Among the young artists, Capleton and Sizzla both put out very good discs. Capleton's More Fire surpassed the intensity he reached on his major label releases. Likewise, Sizzla's Words of Truth turned out to be the young DJ's best all-around effort. Beenie Man also released one of his best albums, Art and Life.
Early in the year, it seemed that Soca was making a strong comeback -- VP released albums from Byron Lee, Machel Montano and Xtatik, and KMC. Later in the year came Soca Gold 2000 and yet another Byron Lee disc as well as a pair of Soca releases from JamDown Records (Surface's On Target and the Soca Explosion 2000 compilation). All were relatively strong and managed to keep an old school soca flavor while bringing in certain dancehall elements to appeal to a younger crowd.
The singers had a strong year, led by two albums by relative unknowns: Ossie Dellimore's Freedom's Journal and Johnny Dread's Vision. Jah Cure also released his first disc after years of singles. Among the established artists came well-received albums from Junior Reid, Culture, Wailing Souls, and Tristan Palma.
There were also a slew of great re-releases this year. Black Uhuru's Live 84 was a good disc of previously unheard material and Blood & Fire put out great old music from Linval Thompson and a killer 3-disc set from Big Youth.
VP had a number of good compliations, including their best Reggae Gold in a while and Easy Star released the wonderful follow-up to Hidden Treasures. Near the year's end, Easy Star released a number of singles on the "Thai Stick" riddim, which I imagine will show up on a one or two-riddim compilation in the near future.
All-in-all, another good year for this music we call reggae, and all signs point to an equally good 2001.
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