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Chronixx VibeZ

Twenty-nine tracks from the singer who led a generation of Jamaican musicians back towards roots reggae when the industry had written it off entirely.

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Chronixx

Jamar McNaughton is the central figure in what became known as the reggae revival — a loose movement of Jamaican artists who emerged in the early 2010s playing roots reggae with live instruments and Rastafarian themes at a moment when dancehall had dominated the island's output for two decades.

His father is the singer Chronicle, so the name is a deliberate lineage joke. What made Chronixx more than a revivalist is that he never pretended it was 1977: his records use contemporary production values, and his writing engages directly with present-day Jamaican politics, policing and class rather than with an inherited iconography.

The voice is the other thing. It is high, slightly nasal and enormously expressive, and he phrases like a singer rather than a chanter, which is part of why the music travelled so far outside reggae's usual audience.

What to listen for

"Smile Jamaica" is the calling card and the record that announced the whole movement — a love letter to the island that is also, carefully, a criticism of it.

"Here Comes Trouble" is the biggest song here and the one that broke internationally.

"Skankin' Sweet" and "Spanish Town Rockin'" come from Chronology (2017), the Grammy-nominated album, and both are as good as modern roots reggae gets.

"Who Knows" with Protoje is the movement's defining collaboration — the two leading figures of the revival on one track, and it became the most widely heard record either of them made.

"Black Is Beautiful" is the most direct statement of purpose, and "I Know What You Feelin'" is the most soulful.

"Majesty", "Spirulina" and "Likes"-era material show the Rastafarian discipline running through everything — diet, media, self-possession — and "Loneliness" and "Pain in Your Heart" are where the writing is most vulnerable.

"Champion" and "Survivor" are the ones to play loud, and "Never Give up" in the 2025 remaster is the early single revisited.

Go deeper

Chronology (2017) is the essential album and Dread & Terrible (2014) is the EP that made his reputation.

For the rest of the revival: Protoje, Kabaka Pyramid, Jah9, Koffee and Lila Iké. Protoje's Ancient Future is the other essential album from this scene.

Why it is not nostalgia: the instruments and the themes are inherited, the production values and the politics are entirely present-tense. That combination is what separates this from a revival act — the records engage with contemporary Jamaican policing, class and media rather than with an imagined 1977, and they sound as though they were made this year because they were.

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