Words by LargeUp Crew
Okay, that headline is a bit of a misnomer because we have 13 albums we want to tell you about — we just didn’t want to call this “the 13 best albums of 2017” because that sounds weird. From Afro Bashment outta London to dembow from Santo Domingo, these albums represent a cross section of sounds from within the Caribbean and the Diaspora. Of course, the bulk of the contents here come from Jamaica, where marquee acts Damian Marley and Chronixx dropped long-awaited LPs, Ken Boothe returned to the studio, Samory I released one of the best reggae debuts in a minute and Cham and Busy Signal slid in under the radar with overlooked dancehall releases.
Now that’s all clear, here’s our picks for the best Caribbean albums of 2017.