favorite shaggy on the playa's anthem "High Rollers," bring some welcome pop sheen to this yard-production, it is the pairing of Baby Cham with brother Bounty Killer on the sparse, ultra-dark "Another Level" that heralds the arrival of a new music, the chorus boasting "Me an' my crew, we're on Another Level. Can you hear the new sound? Wow Wow." Dave Kelly, who is universally regarded as an innovator and trendsetter and has clearly influenced hip-hop beatsmiths like Timbaland and Swizz Beats agrees emphatically. "I get a lot of criticisms by dancehall extremists for attempting to change the music, but my thing is I produce music, I don't look at myself as just a dancehall producer," Kelly recently told The Source. "Dancehall has been around in this particular groove for 16 years and we're at a turning point. You cannot achieve progress unless you have change."
As evidence by the heavy rock-influenced chorus of the album's finale "Mama's Teaching," Baby Cham and Dave Kelly have achieved just that. Dancehall reggae on "Another Level."
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