Forward March... From August 1962 to August 2012 and join the celebrations - Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of independence. You can join the original celebrations with Derrick Morgan, Jimmy Cliff and chums as the colonial shackles are cast aside. But you gotta run and hide from the Rude Boys as armed gangs of ‘Dance Crashers’ in the employ of Soundsystem men and politicians ‘dem a loot, dem a shoot, dem a wail... ah Shanty Town’ and cause ‘Trouble in the Town’. http://sharemyplaylists.com/ska-rude-boy-45s
Listen to the people’s backlash against Rudies as Judge 400 Years (Prince Buster) & Count Lasher come up with a politically conservative solution. Surely ‘Better Must Come’, tempers are cooled and Jamaica enjoys its Mowtown era with the likes of Delroy Wilson jamming the dancefloors during the Rocksteady years. http://sharemyplaylists.com/rocksteady-collectors-edition
The visit of His Highness Haile Selassie to Jamaica in ’66 moved both politics and music radically. Hear the rise of Bob Marley & Rastafarism as the disillusionment of crooked politics and crippling IMF loans take hold and Rastas focused themselves on Africa. Marley appeals for Jamaican’s to ‘Get Up, Stand up’...they got up, stood up and left.
Over 300,000 Jamaicans emigrated in the ‘70s, their experience beautifully vocalised by Eric Donaldson’s version of ‘Common People’. They left not for Ethiopia, but for the UK, US and Canada. They took with them the sounds of Marley and made him a Rock God in the UK. The race was on for the corporate record industry to find the next Marley, ‘Natty Dread Taking Over’ the Jamaican record industry. http://sharemyplaylists.com/rootsrockreggae
Back home the Rasta movement’s influence was instrumental in returning the People’s National Party to power in a bloody campaign which saw ‘Police & Thieves’ in the street and despite the PNP’s radical Socialist reform the IMF stranglehold and Columbia’s drug guns kept ‘Children Crying’ in the wilderness. It was time for the ‘Righteous Rasta Man’ to “no deal in politics”.
Jamaican music developed a new style after the violent 1980 election. Jamaica had been independent for 18 years - a watershed. A landslide victory for the conservative JLP re-established trade links with the US. This opened up new ‘trade routes’ for Columbian coke too, the Yardies were moving stateside.
A new sound emerged in an attempt to ‘crack’ the US market (something even Marley had failed to do). Jamaican DJ’s and Soundsystem operators simultaneously invented both karaoke and rap music by ‘toasting’ rhyming lyrics over voiceless established riddims or dubplate versions. ‘Living In Jamaica’ meant establishing a new voice- Dancehall Dj’s were ready to replace the established reggae groups - ‘Another One Bites The Dust’.
The growing audience in the US & UK were still desperate for the genuine sounds of Jamaica. Digital recording technology and the growing gangsta rap movement shaped reggae into modern Dancehall. Jamaican’s had to ‘Pay Down Pon It’. Corporate record labels had short term success turning dancehall into pop with ‘Oh Carolina’, Shabba & Chaka Demus but gangsta was ‘Bossman’ and the island’s music continues to be an ethnic branch of the US gangsta rap movement. New Roots rastamen continue to produce conscious sounds but find ‘Youth Dem Cold’ to the teachings of Selassie. Is reggae on ‘Death Row’ ?
Derrick Morgan – Forward March
Count Lasher – Jump Independently - Original
Lord Creator – King & Queen
Jimmy Cliff – King Of Kings - 2nd Version
Desmond Dekker & The Aces – 0.0.7 (Shanty Town)
Dandy Livingstone – Trouble In The Town
Derrick Morgan – Tougher Than Tough
Prince Buster – Judge Dread
Count Lasher – Hooligans - Original
Delroy Wilson – Better Must Come
Delroy Wilson – Once Upon a Time
Bob Marley & The Wailers – Selassie Is The Chapel - 1968 version
The Abyssinians – Satta - Amassa - Gana
The Wailers – Get Up, Stand Up
Eric Donaldson – Love of the Common People
Culture – Natty Dread Taking Over
Horace Andy – Money the Root of All Evil
Junior Murvin – Police & Thieves
The Congos – Children Crying
Cornell Campbell – Righteous Rasta Man
Jah Thomas – Living In Jamaica - Original
Clint Eastwood & General Saint – Another One Bites The Dust
Yellowman – Wreck A Pum Pum
Shabba Ranks – Pay Down Pon It
Buju Banton – Murderer
Bounty Killer – Man Ah Suffer
Shaggy – Oh Carolina
Chaka Demus & Pliers – Murder She Wrote
Sizzla – Murderer
Beenie Man – Bossman (Feat. Lady Saw & Sean Paul)
Richie Spice – Youth Dem Cold
WASP – Unfair Officer
Busy Signal – Wicked Man
Vybz Kartel – Death Row
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