Sly & Robbie - Silent Assassin (1989)

The third and final volume of Sly & Robbie's late-'80s attempt to crack the American market trades the goulash of hard rock, worldbeat, and disco of Language Barrier and Rhythm Killers for something a bit simpler. The pair of Jamaican session aces used Silent Assassin to explore the links between dancehall and hip-hop, with KRS-One as their guide and producer. He was an inspired choice, as "9mm Goes Bang," from his group Boogie Down Productions, was one of the earliest rap efforts to use reggae rhythms, and he'd subsequently furthered the connection on his 1988 album By Any Means Necessary. The results here are often very similar to that outing, with a heavy emphasis on KRS-One's rhymes and leftist politics via grim tales like "Adventures of a Bullet." The difference is the occasional infusion of warmth to his urban jungle; Queen Latifah takes the mic for the rootsy "Woman for the Job," and "Dance Hall" and "Party Together" bob and weave to sunny island grooves. The extent of Sly & Robbie's involvement isn't always clear, especially on "Under Arrest" and the Sly Stone-sampling "Man on a Mission," which carry almost no trace of reggae. But by providing a musical roadmap for the wave of Jamaican acts that would use the same formula to cross over a decade later, Silent Assassin has actually made plenty of noise.~Silent Assassin Review by Dan LeRoy