AMG Review of Gully Sit'n

Rick Anderson
All Music Guide

It's hard to believe that Gully Sit'n is only Assassin's second album, given the impact he's already had over the course of his still-brief career. At this point, his success is mainly due to his skill at delivering a set of already established formulas: he hasn't yet figured out how to distinguish himself completely from the other lover-lover, gunsman, ghetto-lifestyle dancehall dons, but he's still young and there are hints of originality starting to emerge from the standard-issue lyrical tropes: on this album you'll find them if you skip past the waste-of-time intro track and skim through the faux-radio interview (featuring a weirdly vituperative monologue from an uncredited Mutabaruka), at which point you'll come across an interesting experiment in 6/8 time ("Girls Alone We Want"), the eerie "Bad Man," a nicely smoldering combination track with Tash ("Wanna Love You Baby"), and the absolutely brilliant "Don't Dis No Man," on which he delivers startlingly good-hearted lyrics with razor-sharp rhythmic acumen over a spare, muscular rhythm. This being a modern dancehall album, there is of course a surfeit of filler (such as the tedious "Anywhere We Go" and the mediocre title track), but Assassin gets bonus points for delivering this year's Most Original Pickup Line in a Reggae Song: "Gal, you no boring." Recommended.