By Trevor Makonyonga
Buffalo Souljah is a serious artist! The reason for saying this statement is not based on any personal favors rendered but based on the art being offered. Pure art! Forget about the times he had a beef with Shatta Wale and most people didn’t back him up. His latest album, Unity, is slowly showing what a serious dancehall artist the fellow is.
From the album, the track that got the writer’s attention is titled “Irie”. In Zimbabwe, most dancehall artists drop albums that end up being shadows of the art they intended. This is why deserving albums sometimes fail to get the attention they deserve.
Tsano VeMbare by Celscius suffered a huge blow because people thought it was just another normal album. For this reason the Unity album cannot go without getting the attention it deserves. We really cannot continue to sleep on the talent that is Buffalo Souljah.
Apart from being a nice groovy and vibey reggae tune, Irie has a video which was just recently released. If one could have missed the song on audio, the visuals might just be hard to ignore.
in the song a qouted one of the most phenomenal statements from the black revolutionary champion Marcus Garvey when he said “A people without the knowledge of their past history origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” This was the choice of banner that Buff chose to put on the start of the video for song “Irie” which features Youngster CPT and DJ Capital.
Buffalo sits on top of a BMW 3 series popular for the burnouts and in a South African ghetto which is relevant to the message the song carries. The song talks about life in general and how people ought to remain high in their spirits no matter all that goes on around them. Buff refers to the ultimate icon of reggae music, Bob Marley in this song. Firstly he says, “Young Bob Marley reincarnate” as if in reference to himself or to the art he is producing.
Towards the close of the song he says, “I’m the sh*** a lot of fly pon me, Ah so me tell em like the great Bob Marley.” The way he rates himself highly and the way most people won’t even for a second give his music a chance provides a sharp contrast.
Most people won’t even mention him on the best dancehall artists yet he has talent to backup his presence on the entertainment scene. Anybody who loves reggae who listens to “Irie” will be amazed at Buff’s ability to twist and toast in proper dancehall fashion then in between the rhyming he easily falls back to the more subtle and relaxed reggae style.
The chorus conjoins the bragging verses of the song the justification of why the behaviors are as such. The lyrics of the song provide pictures of how someone in the ghetto would envision life when they make it. Girls, liquor and money are sang about in the first verse of the song signaling the making it as it is known.
The video brings this to life in a very different way. By shooting the video in Phillipi township, Capetown, Buff managed to showcase what he was representing and whose primary target was. He sings, “One thing about music, Ask the weather man ah my time to rain, Which kinda storm you ah bring, Biggbuff hurricane , My brother the life we living is borrowed, Me can’t waste my life living in sorrow.
“Whatever the case maybe in the minds of man, Buff deserves some respect and it’s high time folks take notice of him. The Unity album is something that almost all must pay attention to.
