July 03, 2006 @ 11:00 am

Cham - Ghetto Story (Atlantic)

Rob Kenner

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A hard-core reality check is in order, and who better to serve it up than Madhouse dancehall mastermind Dave Kelly? Every six years or so, he drops a hot album as if to remind the reggae industry—from the old-timers to the overnighters—exactly how it should be done. In 1994 it was Terror Fabulous’s Yaga Yaga. In 2000 it was Baby Cham’s independent double-disc debut, Wow! The Story. Now the producer, who prefers to be known as the Stranger, has emerged from the lab with Cham’s extraordinary Ghetto Story. And the music is not for babies. The timing couldn’t be better for a dapper rude boy to storm the market with hard-core lyrics. While Sean Paul has kept the party popping, battering down the industry’s resistance to dancehall music, the streets have been waiting for something this raw to slip through the cracks. Last year’s gritty reggae anthem, Junior Gong’s “Welcome to Jamrock,” was a guide for ghetto visitors. “The thugs—them will do what they got to,” Damian Marley warned, “and won’t think twice to shot you.” Ghetto Story, buoyed by Cham’s strictly-from-the-gutter perspective, is more like an invitation to sit down and kick it with one of those gun-toting thugs. It’s not a story that just anybody can tell, but Cham’s credentials are bona fide. What grabs you on the title track is the texture of his voice. “It’s a survival story,” sings the DJ known for his gruff, booming baritone, which is now soft and mournful. “True ghetto story. This is my story.” And then that nasty 85 riddim kicks in, and Cham’s bleak narrative rushes from snowcones to shots in the dome. On the remix Akon adds his own chapter to the diasporic duet, retracing his trek from Senegal to ATL to a jail cell. The message: The ghetto story is a universal one. And as with the original, there’s no solution in sight, no platitudes or preaching either. Two years in the making, Cham’s album maintains Madhouse’s lofty production standards. The hooks are tight, every drum hit sounds crunchier than the last, and the sound effects twinkle at just the right frequencies. From the rugged club-banger “Tic Toc” to “Boom Boom,” a perky duet with Barbadian pop princess Rihanna, the songs are skillfully constructed with interlocking layers of syncopation. The brazen gun-barrel logic of tunes like “Wah Dem a Say” and “Don’t Test Me” are a welcome throwback to dancehall’s rebel spirit. In keeping with Madhouse’s strict hard-core diet, the disc is fortified with “Vitamin S” and “Girl,” a tweaked-out version of the same Fiesta riddim featuring the elusive Jimmy Cheeztrix. If penetrating pop culture means selling out the ’hood, Cham isn’t buying it. His allegiances are plainly stated on the infectious “Rudeboy Pledge,” in which Cham demonstrates that a ghetto youth can succeed without forgetting his roots. Expect to hear that one playing back-to-back with “Badmind,” a singsongy nod to all the haters—who will soon have much to discuss. As with other Madhouse masterpieces, the strength of Ghetto Story lies in its refusal to compromise, never overreaching, always bringing the mainstream to Cham rather than the reverse. That’s the trouble with being ahead of your time; sometimes it can be too much too soon, as with his last album. But this time around, as Cham says in the big tune, “Them haffi rate we.” Which is just another way of saying respect is overdue.

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