Moses Davis, known to dancehall reggae lovers around the globe as Beenieman, the anointed ‘King of Dancehall’, made his fourth visit to the jewel for a concert this past Saturday night. Though hardly in need of any reinforcements, Beenie’s act was fortified by the singing talent of Anthony Cruz, and D’angel, who also happens to be Beenie’s wife. I have to confess that I missed the early part of the show. I didn’t catch any of Anthony Cruz’s performance, but from all accounts, his session was solid, boosted by familiar tracks like his biggest track to date, in my opinion, “Mama’s Blessings”. I walked in to the Civic Center as D’angel was offering up her most popular track to date, “Stronger”, a slice of personal biography that saddles the Chemistry riddim.
The turnout for the concert fell short of established standards for a Beenieman show. (His first show on Birds Isle was crowded, but he was able to make that first occasion look like a mere preliminary, as the second and the third show broke records for dancehall shows at that time.) The hundreds who were there seemed indifferent to headcount; they were adorned in the hippest fabrics and were already positioned advantageously to absorb the treatment from “The Doctor” by the time of my arrival.
D’angel was having a hard time getting warmth from the fans, however. To be honest, D’angel is extremely pleasing to my optical senses, but her musical recordings have not matched in satisfaction. Her songs have scored very little with dancehall fans here in town, as compared to her success at home. The few minutes of her performance that I endured were flat and seemed to be received with more tolerance than enthusiasm by the crowd on hand.
Mercifully, at just after 2 in the morning, the fans got their doctor’s visit, and to the surprise of no one, the treatment was healing. Boredom surrendered to ignition, and Beenieman, backed by the Ruffcut band, delivered his unmatched anthology of dancehall hits. Spanning the nineties into present day, the first forty-five minutes was an unpunctuated, high-voltage transmission of pure dancehall classics. It would be another eighty minutes before Beenie would release his captives from the sweet bondage of music. What will strike you about Beenieman’s performance is what a consummate professional he is. I would have preferred a little more vintage, but that’s just me nitpicking. Beenieman delivers, end of story. That’s how he has reigned for all these years.