Music Banter - View Single Post - REGGAE WEEK: Your favourite Reggae artist and why?

Gavin B. · 08-11-2010, 11:13 PM

It's hard for me to pick a single favorite. I wasn't that impressed by Marley, early on. I think the first reggae artist that really blew my mind was U-Roy, the Jamaican toastmaster. On a visit to Jamaica in 1978m I bought a copy of one of U-Roy's first albums, Jah Son of Africa . It was my first encounter with the deejay dancehall style of reggae. At the time there was no rap or hip hop in the United States, so U-Roy's rhymes were an entirely new thing.

The song below was the title cut and the opening cut on Jah Son of Africa. U-Roy's opening lyric "Way down Nigeria way they're playing Marvin G@ye" really caught my ear. The music is a Sly and Robbie dub of Marley's song Exodus. 32 years later whenever I play this song it's as thrilling as the first time I played this song as a kid, visiting Jamaica with my father in the summer of '78. Link to: Jah Son of Africa

08-11-2010, 11:13 PM	#15 (permalink)
Gavin B. Model Worker Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1,248	It's hard for me to pick a single favorite. I wasn't that impressed by Marley, early on. I think the first reggae artist that really blew my mind was U-Roy, the Jamaican toastmaster. On a visit to Jamaica in 1978m I bought a copy of one of U-Roy's first albums, Jah Son of Africa . It was my first encounter with the deejay dancehall style of reggae. At the time there was no rap or hip hop in the United States, so U-Roy's rhymes were an entirely new thing. The song below was the title cut and the opening cut on Jah Son of Africa. U-Roy's opening lyric "Way down Nigeria way they're playing Marvin G@ye" really caught my ear. The music is a Sly and Robbie dub of Marley's song Exodus. 32 years later whenever I play this song it's as thrilling as the first time I played this song as a kid, visiting Jamaica with my father in the summer of '78. Link to: Jah Son of Africa Last edited by Gavin B.; 08-11-2010 at 11:19 PM.