Superstar Yellowman Has Arrived with Toyan

AMG Review of Superstar Yellowman Has Arrived with Toyan

Jo-Ann Greene
All Music Guide

Indeed, Superstar Yellowman Has Arrived with Toyan, and they've got Ringo in tow, on this split 1982 album, produced by the Mighty Two and Ruddy Thomas. Ringo is poorly served by this set, relegated to one track, a version of King Yellow's smash hit "I Am Getting Married."

Still, even though Ringo rides off with swaths of the top DJ's toast, he still gives it his own distinctive twists in places. The nail in his coffin, then, are Yellow's three tracks which are sequenced right after Ringo's, leaving him to cry foul at the altar; because no-one can hold a flame to the King of the sound systems at this point in time, as his opening "Love Struck" proves. His laid-back style and lyrics, which paint a sharply drawn vignette, are superb, while the song's backing is a phenomenal adaptation of the "Freak Out" riddim. Even better, this isn't the original 45, but the extended 12" version. "Them a Fight" is cut over an entirely different version of the "Freak Out" riddim, with Yellow continuing in top form. The DJ departs on a high with "Which One a Dem a Wear de Ring," yet another in a long series of songs boasting of the DJ's prowess with the ladies. Toyan, already elevated elsewhere to Ranking status, immediately retorts with "Love Night," laying claim as the top rub-a-dub DJ across a slow grinding riddim made for winning, and presented in its full, extended glory. Still, the DJ knows he's not the only game in town, and he name checks the competition on "Come Fi Mash It." However, his rapid (for the day) toasting, however, is better heard on "Modeling Time," a non-stop barrage of rhyming chant. Toyan's best work was still to come, and his final track, the exhilarating "Talk of the Town" is a strong indicator that success was already on it's way. The production is of the high caliber we'd come to expect of Mighty Two, and the riddims are laid down by the best musicians on the scene; all are uniformly fabulous. No surprise that Yellowman walks off with this clash's honors, but Toyan gets a big leg up, and Ringo, whose name isn't even on the set's cover, can forget it ever happened.