Open Mind Riddim – Ricardo Gowe Records

Ricardo Gowe Records kept Open Mind Riddim in a mid-tempo dancehall pocket, and the project landed on March 22, 2019 with seven cuts and an instrumental. The label has a small but clear riddim catalogue, with Open Mind sitting alongside later instrumental releases like Relentless Riddim and Money and Strength, which gives it the feel of a producer imprint that favors juggling-ready foundations over one-off singles.

The tracklist pulls in Vershon, Dre Zee, Jah Vinci, Dre Island, Shaneil Muir and Tommy Lee Sparta, and that mix gives the riddim a good spread of voices. Vershon’s Still A Hold On brings the determined, singjay-style resolve he has long been known for, while Jah Vinci’s Pay Back plays to the melodic, emotional edge that has followed him since the Portmore Empire years. Shaneil Muir’s Gonna Make It adds a straight-ahead motivational anthem from one of the stronger female voices to emerge in the late 2010s dancehall wave.

Dre Island’s Alive, featuring Satori, gives the project a different texture, with a more reflective tone and a wider, atmospheric feel than the tougher dancehall cuts around it. Tommy Lee Sparta’s So Dem Stay brings the darker, harder stance listeners expect from him, and Dre Zee’s Wings adds another local dancehall-flavoured voice to the mix. The instrumental runs 88 BPM, which helps explain the laid-back sway under the songs: warm, steady, and built for deejays who can ride a groove without rushing it.