Martial Wayne Riddim – Various Artists

Martial Wayne Riddim comes off like one of those lean, late-2000s dancehall juggling sets where the rhythm does the talking and the voice pulls the hook into place. Produced in 2010 and credited simply to Various Artists, it lines up eight cuts from Elji and Blackman, J Max, Jah D Ceva, Magic, Mystah Perry C Rim, T Jy, Tai J and Zi Mc, with the repeated “Wayne” and “Fanm” refrains giving the whole thing a cheeky, street-level bounce. It doesn’t reach for anything ornate; the attraction is the compact, vocal-heavy format and the way each artist finds a slightly different angle on the same beat. In that sense, it feels cut from the same cloth as the era’s tougher one-riddim dancehall selections, a straightforward entry in the catalogue that’s more about pressure and patter than polish.