Sizzla – Rise To The Occasion
Greensleeves Records (GRELCD273)

Rise To The Occasion falls so far short of expectations that you’ll be forgiven to checking the album cover a few times to convince yourself that it’s really a Sizzla album. Rise marks the lowest point in a series of mediocre releases by Sizzla on Greensleeves Records (Bobo Ashanti and Rastafari Teach I Everything were OK, Ghetto Revolutionary was bad,and Rise is worse). Either Sizzla doesn’t rate Greensleeves and is giving them bad product, or Greensleeves doesn’t rate the buying public and is packaging inferior material for our consumption. Either way, it stinks.

Rise comes on the heels of the first-class classic Da Real Thing on VP Records,and it cannot withstand the comparison. Sizzla entrusts the production of Rise to Hip-Hop minded Dancehall producer Donovan “Vendetta” Bennett, and Bennett isn’t up to the task. His production is hurried and half-baked,and his rhythms plodding and gimicky. Sizzla doesn’t help matters, sounding hoarse and indifferent for much of the album. Lyrically and musically, Rise doesn’t make the grade, and does nothing to enhance Sizzla’s stature as a premire Dancehall artist.

THE VERDICT: Sizzla doesn't Rise To The Occasion with this album. The beats and rhymes are lazy, Sizzla's voice is scratchy and the quality is just shoddy over all. Unless you are a hardcore Sizzla fan, you won't find much on Rise to like.