Track Listing

1. Shiloh
2. 'Til I'm Laid To Rest
3. Murderer
4. Champion
5. Untold Stories
6. Not An Easy Road
7. Only Man
8. Complaint
9. Chuck It So
10. How Could You
11. Wanna Be Loved
12. It's All Over
13. Hush Baby Hush
14. What Ya Gonna Do?
15. Rampage
16. Sensemilia Persecution
17. Champion (Reprise)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41824 in Music
• Released on: 2002-06-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Amazon.com
When Buju Banton emerged from the Kingston, Jamaica, slums in the early '90s, he stirred controversy with a breed of dancehall steeped in the same obsessions with gunplay, sexism, and homophobia that characterized hardcore American hip-hop. But after converting to Rastafarianism and scratching to find more socially conscious and deeply rooted music on 1993's Voice of Jamaica, Banton (born Mark Myrie) proved that his conscience and creative restlessness are driven by more than mere commercial shrewdness on this album, his true breakthrough. Banton sounds like a changed man from the get-go. The spiritually uplifting title prologue segues into a chuckle and the resignation of "'Til I'm Laid to Rest." While Banton ruminates on everything from love and spirituality to geopolitics, his electro dancehall clichés have largely given way to organic, often spiritual music whose African influences are worn as a badge of honor. Banton has been credited with reinventing dancehall here, and it's hard to argue otherwise. His gruff voice bounds from its previous monotonous rap ruts into a warm and joyous newfound expressiveness that lights up the infectious "Murderer," the fatalistic "Not an Easy Road," and the party-time "Hush Baby Hush" (a reworking of the Zodiacs chestnut "Stay"). Banton even finds some folksy resonance with the acoustic-guitar backed "Untold Stories." Guest vocalists Garnett Silk ("Complaint") and Wayne Wonder ("What Ya Gonna Do") add some contemporary R&B touches to Banton's already considerably expanded sense of dynamics. This remastered reissue features three bonus cuts: the B-sides "Rampage" and "Sensemilia Persecution" and a previously Jamaica-only remix of "Champion." --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

'Till Shiloh (Buju Banton)
Best Buju cd! Songs in a variety of styles; very melodic and upbeat.

Best album since Bob Marley
This is a majestic album, detined to be a classic on par with some of Bob Marley's best efforts. Nothing comes close, including his albums since. This one is truly a spiritual trip. Highly recommended.

Jah Bless.

Buju Enters His Conscious Phase
This album definitely marks a turning point in Buju Banton's career, and his fanbase is usually divided into two camps when offering their assessment of it: those who mourn the loss of the pre-Rasta, rudebwoy Buju famous for tunes about busting his gun and laying pipe with the ladies (mostly drawn from the ranks of the old school, die-hard, dancehall massive who were bumping his tunes in the early days), and those who just discovered Buju at this point in his career (mostly non-Jamaicans looking for a new Bob Marley to listen to as they smoke weed in their suburban bedrooms or college dorms) for whom his earlier music is mostly inaccessible (by which I mean that even if they manage to track down classics like "Dutty Sinting" or "Boom Bye Bye" they not only have trouble deciphering the lingua, but are usually roundly disgusted by the lyrical content when they do).

My sensibilities are more in sync with those fans in the former category, but unlike some of my more dogmatic brethren, I do enjoy watching Mr. Myrie evolve and grow as a person and an artiste. Granted, some of his post-Til Shiloh discs have "crossover" written all over them, but I think that on this one, he got it right.

There are very few missteps here. The album opens with a sparse, prayer-like invocation of Ras Tafari, pledging devotion to the Emperor until his kingdom comes again, and merges so quickly and effortlessly into the rich, Nyabinghi chant-inspired "'Til I'm Laid to Rest", that the listener is swept into Buju's world as by a strong river current. From there, Buju rarely lets you go, carrying you with him through conscious tunes (such as "Murderer", "Untold Stories", "Not an Easy Road", and "Rampage"), love songs (such as "Wanna Be Loved", and "Only Man") and straight-ahead slackness tunes ("Hush Baby Hush" and "Champion").

This album is very personal. It is not a crass attempt to curry favour among the foreigners, as some would have it. Buju is going through a spiritual and emotional journey on this record, and he effectively carries the listener with him throughout. Like most great artistes (Bob Marley, John Lennon, Sam Cooke...) Buju emerges on this disc as a man of contradictions, but a deep and engaging character nonetheless. This is, in my opinion, Buju's first stab at a concept album, and in my assessment, he hits his mark and hits it hard. Forward ahead, Gargamel! Til Shiloh!