Purpleman

Purpleman (as Yellowman) - Confessions - Vista Sounds 1983

It is written on an orange sticker on the cover »CRUCIAL MESSAGE TO ALL YELLOWMAN FANS! This Album is recorded in old D.J. Stylee«. The sticker slapped over a painting of Yellowman chatting in full effect. What could perhaps be more appropriate would be to state that the deejay is not Yellow but rather the one Purple. Many listeners must have screwed their faces and kissed their teeth due to the surprise and dissappointment when first putting the needle in the grove and hearing an entirely different deejay than promised. But giving the album a listen should reveal that Purpleman himself is a real treat with his hard and monotonous frasing (is this the »old D.J. Stylee«?). The album has a very high standard and songs such as »Jah Is My Guiding Master«, »Can't Get No Money«, »Fisical Fitness« and »Session Inna Westmoreland« are nothing less than fantastic. The productions by U Brown are inspired with a slow and grooving rub-a-dub stylee often hitting some of the most venomous minor chords. There is a valid point to the dissappointment however. This album should have been under Purplemans own name - it could had been the set that pushed him to the front that he so rightfully would have deserved.