TEENage Hitlist - February 7

Dominic Bell

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

WHAT makes a hit? Is it the lyrics, the artiste, the hype at the time? Is it "something special" about the voice or rhythm?

The TEENage Hitlist pinpoints the hits and the misses as soon as we hear both local and international releases.

Local Hit Of The Week

Set Up Shop by Damian Marley

Only a few contemporary Jamaican artistes have attained the level of musical credibility and respect from listeners both locally and internationally in comparison to Damian Marley.

Ever since the release of his sophomore album Half-Way-Tree in 2001 and the immensely popular Welcome To Jamrock in 2005, Damian Marley has captivated the musical masses with invigorating songs ranging from several topics such as societal issues, relationships, Pan-African empowerment, amongst others.

Since then, Marley has released a collaboration album with hip-hop living legend Nas entitled Distant Relatives in 2010, and also was a part of the legendary Mick Jagger's brainchild, a supergroup called Superheavy, which features Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, Dave Stewart, AR Rahman. Superheavy released their self-titled debut album in September 2011.

Marley also featured on albums by Mariah Carey, Bruno Mars, Musiq Soulchild, his brothers Stephen and Julian, and many more.

As Damian Marley has bridged the gap between different genres of music with these collaborative projects, he still hasn't forgotten his hardcore dancehall base, and in response has released his new single entitled Set Up Shop.

Although Set Up Shop was released October of last year, the song ironically has begun to currently pick up steam in February, which is the month of celebration for Bob Marley's legacy as his birthday is February 6, and is also Reggae Month.

Set Up Shop is a motivational hard thumping drum and bass heavy dancehall banger released through Ghetto Youths International.

On the track, Marley urges the underprivileged youths to engage in entrepreneurial activities, no matter how small in scale, as long as they can improve their standards of living independently and legally.

Lyrically, he delivers fiery words of inspiration in a manner that can easily resonate with the masses, and he even smartly name-drops communities throughout Jamaica and countries worldwide.

TEENage Hitlist believes that Set Up Shop is the perfect release for Damian Marley to resonate early with his Jamaican fan base this year and is a credible buzz single for his international audience.

International Hit Of the Week

Turn Up The Music by Chris Brown

Chris Brown has had formula regarding his album releases since his third album Graffiti in 2009. This formula entails releasing a single for the urban markets that features rap verses, and then releasing a pop or euro-pop single to crossover into the pop market in North America and internationally.

For Graffiti the first two singles were I Can Transform Ya featuring Lil' Wayne and Swizz Beatz, and then Crawl. For FAME the first two singles were Deuces featuring Tyga and Kevin McCall, and then Yeah 3x.

For his next release entitled Fortune, the singles thus far are Strip featuring Kevin McCall and the recently released Turn Up The Music produced by The Underdogs and Fuego.

Unlike its predecessors, Strip featuring Kevin McCall has not ignited the urban markets, and this has resulted in an almost hurried release of Turn Up The Music.

The track, as expected is a euro-pop inspired single that is sure to incite a continuation of fist pumps and shuffling on the dancefloor.

The problem with Turn Up The Music, however, is not that it's a bad song. But due to the oversaturation of singles of this nature from radio dominant artistes such as David Guetta, Rihanna, Pitbull, Ke$ha and LMFAO's, it's almost as if enjoying Turn Up The Music is a bit tiring as listeners will feel as if they have heard this song before.

TEENage Hitlist believes that Turn Up The Music is a solid single choice, but is too predictable to be the smash that Chris Brown would want before the release of his next album Fortune.

TEENage Hitlist expects another single from Chris Brown in short order.

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TEENage Hitlist - February 7