Rasites - Sex Violence & Drugs (Ariwa) CD

Otis ‘Showa’ Cox (drums), Cyrus ‘Macki’ Richards (keyboards, vocals), kashta ‘Kash’ Tafari (guitar, vocals) and Jahmel ‘Talliss’ Ellison (bass, vocals) are the North London youths that make up The Rasites, the new young lions of the UK reggae scene, following in the footsteps of legends such as Steel Pulse and Aswad, with whom they, quite naturally, bear many musical similarities. Formed in 1996, their first album Urban Regeneration emerged in 2001 on Jet Star. They scored a hit in 2003 alongside Luciano on the single Leaders before embarking on a lengthy European tour. The next year they appeared at Tony Rebel’s Rebel Salute in Jamaica and stayed on the island to record with Dean Fraser and Bobby Digital. This album bears some of the fruits of those sessions including the excellent single One World / Ithiopian Queen. The title track rides a tuff update of Junior Delgado’s / Sly & Robbie’s Fort Augustus and is extended into a dubwise section, the Mad Professor’s son Joe Ariwa mixes a stand alone dub to the track as well. The Rasites influences are worn on their sleeves, Israel Vibration and Morgan Heritage are referenced too, but it’s the fresh spin the group put on everything that lifts them and their music graduate out of the old school.  ARICD215

Track Listing:

1. Rasites Come
2. Music
3. With A Little Hope
4. Ithiopian Queen
5. No Fear
6. One World ft Dean Fraser
7. Sex, Violence & Drugs
8. Trouble
9. Because Of I Roots
10. Africa
11. Disorder
12. Fittest Of The Fittest
13. Life Goes On ft Dean Fraser
14. How Could I Forsake Thee
15. Ithiopian Queen video mix
16. Sex, Violence & Drugs dub
17. Life Goes On acoustic mix