Beenie Man’s fourth album for Virgin seemed to follow the same recipe as its predecessors: a few well-tempered singles and more mainstream features with label-mates. By choosing the title "Undisputed", the "Doctor" set the bar fairly high and ultimately pulls it off rather well. Beenie comes in effectively, mixing singing and fast toasting on Undisputed, which takes the sample of Courtney Melody’s Dangerous in a version that skilfully blends the original riddim and the Modern girl riddim. On the singles front, we’re spoilt with the inevitable Jonkanoo, even though the danceable Chaka dance was preferred to the controversial A nuh me, the unbridled Hmm hmm, the album’s official single, with Girl in combination with Akon, Come again on the Sweat riddim or Heart attack on Firelinks’ Global, which are assuredly the album’s high points.
But "Undisputed" also offers some well-made tailor-made tracks. The two tracks produced by Scott Storch are among them: while Dutty wine girl, a duet with Brooke Valentine, takes the obvious opposite tack to the RnB one might have expected, the more hip-hop Jamaican ting lets Beenie Man lay down a "reality" lyric that smells of 90s nostalgia. Despite a few obligatory passages, including an unconvincing detour into reggaeton, with Voltio’s collaboration, a "one drop" with My woman and a duet with his wife D’Angel in which she mostly just makes up the numbers, the rest of the album heads into energetic dancehall. Take the duet with Lady Saw, the danceable Walk out or the rather hardcore Set you free, which stay very faithful to the genre’s best standards.
Without being the masterpiece Beenie Man seemed to be aiming for, this "Undisputed" is well balanced and entertaining. Moses’s flows and lyrics still hit the mark, and if he remains untouchable, it is mostly thanks to the exposure and promotion he enjoys. Enough to cement his status as an international star of Jamaican music, without losing his most authentic sides.
