(* Scritti Politti featuring..... )
Chart entered : 16 March 1991
Chart peak : 20
Number of hits : 10
This isn't going to be easy having no understanding of this guy's art. Why anyone thinks shouted interjections improve a song remains a mystery to me.
Rexton Gordon was born in Jamaica in 1966. He gained fame as a toaster on the dancehall scene. In 1988 he shared an LP "Rough and Rugged " with his contemporary Chaka Demus. Shabba does his thing over five tracks with minimal piano or synth backing concluding with the rampantly homophobic "No Mama Man". This was followed up by "Rappin' With The Ladies" where he toasts over records by female reggae artists such as J C Lodge and Debra Glasgow. His theme is usually what a good lover he is. All of the tracks would sound better without him for my money but there you go.
In 1989 he released the single "Peanie Peanie" a plodding but relentless, incomprehensible advertisement for the Jamaican party scene. The following year he released his second album "Just Reality". Titles like "Wicked Inna Bed". "The Rammer" and "Crab Louse A Go Round" speak for themselves but there's also some political consciousness on traks like "Mandela Free " and the single "Roots and Culture".
Scritti Politti's Green Gartside had always been interested in reggae and contacted Shabba to guest on his cover of the Beatles's "She's A Woman" ( the B-side to I Feel Fine ). It was the first Scritti single for nearly three years. It's set to a twitchy electronic dance rhythm rather than reggae with Green singing the song straight in his usual breathy style and Shabba interjecting, usually with dance slogans, when he sees fit. Without being a fan of either party and the song being a lesser item in the Beatles canon, I can only listen to it with complete indifference.
I do wonder if Gartside was aware of how much of a homophobic plank his co-performer was? Certainly Mark Lamarr wasn't prepared to let it slide when Ranks appeared on "The Word".
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