Konshens: ‘Red Reign’ Album Review
Red Reign, the newest batch of bangers from Dancehall deejay Konshens is a kaleidoscope of global music. Konshens sounds assured and effortless as ever on the 18 track suite, executive produced by Jonny Blaze.
On Red Reign, Konshens becomes a slick chameleon, using his Dancehall background to his advantage for convincing displays in EDM, soca, reggae, Afrobeats and more. Five albums in, he proves he can match if not dominate any soundscape, never resorting to mimicry. Opening track, Season 4, is a prime example, a two-minute career flashback over a flamenco backdrop that aptly frames the album title.
Konshens barrels through the rags to riches cut, making the case for his renewed hunger (“this feel like 2010 when mi jus a buss, me and mi hungry bredda dem a tear di road”), the return to a point most notably marked by his now signature hair colour. The track is perfect primer to his abilities and approach, spinning his uniquely dancehall tale (which cites ER, OnStage, Gaza and Gully) over gentle Spanish guitars. From there, listeners keep seeing red, never quite certain what sounds they’ll hear next.
Konshens doesn’t deviate from his trademark topics—sex, gunplay, trials & tribulations, making millions, fun punchlines, stunting, sex—and Red Reign shines in its silver-tongued delivery. He enlists Jonny Blaze & Stadic, Track Starr, Ricky Blaze, Shab Don, Zimi Ent, Bashment, BomboCat, Mark Hize and Hitgruves Music among others for the genre-bending production touches.
On 2018’s It Feel Good, Konshens pushed the envelope with his peers, a bevy of Jamaican trailblazers breaking barriers worldwide. The project featured Shaggy, King Kosa, Bakersteez and Tarrus Riley, and Red Reign wins with its repeat formula. Queen of Dancehall, Spice, Rvssian and Stefflon Don make compelling cameos, while Puerto Rican Rafa Pabön and Bermudian siren Kaelyn Castle channel Caribbean linkup vibes.
Castle, Stefflon Don and Spice smoothly tackle Konshens’ charms, infusing Red Reign with unimpeachable zeal on Cold Hearted Boy, Mirror, and Pay For It respectively. There’s also Just Life and It’s Cold, where Konshens goes from playboy to dropping parables on life’s hardships with two of reggae’s most recognizable crooners, Dre Island and Jesse Royal.
The run of tracks from Pay For It to Eye Contact reveals why his female fans keep Konshens top of mind. The mood jumps from bedroom bully (Purple Touch, It’s Sexy) to trap-tinged twerk vibes on the Bashment and BomboCat produced Take A Shot, and the suite wouldn’t be complete without the crucial gyalis toasts (Eye Contact, No Style feat. Kemar Highcon).
On Boom Bang, Konshens and Davido deliver a contagious hook over pounding, popping drums. The Nigerian star’s presence on Red Reign also amplifies the innovative quality of the album; Davido is one of the artists responsible for taking Afrobeats to the mainstream. The team-up with one of the genre’s biggest exports is an enormous flex as Konshens continues his campaign to defend dancehall’s cultural supremacy.
Though upbeat, Red Reign’s genre-averse approach isn’t entirely rewarding, however. In his bid to bridge the gap between dancehall and the DSP-driven global market, Konshens risks alienating a portion of his fan base. And while he seems to have mastered the art of forays, the album’s main flaw is the inconsistency that mars such diverse compilations.
Konshens has also made countless songs like Less is More and Mirror in the past. Standouts like Want To Love, a Yeti Beats and Ambezza piano-led gem, are a refreshing spin on his raunchier outtakes, even when it ultimately comes down to the usual commands (“Balance, balance an bubble an suh/ Baby please stop play wid mi likkle heart nuh”).
Though the branding can be confusing, Red Reign gets a blue ribbon for Konshens’ efforts to braid Dancehall into world beats, a feat he tackles with his bracing flow and finesse. In their March write-up, “Genre Is Disappearing What Comes Next?”, The New Yorker argued that music’s oldest organizing principle would soon be obsolete, a concept that Konshens seems to have caught on to early.
“Anyone enthusiastic for the strict adherence to genre is engaging in something conservative and backward-looking—particularly in a moment, such as this one, in which we are all hungrier than ever for the future,” wrote Amanda Petrusich, a line which reads like a blurb for Red Reign.
As music fans’ choices multiply, Red Reign proves Konshens is capable of reinvention, and a dynamic, provocative tastemaker with unfailing dancehall flavor.