Toronto’s Kings of Kings Productions, which has carried the banner for Canadian dancehall/reggae for almost 30 years, is still in the game. They are looking to score big with the ‘Premier League Riddim’, their latest offering.
It is scheduled for release in July with ‘Speak the Truth’ by Turbulence as the lead single. Orin Allenger, a senior member of the Kings of Kings production team, rates the Premier League as one of the label’s strongest efforts in some time.
“The Turbulence single is a truth an’ rights song as they used to say back in the day. It deals with issues the everyday man can identify with,” he said.
Allenger added that he expects a total of seven artists — a mix of established and emerging — will record on the ‘Premier League’, which is among several projects to be released this year by Kings of Kings Productions. Another is a gospel album from Colin “Iley Dread” Levy, the Jamaican who founded the company in Montreal in 1995.
Since then, he has overseen the release of well-received roots albums by Norris Man (‘Persistence’), as well as the Coolie Man and Martial Arts riddims which were popular among hardcore dancehall fans.
Allenger, who has been a member of the Kings of Kings team since 1999, is a pivotal figure in dancehall-reggae circles throughout the Eastern Caribbean, Guyana and Suriname. He has booked a number of artists including Turbulence, Spice and Skeng for shows in those regions.
