Release Date: October 9, 2007 (Original) / November 24, 2017 (Anniversary Edition) Stream the restored album and live sessions on all major platforms. Vinyl reissue available via VP Records/Gargamel Music.
The closest the album comes to a crossover hit. A deceptively simple metaphor: life as a journey in a taxi. Buju plays both the passenger and the driver, pleading for guidance. The hook—”Driver, driver, carry me home”—became a street anthem, proving that roots reggae could still move the masses. Buju.Banton-Inna.Heights.-10th.Anniversary.Edit...
The original is a celebration of Kingston’s gritty magic. The anniversary dub removes the vocals for the first verse, leaving only the echo of Buju’s ad-libs and a swirling melodica. It’s hypnotic and heartbreaking—a ghost track that foreshadows the legal troubles that would soon engulf the artist. The Legacy: A Blueprint for Redemption ‘Inna Heights’ did more than revive Buju Banton’s career. It opened the floodgates for the “roots revival” that followed in the 2010s. Artists like Chronixx, Protoje, and Kabaka Pyramid have all cited this album as the moment dancehall youth realized that Rastafari consciousness and modern swagger could coexist. Release Date: October 9, 2007 (Original) / November
The death of his mother, the loss of key collaborators, and a growing spiritual dissonance led him to a crossroads. Instead of doubling down on club bangers, he retreated to the studio to record a love letter to the golden age of reggae. The result was ‘Inna Heights’ —a title that serves both as a geographical marker (the hills of Jamaica) and a spiritual one (heights of consciousness). Where most dancehall productions in 2007 were leaning into digital, synthetic beats, ‘Inna Heights’ went analog. Produced primarily by Donovan “Don Corleon” Bennett and Buju himself, the album is drenched in live instrumentation: rolling, meditative basslines, skanking guitars, and layers of Nyabinghi hand drums. A deceptively simple metaphor: life as a journey in a taxi
Listen to it loud. Listen to it on a good sound system. And as Buju says on the closing track “Hail the King”: “Though the journey gets rough / Inna heights, we find the love.”