Rastafarianism carries within it a built-in political framework, and Babylon is a diagnosis of our corrupt system and the matrix of oppression, not a metaphor. Babylon Dead’s third album Death Upon Dem sees no distinction between the spiritual war between good and evil and the political realities of life on Earth in 2026, raging against Babylon clearly and fiercely, whilst also being a fun and absolutely sick hip-hop record.

Their sound sits at a perfect intersection of ragga toasting and dancehall emcee tradition, and gritty boom bap. Illinformed’s production is jazzy, murky and nocturnal throughout with eerie samples creating a world that’s rooted in both soundsystem tradition and the lineage of the most politically charged hip-hop America ever produced. Jman is a remarkably versatile emcee who at points sounds as gruff and commanding as Elephant Man while at others he’s firing triple time rhymes with the breathless precision of Ocean Wisdom, moving between modes back and forth. Literate in both the Jamaican tradition and tight hip-hop, he clearly sees them as expressions of the same tradition, which of course they are. Crash and Burn opens the album with cold blooded boom bap, and Flex On employs a trebly synthesiser lifted from Snoop and Dre. Out Here, featuring Wyatt Earp on a chorus about burning weed to deal with the stresses of life and then being criminalized for it, is a massive highlight and Bare Burial is so murky and unsettling it recalls Massive Attack and The Bug. Buss a Shot brings classic UK hip-hop energy sounding like something Foreign Beggars might have put out, and then Run sees Jman listing everyone who needs to run. Pedo run. Rapist run. Racist run. Babylon run. Chant Down is hype as hell with a proper bounce, while Gully is extremely stoned. Death Upon Dem is fiercely political, extremely versatile, really fun, and means serious business.