Four years after 'Royal', which earned him a Grammy nomination back in 2022, Jesse Royal returns with 'No Place Like Home'. For this album, Royal teamed up with producers like Yungg Trip, Sean Alaric and Andre 'Dretegs' Hawthorne, who gave the record a more urban edge than its predecessor.
By Jah Rebel
‘Blessing’, a duet with Yohan Marley, had already been released as a single and was initially conceived as a tribute to the late Jo Mersa Marley, who passed away in 2022. But after Jesse narrowly survived a car accident just days before this album’s release in August, its message - “Listen! It’s really a blessing, every time you open your eyes, your greatest possession is life!” - takes on a much deeper meaning.
The militant opener ‘Trod On’ closes with excerpts from a speech by Burkinabe leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré, a figure who has quickly become a popular Pan-African hero.
Things turn razor-sharp in ‘Jungle Justice’, where Royal and Kabaka Pyramid take a fierce stand against child abuse and violence against women:
What coulda mek you molest the little youth dem?
Little waste man, you gonna talk to my Gen 5
No weh a jail no de deh to fit dem
We set the laws
Rope chain for them
The next thing, if a woman you a kill
We a go soak you in gas, light you, and roll you down a hill
Target practice
Jungle justice
Break the Richter scale, this is not a fire drill
…
The title track, ‘No Place Like Home’, naturally serves as a heartfelt ode to Jamaica, though it inevitably brings to mind the famous song of the same name from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ (1939).
‘Light of Mine’, which features the children’s voices of the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, reimagines the American gospel classic ‘This Little Light of Mine’ from the 1920s, ending with a touching exchange between Royal and the kids that recalls Lauryn Hill’s ‘The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill’.
The album’s most infectious cut, however, is without a doubt ‘Too Late’, a breakup tune featuring Canadian soul singer Melanie Fiona. Royal wraps things up introspectively with ‘Kinda Like Me’, an afrobeats-flavoured collaboration with Perfect Giddimani that finds him affirming self-acceptance:
I kinda like me
I kinda like me
Now you don’t have to agree, but I kinda like me
Me nah change fi nuh money, fame, nor popularity
But when I look up in the mirror
I kinda like me
…
Varied and refreshingly original album that once again confirms Jesse Royal as one of the leading voices of contemporary Jamaican music.
Founder alongside Jah Shakespear who transitioned to this role in late 2014. Previously worked as critic and reporter, balancing passions for music and Haile Selassie spirituality.
October 4, 2025