Aidonia, “Jehova” MP3

Initially, much of Aidonia’s lyricism was girl and gun-centric, but this last year he directed his focus towards a more international audience, catching our ear and keeping it obsessively focused on any YouTube leaks or riddim drops we could sweep up. Starting the new year with more then a few gripping tracks, he’s pushed the process into double speed with the release of “Jehova,” produced by Stephen “Di Genius” McGregor and causing a stir on both Jamaican airwaves and blogs before the day turned over. Straying from his usual harder style, “Jehova” elevates the mood with a hopeful message while also breaking the mold by utilizing a church choir. With another nine months left in the year, we’re hoping that his stockpile of “line-jumping” jams will materialize into that double disk he promised.



Download: Aidonia, “Jehova” (via Di Genius)

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Video: Aidonia, “Evil Head/Isaiah”

“So much trouble in the world,” Bob once sang. Aidonia can relate. In the split for “Evil Head/Isaiah” he re-shot that creepy ass sci-fi movie The Cell from inside his own mind sans J-Lo (-1), but also using the floor to diagram his disdain for haters, skeptics and hating-ass skeptics. The set is dark like the tone of the songs, but not without it’s bright spots like a dude doing that dresser shelf dance and bible passages projected onto Donia’s face. On an unrelated note, now that Donia’s put it on wax we can finally cosign: FUCK vampires.

Aidonia f. Suhvertu, “Wi Siiiiiiiiiiiiiick” MP3

We’d be a little more predisposed to edit some of the “i’s” out of this song’s title, if it wasn’t in fact, so siiiiiiiiiiiiiick. A bunch of Aidonia’s music has taken a more radio-friendly turn as of late so it’s good to hear that he still has the will to kill. Suhvertu (pictured above on the far right) is part of Donia’s J.O.P. collective and shows out longside “JA’s Most Wanted” on this Big Ship Production like he’s still trying to earn a spot on the squad. And yet the sickest thing about “Wi Siiiiiiiiiiiiiick” is how perfectly it fits for for both concert performance and dance routine. But as sure of a bet as Stephen McGregor has proven himself to artists of various deejay styles, we’re hoping that Donia doesn’t stray far from Di Genius while finishing up his impending debut.



Download: Aidonia f. Suhvertu, “Wi Siiiiiiiiiiiiiick”

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Aidonia & Tarrus Riley, “Di Trees” MP3

A few weeks ago in his Ghetto Palms column, Stats rattled off five different versions of the new Go-Go Club Riddim but left out this fiery duet from two of FADER’s current unheralded favorites. Aidonia, the JOP leader, is fresh off his ’90s rap/bmore/dancehall smashing Bolt Action mixtape and comes with about ten different styles on this one while Riley favors the rougher side of his lover/fighter split. We would not be opposed to these two joining up for more jams—two great emoters demanding they be allowed to grow tons of weed. Who do we have to email to make this happen? The pot farms and the duets.



Download: Aidonia & Tarrus Riley, “Di Trees”

Aidonia & Federation Sound, Bolt Action Mixtape

Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Di-Donia! We’ve kept pretty good track of the steady stream of Aidonia one-offs this summer, but what we’d been hoping for all along was some kind of concentrated full length. Seeing as how Aidonia isn’t even really affiliated with a crew, let alone signed to a label, that was always a lofty wish. Luckily we have friends in high places like Federation Sound’s Max Glazer, who didn’t mind traveling all the way to JA to meet up with Donia to have him voice some of rap’s toughest instrumentals for the closest thing to an Aidonia album as we can hope for right now. Bolt Action utilizes beats like Raekwon’s “Ice Cream” and C-Murder’s “Down 4 My Niggaz” longside classic riddims like “Answer” and “Fat Ting,” which together serve to de-cloak Donia’s grating lyricism in a way most modern riddims just aren’t built for. And like the tape cover’s dismantled gun, Bolt Action is Aidonia redefined, yet ever-ready for warfare.



Aidonia, “Glock A Burst (Helicopter)” from Bolt Action Mixtape

Download: Aidonia & Federation Sound, Bolt Action Mixtape

Aidonia Wants To Be On The Radio (In America)

These two recently released Aidonia songs aren’t for warring or even for daggering (which isn’t altogether not warring), but for love and maybe for proving he can ride a pseudo techno riddim. “Summer Girl,” which features a Chris Martin that sounds more like Chris Brown than the Chris Martin we’ve been missing all these years is way more Angie Martinez than Bobby Konders and Jabba, and a Black Eyed Peas refix seasoned with Donia’s road runner chat is still a Black Eyed Peas refix. Even still, maybe we’ll be able to sneak these into the mix the next time we DJ a Sweet 16 party.



Download: Aidonia f. Chris Martin, “Summer Girl”



Download: Aidonia, “Siddung N Boom Boom Pow (Refix)”

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Ghetto Palms: GP All-Stars/Exclusive Esau Mwamwaya Refix

In the past week almost every damn artist I would consider a signature Ghetto Palms poster-child has represented with crushing new tunes or refixes in a similar vibe (Busy Signal and Erup have both been putting enough overtime lately to be excused from this session.) The common ground is a 120 bpm neighborhood situated somewhere between synth pop and ragga soca, a tempo I have given up trying to name and will simply call the “sweet spot.” Hence, the Ghetto Palms All-Stars blend.

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Freeload: Aidonia, “Nowadays Girl” MP3

Did Aidonia make the dancehall version of “Heartless”? Probably not, because Aidonia claims he doesn’t cry over girls while 808’s and Heartbreak was basically Kanye crying into our headphones for 40 minutes. They might have some similar relationship issues though. “She fall in love with myspace, facebook, and blackberry,” Aidonia sings. What about blogs? Also, when did autotune become this sort of new age relationship therapy? You can’t just sing your problems away, dudes. Believe us, we’ve tried. What we’re not mad at, however, is Aidonia howling “Girl are you crazy!?” over and over again.



Download: Aidonia, “Nowadays Girl”

Jamaican Government Bans Jamaican Music on Jamaican Radio (Basically)

In one of the most brilliant, liberal and open-minded decisions we’ve heard about this side of Burma, the Jamaican Broadcast Commission recently put a ban on “any song or music video that depicts sexual acts or glorifies gun violence, murder, rape or arson.” Of course, the average person would read that and say “good idea, those things are bad,” but the JBC has even banned songs whose explicit content is bleeped or edited from being played on radio and television, leaving almost all dancehall, soca and hip hop ostracized from the airwaves. The ban is meant to confine such music, especially the popular “daggering” songs, to clubs where consenting adults are free to kill, molest and set each other on fire all night long. Maybe we’re jaded by Katy Perry actually making us not want to listen to the radio, but this seems anti-democratic, SO in protest (and because we just found out about it) here is part one of former FADER contributor Jamil GS’ new “Jamaica Originates” documentary series for Chunnel TV starring Mister Hundred Stab Aidonia.

Video: Aidonia, “Ah You/Gal Don’t Bawl”

This JA music television megamix from Busy Signal foe Aidonia features a new riddim, Swarm, produced by Brooklyn’s 77Klash. Vybz Kartel, Lutan Fyah, Roundhead, Jah Mason and some more folks have all voiced the riddim, and Klash is currently in Jamaica getting the 45s pressed up. For more international beat exchanges, check Aidonia’s MySpace for his version of Khaled and Friends’ “We Takin Over.”

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