Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do!

I’m not a very big fan of dancehall and the likes, but when I saw the artwork of Major Lazer’s debut album “Guns Don’t Kill People, Lazers Do!” I just had to do a quick lookup. And hey, what a surprise! It’s actually the favela mad Diplo in collaboration with massive bassline housetunes producer Dave Taylor (Switch/Induceve/Solid Groove), featuring a shitload of dancehall guest MC’s on the release. Together they created Major Lazer, who “fought as a Jamaican commando and lost his arm in a secret zombie war”. The Major “fights vampires and various monsters, parties hard, and has a rocket-powered hoverboard”.

But how zombie defeating is his music?  It’s comparable to a double barrel shotgun: Quite devastating, but there’s also the long reload times.

I enjoyed the very well produced beats, defenately not your standard dancehall fare. Diplo’s hollertronic approach shines through from time to time (“When you hear the bassline” e.g.) and there’s also a lot of unconventional beats like “Mary Jane” , “Bruk out”. But then there’s one (rather satirical) track worth skippable for the sake of everything that keeps you out of certain clubs in your city (“Keep it goin’ louder” – Kanye would be envious though, and the track’s end will make you puke – no, seriously, I have warned you). Reload.

But, what got me to write this post about the album is the second to last track “Baby” which (of course) features the infamous Autotune Baby Sample (god even Flying Lotus Sensei played it out on his Berlin gig this year). But behold, you won’t want to punch a baby after this one, thanks to Prince Zimboo’s ingenious vocals:

Don’ get you diapers in a bunch,
Dere di nipple for lunch.
Imagine, it’s just couple of months ago you were in my testical,
Now you are screaming and walking, great spectacle.
…
Dat breast is yours, dis breast is mine,
Don”t get out of line.

Give it a listen, it’s just 1:20 and worth it.