Dance & Sweep! - Adventures of the Energy God

After flirting with crossover on the 2008 Bad Boy release Let’s Get Physical, singer Elephant Man returned with Dance & Sweep!, a fully Jamaican-flavored effort, from its crazed comic book cover art to its full-on love of breakneck-speed dancehall. Following an especially bombastic intro, the kinetic “How We Do It” raises its glass in the air, toasting all Jamaicans who like over the top club nights on Friday with Elephant rapping at a million miles a minute, make it all look “e-e-e-e-easy” as the infectious hook declares. The guest on the cut is dancehall don Bounty Killer, and elsewhere it's island folk like Ding Dong and Kardinal Offishall instead of the R&B stars of last time out. American and European styles still have their influence as the ace “Party Up in Here” features that Taio Cruz sheen, while the closing “Let Me Be the Man” acts like an answer song to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” as Elephant offers to “put a ring on it” during the album’s lone slow number. You do have to wait to the end for the artist to “bring it down a little,” so don’t expect the usual up-and-down pacing. After all, it does say “Energy God” right on the cover, and since he lives up to that title on the title cut, the massive Jamaican hit “Nuh Linga,” the naughty club track “Wine and Dip,” and pretty much everywhere else, you’ll just have to prepare accordingly. Bring lots of fluids, because Dance & Sweep! is an aggressive and authentic blast of dancehall.