Alkaline ADD

Review

Album Review: Alkaline - New Level Unlocked

03/27/2016

by Dan Dabber

Though Alkaline has achieved a staggering degree of notoriety in the last two years, one must look beyond the hype to appreciate how much of his success is built upon genuine talent, hard work, and star quality. New Level Unlocked is his first full length record, but he has been saturating the dancehall with versions from riddim jugglings, singles, and a handful of EP releases over the last two years. His album includes evidence of his hustle in the form of contributions to previously released jugglings like Fire Starta from Yellow Moon Records, Sidechick from Hard2def/Deebuzz Records, and All Inclusive from DJ Frass. Frass, who works well and often with Alkaline, lent his production throughout New Level Unlocked and the album was released on his label, DJ Frass Records.

For those familiar with Alkaline’s work, there are not many surprises on New Level. He sings in falsetto. He spits innovative and catchy cadences. He drops explicit, nasally lyrics in a futuristic singjay style. The song Side Chick alone checks all of those boxes and also stands out as one of the better selections from the album. But Side Chick, and the record as a whole, has an undeniably light, almost poppy feel. Many of the riddims featured on New Level are built with softer synth sounds and much of the lyrical content is “gyal tune” material. Contemporary pop is synonymous with hip hop and R&B, and those influences are certainly present throughout New Level as well. Songs like Conquer The World, Somebody Great, and Try Again abandon the syncopated dancehall rhythm almost entirely in exchange for the more straightforward rhythms associated with American music.

A few selections with darker production work give New Level Unlocked an edge and new listeners a glimpse into a harder Alkaline. He comes tough (and with one of his signature oddball cadences) on Tom Taam, a song with a militant riddim and aggressive lyrics. Though neither the riddim nor the artist’s approach is particularly rugged, ATM sports an infectious synth-driven bounce that serves as a fitting groove for Alkaline to wax poetic about his less female-oriented obsessions - money, success, competition, and artistic validation. Champion Boy, produced by the aforementioned Yellow Moon Productions, is the best example of both the production on this album at its most raw and the artist in lyrical high gear. The song is essentially a musical shot at his detractors, at whom he flaunts his money, his favor with the ladies, and the extra promotion he received from the army of dancehall artists who included the parenthetical (Alkaline Diss) in the title of a song. Why so much hate? Alkaline would probably say jealousy. In Champion Boy’s hook he proclaims, “Man a born shella. Mi a the goddamn bwoy. That’s why everybody hate the champion bwoy.”

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