Raided Riddim – New Reggae Industries

A tight three-track pull, Raided Riddim keeps the focus on a small but telling dancehall lineup from New Reggae Industries, with Chukki Starr, Sandra Melody and Sweetie Irie all cutting through a cut that leans more rugged than glossy. The project first surfaced in 2017, and that late-2000s/early-2010s style of UK-linked roots-to-dancehall pressure sits underneath the whole thing, giving it a compact, no-nonsense feel. Sandra Melody’s “Sandra On Top” has the sharpest hook in the set, but it’s Chukki Starr’s “Ghetto Youth” that really sets the tone, all street-level tension and clipped delivery. Sweetie Irie closes it out with “Dun Dem, ” and that final cut lands like the release’s toughest edge.