Charly Black ADD

Review

Album Review: Konshens - Pool Party

06/27/2025

by Munchy

Crazy politicians, wars and conflicts, stress and depression – every day we’re faced with struggles and challenges, both globally and personally. Enter Konshens – your musical lifeguard, here to hit pause on the world burning, on a mission to give you a break, throwing a Pool Party as therapy. For his latest album, he cooked up 16 tracks, a genre-blending ride with vibes for many moods and something for any fan from every corner of the world. You’ll get your dose of dancehall, but he’s also throwing in some Afrobeats and a splash of hip hop. Old school purists will appreciate the slightly tweaked version of the classic Bookshelf riddim by Tony “CD” Kelly for the track Bad Man and bounce heads will recognise their 1998 fav by Juvenile, Mannie Fresh and Lil Wayne that Konshens turned into Back Dat Azz Up, proving he can spit rapid-fire dancehall lyrics over just any beat.

Modern and fresh instrumentals were contributed by producers like BomboCat, Markhize, Track Starr and Toast hitmaker IzyBeats. Some songs come in light and breezy, others hit with a hypnotic, sensual vibe, and a few get deep or carry an almost sombre tone like Money Dealings. There are sing-along anthems such as the hilarious, sunny, pop-driven So Many featuring comedian Lil Duval and the long-awaited reward Deserve It All taking listeners on the journey from “bare hard work, ah never no luck” to “the house, the cars and living like the stars”. Bold dance instructions like Bend and the mystically exotic Shek It for the confident dancehall queens are mandatory, and some cheeky shots are fired at haters and bad mind: “I see you watching my story and I know you don’t like me”. To round it up vocally, Konshens invited colleagues such as Charly Black, Moyann and Eric Bellinger to his Pool Party. With Skillibeng and D’yani he’s giving a platform to young talents from Jamaica and on the dark track Battle Zone, veteran rap star The Game delivered the perfect counterpart with his deep, distinct voice, dropping powerful lyrics about the ever-ready grind in life’s battlefield.

With his sonically and lyrically multifaceted new album, Konshens has effectively emerged from years of “tragedies, trials, and the losing of the passion”, as he admits in an interview, into a comeback era or what he calls “another rebirth” in the intro of Our Father, the spiritual and emotional opening track. Pool Party might just be more than therapy for its listeners – it’s also proof that the artist himself is back in his “own lane” where music and the process of creation is concerned. He put his heart into this body of work and crafted music in a pure way, simply trying a style here, flowing with the vibes there, singing whatever the beat told him to – without overthinking and calculating too much. Even though he doesn’t consider it his responsibility – yes, the lifeguard dress on the cover is just because it looks super cool and that cannot be denied – he actually had the desire to be the person “to provide a little time out, a smile”. And yes, we’re smiling!

---

Release details