The Heptones ~ Reggae ~ Freshout Media : Spread the Word

The Heptones

By Transmute

Published: March 5th, 2006

Book of Rules

For those who listen to Roots Reggae, Conscious Reggae, and dub, the Heptones will definitely hold it down for you. And Mr. President is an example of the Heptones holding it down. On the dub side, the musical genius Lee “Scratch” Perry handles production for this tune. The song is quite mellow; the bassline really won’t rattle your subs, the drums are a lite reminder that percussion is the backbone of reggae music, and the flanged electrical piano and guitar riffs add a mellow, ambient feel to the song.

Lyrically, the Heptones, with the help of Jah Lion, address the issue of aristocracy, especially by those who have the responsibility of helping the common man. The song seems to have two motives: to chastise the President (most likely the Jamaican President) for not helping poor people more and to expose the corruption of those in power. The lyrics are straightforward, as most Roots Reggae lyrics are, so those who do not speak patois can still understand the struggles experienced by the poor people of Jamaica. But even if the conscious lyrics are not really appealing, due to the notion that not all of the listeners of this song have, or will, experience the hardships of Jamaica’s poor, those who enjoy good, smooth music will like this song purely on musical appreciation. This song is off of their album Party Time on Island Records Group (1977). Check out some of the Heptones‘ other songs and albums if you like Roots Reggea, Rocksteady, or just some good Jamaican music.

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One Response to “The Heptones”

Thursday Says:
March 8th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
I like this review it welcomes me to the atomosphere socially and musically to that which is The Heptones, and when I listened I realized you were right on the money, money.

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The imperial emcee and devout Hip-Hop head Transmute ANS, or Tr. ANS, reps for the state of Connecticut, but chills in the Illadelph for the time being. Not one to divulge much information about himself, this is what should be known. People think he’s nice on the mic, he says different; until he is heard the question is: “is he ill?” or is he what an emcee is supposed to be? Whatever the answer is, Tr. ANS does have too many aliases, multiple personalities to go with them, and too many crews/groups that he is associated with (hence his love for Madlib and MF DOOM). As a Hip-Hop head, Tr. ANS’ mind is that of a Hip-Hop DJ, in that Hip-Hop music is not just rap music, but encompasses every genre that has influenced the culture’s music. Therefore, for Freshout, Transmute handles rap (which is called Hip-Hop on the site), funk, jazz, soul, and reggae (Kool DJ Herc baby! Respect!). Hip-Hop is such a large part of his life that he has dedicated his life to the study and development of Hip-Hop Architecture (the man has a Bachelors of Architecture degree). (It should be noted that Transmute did not make this discipline up, there are others who have dedicated time to this study.) Also, Transmutist is a music junkie. The man downloads and buys music so much that he make a crackhead look clam next to his dealer. His knowledge of music is fairly good and if he does have a particular that someone is looking for (Hip-Hop of course), he will look for it. As a Fresh Out writer, Transmute puts his “stamp of approval on every artist that he writes about, so check out his posts and the artists that he is listening to, hit him up if you want and remember to spell the man’s name right— capital “T”, lower case “r”, “dot”, “space”, capital “A”, capital “N”, capital “S”; the hardest name to spell in Hip-Hop— Tr. ANS. Casper.