Prodi - Voice Of The People EP (Radikal Yawd Music/Self-published)

In the recent past Prodi was primarily active in the gospel circuit, but with 'Voice Of The People' EP seems to want to expand his audience. Stylistically this EP positions Prodi somewhere between Busy Signal and Konshens and the latter even pops up in the track list making a vocal contribution on the hip-hop flavored 'I Am Going Home'. The Auto-Tune effects in opener 'Mi Know Jah' weren't really yours truly's cup of tea, but try to overlook them for a moment and you'll be left with a solid new roots tune. The same goes for 'Gone Too Soon', a song in which Prodi bemoans the premature passing of some of his friends. More to our liking were 'Love Is My Music', an upbeat song about universal love, and 'Kingston City', a song reminiscent of Damian Marley's 'Welcome To Jamdown' or, more recent, Hezron's 'Land Of Warriors', and without the slightest doubt the best tune in the track list. One to keep an eye on!