Yellowman is no stranger to vinyl; avid bin-burrowers can probably track down a score or more of his albums on various Caribbean labels. King Yellowman is the albino reggae rapper's first release on a major American label and may represent the first mass-marketing in the U.S. of "toasting" - largely improvised raps spoken or half-sung over a spare, sultry, bass-heavy backing. The result sounds better and more varied than any of Yellowman's early records that I've heard.

Yellowman butters his toasts with testaments to his own virility, snippets from other songs, political ruminations, whatever. For example, he cleverly insinuates Toots Hibbert's skanky reworking of "Take Me Home Country Roads" into his kickoff track, "Jamaica Nice," an examination of the various climates - weather and political - of England and Jamaica, while the languorous "Ooh We" features a wholesale cop from "Sea Cruise."

"Strong Me Strong" breaks out of the format a little, dazzling with crisscrossing rhythm lines, courtesy of such players as Material's Bill Laswell on bass. Elsewhere, hard-core fans may lament the lack of Yellowman's more lubricious lippery, though "Mi Believe" ain't too stuffed-shirt ("When it comes to girls, I get them with ease/No bumping, no boring, I don't get no quease"). And those familiar with hip-hop will tap into the party exhortations of "Reggae Calypso."

But Yellowman turns out to be more than a Toastmaster General; he has quite a way with a straight love song. And though, unfortunately, Yellowman has a circumscribed view of women ("You can't do what the guys do"), his erotic, slightly sad "Still Be a Lady" might be reggae's most romantic track since Bob Marley's "Is This Love." "You be the wife, I be the husband/'Cause Yellowman a nice obsession." True enough. Joan Mondale is among those who've already lauded Yellowman's art. I hope he plays at the inauguration. (RS 424)

CHRISTOPHER CONNELLY