Etana, "I Rise"

Reggae At Google: Etana performs at Google NYC on October 27, 2014. The performance includes tracks from her new Album "I Rise" followed by an inspiring interview with Parry Ernsberger.
Etana’s name means “The Strong One” in Swahili, and it’s a title she more than lives up to with her music and presence. Since debuting in 2006 with the thought provoking single “Wrong Address,” the Jamaican-born singer has established herself as one of the most powerful and distinctive voices in reggae, blazing a new trail in a genre that has long been male-dominated.
Etana continues her forward movement with I Rise, produced primarily by Jamaican luminary Clive Hunt (Peter Tosh, Rolling Stones, The Wailers, Chaka Khan, Grace Jones, Jimmy Cliff). The album reflects the singer’s ongoing maturity while maintaining the R&B-inflected take on reggae that she’s come to be known for, showcasing the diversity of a true musical Renaissance woman. “Trigger,” which tells the story of an educated but underemployed young man driven to desperate measures in order to take care of his cancer-stricken mother, is the album’s lead single and a follow up of sorts to “Wrong Address.” On the complete opposite spectrum is the album’s second single “Richest Girl,” a reggae love ballad with sweeping strings and jazzy horns over a classic one-drop riddim. “Emancipation” is a spiritual anthem with an uptempo dance beat and dub effects that sounds like it could have been recorded during one of Sly and Robbie’s classic sessions at Chris Blackwell’s Compass Point Studios in the 1980s. Speaking of Sly and Robbie, reggae’s legendary Riddim Twins supply the backbeat and their unmistakeable vibes on “Ward 21 (Stenna’s Song),” a dub-inflected track detailing a man’s descent into madness. What does each track on the diverse set have in common with the next? They all have a message.
Buy the album: