Personal Ninja Man Slept-On

“So crisp, so tailored. And perfectly accessorized: the black fedora is subtly underscored by the ninja head wrap, and the gold rings are nicely accented by the burning spliff.” (Hearing Test)

While “Bounty or Beenie?” is usually the first question being asked when telling a Jamaican that you care about contemporary Dancehall – the most popular artist (at least when it comes to stage shows) for the natives often seems to be none of them. It´s Ninja Man.
He´s the one who stands way above all the real and artificial feuds between the “Poor People General” and “Betweenie”. He´s the one who makes fun of both of them. In fact, he´s actually the one who makes fun of everybody in the dancehall circus. Why? Because he can.
On wax however, there aren´t too many recent Ninja releases that would pop up in my mind when thinking about the latest hits. Two days ago, however, I accidentally found a Ninja tune while skipping through the new album of Berlin´s hipster electro-tagteam “Modeselektor” on iTunes (which btw. is the shit – check “Happy Birthday” or “2000007″ feat. TTC): I had one of those Web 2.0ish “user that bought this, also liked that”-experiences and clicked on an EP called “Weed Wid Di Macka” (01/07, Tigerbeat6, Run Things Records) which among others features a “Deerhunter” and a “Modeselektor” RMX of an infamous anti-coke-track of Ninja. Both of them work pretty nice. While the “Deerhunter”-version is more like the typical Dancehall/Dubstep stomper, Modeselektor make the tune sound like a relick of the Beastie Boys´ “Intergalactic” on exactly the drug Ninjaman swears off in his lyrics. Must buys.

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