Diamond Fyah Riddim – Diamond Ink Productions

Diamond Fyah comes in lean and menacing, all clipped drums, dark bass and enough room for the vocals to cut through clean, which suits Diamond Ink Productions’ 2013 setup well. Alkaline’s “Circle Badness (Raw)” is the obvious grabber, but Gage’s “Govern” and Munga’s “Cyaah Stop Wi” keep the pressure on, while Knickoy, Keno Slickaz and T’Nez add a looser, more streetwise edge to the mix. The cut count is small, just five tracks, and that tightness gives the riddim a sharper shape than some of the bigger multi-artist packages from that era. It also sits neatly in Diamond Ink’s catalogue as a grim, no-nonsense dancehall set, the kind that marked the label’s ear for compact, hard-hitting productions.