Lee “Scratch” Perry
Humanacity
(Gangloff Ferrey Beriot Perry)

Let me start by saying that Lee “Scratch” Perry is one of the most influential people in all of reggae. His contributions to the genre are immeasurable. That being said, there’s nothing especially interesting about Humanicity. Casual listeners will probably totally ignore it and even seasoned reggae fans won’t get much out of it. In fact, it sounds like what people who don’t like reggae describe when they talk about it. It’s repetitive, which is true of a lot of reggae, but a good groove can solve that problem. Also, the production is strange, and not in a good way. These songs are weird little sound oddities with not much going on. Perry’s rambling vocals don’t bring a lot to the table either. Most of the time he sounds like a homeless weirdo you’d see on the subway. Case in point, “Rastafari.” Sounds simple enough, a song about Babylon or something right? Well actually, he spends most of the time repeating, “Me and my electric cock/Me and my electric dick” and talking about killing Satan and being allergic to cancer. But to be honest, who can blame him? He’s 76 years old. The amount of albums he’s put out is somewhere in the 50’s. The fact that he’s still working hard is impressive. No one should expect him to stop if he doesn’t want to. However, they also shouldn’t expect the quality of his material to always be high.