Fifteen years ago, a young Kabaka Pyramid put out a project that quietly shifted how people thought about the next generation of Jamaican reggae. Now he’s circling back to that exact moment, not to relive it, but to show how far the road has gone since.
Rebel Music, The Lyrics Tape drops August 28, and the 10-track project is built around the anniversary of his breakthrough Rebel Music EP.
This is the same foundation that eventually carried him to Grammy recognition with The Kalling, which makes the callback feel less like nostalgia and more like a full arc completing itself.
Three tracks are already out, and they each pull in a different direction. Rotation is a rub-a-dub anthem with a heavy bassline that functions almost like a public service announcement for reggae culture, aimed directly at selectors and sound systems worldwide.
Kabaka was pretty direct about the thinking behind it. “There is so much going on in the world, and I really believe, if we played more reggae, we would be better off,” he said, adding that the song is about keeping that healing energy circulating.
From Weh Day takes a sharper angle, produced by Fatbabs and co-produced by Kabaka himself. The drum-driven, hip-hop-influenced track is less a celebration and more of a challenge, pushing the music community to actually invest in reggae’s next generation and to reckon with the imbalance between reggae and dancehall inside Jamaica’s own industry.
That kind of internal critique is easy to overlook when an artist is in anniversary mode, but it’s the kind of thing that makes the project feel like it has something to say beyond the milestone. Kabaka has never been the type to make music that flatters the room he’s standing in.
We Dem Wah is where things get looser and more playful. Produced by Jazzwad, the track draws directly from 1990s dancehall, pulling inspiration from Super Cat and Ninjaman and building around one of the era’s most recognisable basslines.
It’s a side of Kabaka that doesn’t always get the spotlight, the competitive, cocky energy that dancehall has always thrived on.
Hearing him work in that space while keeping his lyrical precision intact says something about how wide his range actually is.
Taken together, the three tracks map out what Rebel Music, The Lyrics Tape is trying to do. It honours the sounds that shaped him, reggae, dancehall, hip-hop, sound system culture, without treating any of them as museum pieces.
The August 28 release date is still ahead, and the full 10-track run hasn’t been laid out yet.
