The master of Mary Jane, Sean Paul, is back with his new album, The Trinity, and he’s got a new pro-cannabis anthem with his first single “We Be Burnin.”
NORML Terps, the campus’s pro-marijuana group, should look into using Paul’s single as its anthem: “Everyday, we be burnin not concernin/What nobody wanna say/We be earnin dollars turning cau we mind deh pon we pay/Some got gold and oil and diamonds all we got is Mary J/Legalize it, time to recognize it.”
As far as politics go, this is as political as Paul gets. It’s no surprise to hear him singing the praises of the green stuff given his other pro-weed songs, but then again, nothing on the album is much of a surprise.
With Paul, the topics entail the regular freaky club songs, the romantic dedication songs and the “get high” songs. The beats on the disc don’t disappoint, and most, if not all, of them will without a doubt get you moving.
The album’s direction is a noticeable effort to remain true to the real dancehall sound. This is evidenced by Paul’s avoidance of the more pop-influenced producers he employed on his last effort Dutty Rock, a response to many reggae enthusiasts’ criticisms of Paul’s music as “too commercial” and “not real reggae.” Whether or not it was considered real reggae by the dancehall community, there was an undeniably exciting energy that surrounded Paul’s first effort that’s missing on his latest release.
On Dutty Rock, Paul partnered with Beyonce on the smash hit “Baby Boy.” On Trinity, Paul calls in the big guns, blessing us with the vocals of- Nina Sky. Nina Sky?! The “Move Your Body” girls?! I guess Lumidee was busy. When you are as big an artist as Sean Paul, you should be able to do better than Nina Sky. How about hooking up with some of reggae’s bigger names, such as Bounty Killer, Lady Saw or, heck, even Beenie Man?
Back in 2002, “Get Busy” and “Gimme The Light” set the radio and clubs on fire because Paul had a relatively fresh sound while reggae was making its comeback into mainstream American music. Trinity is a record that is much more faithful to its reggae roots and a little more aggressive than Paul’s last release. But Paul doesn’t possess much of a threatening or dark personality, so he comes across stronger on more light-hearted fare.
Trinity isn’t a total miss, and Paul can at least relish in the fact that the disc is only a notch or two below Dutty Rock and 10 leaps ahead of anything Shaggy does.
