The first day of the second quarter of 2016 has presented us with 'Portals', the second official album from Akae Beka and the first Akae Beka/I Grade Records collaboration. Their next stop? I Grade Records and the Zion I Kings. Fast forward a year on and Akae Beka has wonderfully continued the WELL established routes of Midnite. Last year the newly named Akae Beka released their debut 'Homage To The Land' (which was the album that had 'Just Decided' on it) (easily one of the strongest tunes I've heard from anyone last year) for frequent Midnite stop, the reputable Fifth Son Records and for the first time in recent memory, at least that I can think of from the top of my head, that was the lone album release of the year. It is the most fertile of ground for an over-thinker like myself and I ADORE digging through the material and the journey to comprehension. These days I now look forward to doing all of that and much more and a brand new piece of work from Benjamin, despite his often gruesome release schedule, is one I anticipate unlike any other on the even remotely regular musical radar. And looking back, that's probably what was missing - why I was unable or incapable of enjoying his output as much as I do now when I was younger.

There has to have been some type of education and you have to have done your homework and brought your texts with you to class.

In order to fully appreciate his work, at least in my opinion, you have to bring something to the proverbial table. As a still relatively new listener in the HEAVY sense, while I do find just about all music that I enjoy to be therapeutic writes, Benjamin's work is even more so than most because he virtually always presents his listeners with several challenges. I'll claim to be no expert (on anything - I'm not even an expert on myself), but I've probably written more about the musical works of Midn- Vaughn Benjamin than anyone. More specifically, I love to write about the wholly unshakeable and downright wildly fascinating music of Midn. well, I probably COULD but I shouldn't and my Wife probably wouldn't want me sitting here for hours and hours but if you do look around here just a little, you'll notice that I do so LOVE to write and one of my absolute favourite topics to write about is Reggae music. I can't do it as much these days as I'd like to.

Igrade professor