Letter Riddim – Jisland Records

A warm, skanking one-drop pulse runs through Letter Riddim, with just enough bounce in the bassline to keep it moving without losing its rootsy calm. J’Island Records lined up a tidy 11-track set in 2012, and Cali P’s “Reggae Music” feels like the natural anchor, especially beside Phenomden’s reflective “Never Take Your Place” and Miriam Simone’s easy glide on “Quality Time. ” The writing has a soft-conscious tilt throughout, with singers leaning into love songs, hard times, and plainspoken uplift rather than trying to out-shout the riddim. There’s a nice connection between the producer’s stripped-back framework and I-Razor’s “Like A Letter, ” which sits right in that space between melody and message. A compact, well-sorted little dancehall-adjacent reggae session, right down to the final note about “Too Much Talking. ”