| Unity | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1988 | |||
| Genre | Rap, reggae | |||
| Label | Elektra [1] | |||
| Producer | Jam Master Jay, Davy D, Claude Evans | |||
| Shinehead chronology | ||||
| ||||
Unity is an album by the British Jamaican musician Shinehead, released in 1988. [2] [3]
The album peaked at No. 185 on the Billboard 200. [4] "Gimme No Crack" was a minor radio hit. [5]
"Come Together", "Truth", and "Chain Gang Rap" were produced by Jam Master Jay; the rest of the album was produced by Davy D and Claude Evans. [6] [7] Roots Radics contributed to the album. [8] "Who the Cap Fits" is a remake of a song from Shinehead's debut album. [2] "Chain Gang Rap" samples Duke Ellington's "Take the A Train" and incorporates elements of Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang". [9] [10] The title track samples "Come Together". [11]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [12] |
| The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [13] |
| MusicHound R&B: The Essential Album Guide | [7] |
| The Rolling Stone Album Guide |  [8] |
| Tulsa World | [10] |
Trouser Press wrote that Shinehead "continues to mix yankee hip-hop and yardee MC." [6] The New York Times noted that "Shinehead will drift into a falsetto voice to sing, parody somebody for a second, change the beat–nothing stays the same for long." [2] The Gazette determined that Shinehead "proves himself one of the most inventive, intelligent rappers on the scene." [14] The Philadelphia Inquirer concluded that Unity "contains rap, dub-poet toasting, and some of the leanest, most concise vocalizing anywhere in black pop." [15]
The Washington Post stated: "A striking major-label debut, Unity is as rhythmically limber as it is well-meaning." [9] The Los Angeles Times determined that "'Hello Y'All' combined a rap-style vocal with hard reggae rhythms ... 'Know How Fe Chat' reversed the equation by setting a patois-laden Jamaican vocal against a funk arrangement." [16] The Toronto Star deemed the album "a comically-inspired fusion of rap and reggae." [17]
AllMusic called the album "too lighthearted and positive to catch the ears of hip-hop heads who were beginning to lean on harsher sounds that were developing." [12] The Chicago Tribune listed Unity as the sixth best album of 1988; the Star Tribune listed it as the fourteenth. [18] [19]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Unity" | |
| 2. | "Chain Gang Rap" | |
| 3. | "The Truth" | |
| 4. | "Hello Y'All" | |
| 5. | "Do It with Ease" | |
| 6. | "Gimme No Crack" | |
| 7. | "Ragamuffin" | |
| 8. | "Know How Fe Chat" | |
| 9. | "Who the Cap Fits" | |
| 10. | "Golden Touch" |
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