Akae Beka’s (aka Vaughn Benjamin) inimitable style of rich, deep, multi-layered songwriting, uncompromising devotion to Rastafari, and soulful healing melodies developed over decades of performing with St. Croix-based band Midnite and countless recordings.

At the point of his untimely passing in 2019, he had released over 70 LP’s. He is without a doubt one of the most prolific reggae artists ever known. The stellar production trinity that is Zion I Kings have been involved collectively and individually in creating some of the most highly regarded contributions to the
vast Akae Beka/Midnite catalog. Beauty For Ashes was not only a contender for the best reggae album of 2014, but it was also the most popular, most played, and most purchased reggae album of the year according to iTunes. A monumental achievement for undiluted, uncompromising RasTafari roots reggae music this side of the millennium. Two of the LP’s tracks, Weather the Storm and Same I Ah One, have been catapulted into global notoriety in part due to the viral success of the YouTube video of the
‘Dub in the Rainforest’ session organized in St. Croix by Tippy I in 2014. The video offered an unparalleled audio-visual insight of the powerful, captivating, energy of Vaughn Benjamin, Pressure Buss Pipe, Ras Batch, and many of the bredrin and sisterin of St. Croix rallying around the I Grade Dub living dub experience.

Following 8 years of anxious anticipation, for the countless Akae Beka fans that are also vinyl connoisseurs, this LP is now being released as a 12” vinyl LP courtesy of Before Zero Records. This offers the listener not only the chance to enjoy this LP in an analogue form, but also the chance to hold the artwork as a 12” square masterpiece, created by the hands of Ras Marcus, the artist who gave the powerful visual presence that became synonymous to much of the I Grade / Akae Beka works over the years.

Beauty for Ashes, a 10 track studio album (46m 23s), will be released 7th October 2022 on 12” Vinyl (UPC: 5050580782648).