Sound Want Test: Hear Buju Banton “Set Up The Mic”

Words by Jesse Serwer, via Boomshots

Rob Kenner, the music editor of Complex magazine and one of the true don dadas of dancehall journalism, unleashed a nice surprise over on his website, Boomshots, today: some new Buju, sounding a lot like old Buju. The track is actually an outtake from a session three years ago with producer Mr. G, Buju freestyling on the the Rapid Burst riddim while waiting for the engineer to fix the levels at the start of a studio session. But you’d never know it from how good the track sounds. Well, actually you might, as it makes perfect sense when you think of what Buju is literally saying: “Set up the mic, set up the mic right!” The result offers a glimpse of vintage, unguarded Buju, harkening back to the days when you might have caught him chatting on sound systems like Metro Media. Stream “Set Up The Mic” below, or just cop the damn thing on iTunes already.