Spice and Vybz Kartel, who debuted on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart last week, aren't on this week's list.
Spice debuted at number six on the chart last week with the VP Records-produced 10, while Vybz Kartel debuted at number nine with his latest album, Born Fi Dis (Prelude). Music critics are concerned about the less than spectacular sales and steaming performance of two of the most popular Jamaican artists. Some are attributing the performance so far to the production values of the two albums.
There is also the issue of American reggae acts selling better than their Jamaican counterparts. Noted American journalist Patricia Meschino at a conference in Jamaica a few years ago argued,
"In today's world, there are so many ways to get access to music that album sales have been falling all round, but when you compare the sales between a Chronixx (Jamaican) and, say, the band SOJA (from Virginia, USA), the numbers are significantly higher in favor of SOJA."
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