RhoDeo 1141 Roots

Hello, we're still on that island with a huge place in the global music catalog, Jamaica. A production hothouse and they say the Weed makes you slow and lazy-go figure. Without the ganja driven reggae music Jamaica would have remained a Caribbean backwater and dare i say would never have given us Bolt, the fastest man in the world.

The Jamaican music hotbed shows what can happen if creativity is set free (mindexpanding weed) and left to it's own (de)vices, hundreds of artists, dozens of producers and a handful of studios created an enormous output unrivaled per capita. Only now with the freeing of production costs are we seeing anything like it in the west. Ok so today it's toasters/deejay time with a producer/musician, Augustus Pablo and the man who put toasting on the map, U Roy

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Horace Swaby (June 21, 1954 – May 18, 1999), a committed Rastafarian, better known as Augustus Pablo, was a reggae and dub record producer, melodica player and keyboardist, active from the 1970s onwards. He popularized the use of the melodica in reggae music. He was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica and learned to play the organ at the Kingston College School. It was at that point an unnamed girl lent him the melodica. Fascinated by the instrument, Pablo rarely put it down.Swaby recorded early tracks including "Higgi Higgi", "East of the River Nile", "Song of the East", and "The Red Sea" between 1971 and 1973 for Chin-Loy's Aquarius Records.

"East of the River Nile", a unique blend of East Asian and Jamaican sounds, became a moderate hit. He soon joined Now Generation (Mikey Chung's band) and played the keyboard with them while his friend Clive Chin began his own career as a record producer. Pablo and Chin recorded "Java" (1972) together. This instrumental was a massive hit and launched Pablo's solo career. He recorded with Chin and various others, including Lee Perry. He scored another smash hit with "My Desire" (John Holt).

Pablo formed the labels Hot Stuff, Message and Rockers (named after his brother's soundsystem, Rockers), and released a steady stream of well-received instrumentals, mostly versions of older hits from Studio One. Pablo's 1974 album, This Is Augustus Pablo was recorded with Clive and Pat Chin. This was followed by a collaboration with the legendary reggae engineer King Tubby, 1975's Ital Dub. In the later 1970s, Pablo produced a steady stream of hits, this period was eventually commemorated with critically acclaimed LPs including King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown (1976) and Hugh Mundell's classic Africa Must be Free by 1983. This was followed by East of the River Nile (1978), Original Rockers (1979) and Rockers Meets King Tubby in a Firehouse, another acclaimed hit album.

In the 1980s, Pablo's career slowed significantly. In 1980, he appeared on the soundtrack of the documentary D.O.A. He had begun to establish an American audience and released Rising Sun in 1986 to good reviews and sales. Pablo also produced memorable hits, in addition, he toured extensively throughout the world, making a memorable live album in Tokyo in 1987. That same year, Rockers Come East re-established his career and he began to release a series of critically acclaimed though somewhat inaccessible albums in the 1990s, including Blowing With the Wind and also producing several.

Augustus Pablo died as a result of a collapsed lung on 18 May 1999. He had been suffering for some time from the nerve disorder Myasthenia gravis.

Augustus Pablo – Presents DJs From 70s And 80s (flac 166mb)

01 Dillinger – Take It Easy 3:06
02 Augustus Pablo – Dub 3:00
03 Jah T – El Rocker 2:41
04 Augustus Pablo – Rocking Dub 2:06
05 Jah Levi – False Rumour 2:52
06 Augustus Pablo – Real Rock 2:55
07 Jah Levi – Zion A Fe Lion 2:36
08 Augustus Pablo – Bob Shuffle Lion Dub 2:49
09 Jah Bull – Guide I Jah 3:26
10 Augustus Pablo – Lion Of Judah Dub 3:31
11 Jah Levi – Let Jah Be Praised 2:54
12 Dillinger – Braces A Boy 2:49

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U-Roy (born Ewart Beckford, 21 September 1942, Jones Town, Jamaica), also known as The Originator. His musical career began in 1961 when he began deejaying at various sound systems. This included a stint operating Sir Coxsone Dodd's Number Two set, while King Stitt "The Ugly One" ran the main set. U-Roy eventually worked with King Tubby at Duke Reid's Sound System in the late 1960s. Around this period, King Tubby had started to experiment with his studio equipment in an attempt to create new effects and sounds, which would eventually lead to a new style of Reggae called dub music. With U-Roy as his most prominent deejay, King Tubby's new sound became extraordinarily popular and U-Roy a local celebrity.

Calling himself, "your ace from outer space", U-Roy revolutionized the musical style of reggae in 1969. Even though U-Roy was not the first microphone artist, he was the first to gain recognition through recording this style. U-Roy popularized and gained a wider audience for "toasting"; rapping over "versions" of popular songs remixed by King Tubby. Considered one of Jamaica's first Deejay stars, "U-Roy raised the art of toasting to new heights.

U-Roy's success continued throughout the 1970s, perhaps most famously with the album Dread in a Babylon, produced by "Prince" Tony Robinson and propelled by the album's skank smash hit "Runaway Girl". By the early 1980s he had become one of Jamaica's biggest stars, also garnering significant acclaim in the United Kingdom.

U Roy – Version Of Wisdom (flac 309mb)

01 Your Ace From Outer Space 2:32
02 Rule The Nation 2:32
03 Honey Come Forward 2:49
04 Version Galore 3:09
05 Things You Love 2:43
06 Wear You To The Ball 2:30
07 On The Beach 2:38
08 Rock Away 1:53
09 True Confession 2:34
10 Everybody Bawling 2:17
11 Wake The Town 2:27
12 Words Of Wisdom 2:38
13 Treasure Isle Skank 2:40
14 The Same Song 2:59
15 Tide Is High 2:42
16 Hot Pop 2:33
17 Tom Drunk 2:08
18 Drive Her Home 1:49
19 Merry Go Round 2:51
20 What Is Catty? 2:48

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