Warming things up for the launch of RuffNeck Fashion this weekend we have another mixup from yours truly–dj TriZlAm.  This selection moves around a bit, much in the fashion that will be on showcase Sunday–featuring vintage sounds from West Africa and the Caribbean with a heavy dose of Trinidad, Colombia and Jamdown in the mix.

I hope to see all of you raggamuffin ruffneck youths this sunday, February 26th at ZuZu–come help us nice up the place and get this thing started out right.

tracklist

Chedtro

Me Te Ase Me Mpe Nsa – Akwaboa’s Band

Tout Cote – Sec Bidens

Bounika – Le Simandou de Beyla

Spanish Amigo – Dennis Alcapone

Double Attack – Lizie & Delroy Wilson

El Alacran – Ray Fernandez y su Corte

Descarga Guajira – Cachao y Su Combo

Serenal – Cyril Diaz and his Orquestra

Gee Bongo Lay – John Buddy Williams’ Band

Busca Perro – La Cumbia Moderna de Soledad

Currucuchu – Emilia Herrera

1st Session – Baba Brooks

Coming up in just under two weeks, myself and Kangsen Feka Wakai will be launching a new monthly party–RuffNeck Fashion at Zuzu in Central Square (Cambridge, Ma).  We already have some great guests lined up for the coming months so mark the date, last sunday of every month.  Here you can find a page with information about upcoming events and a short blurb that Kangsen put together for the event.

…my first record was in ’89 which went number one, called ‘Roughneck Fashion’.  When that went number one, I was like a hustler, a street juggler.  So I had done this record here and never knew what was going on, and then I was hustling on the street and people say ‘that’s the guy that done that tune’.  So I realized I should stop hustling, and then from there I started to do stage shows.  But I was still on the sound for like two years cause that’s what broke me and made me and I won’t forget my roots….

Tenor Fly interview @Musicmnp

photo by P Balasundaram

Here goes another thirty-minute selection, cumbias and more or your musical enjoyment.  For some previous cumbia-heavy mixtapes click here or here.  We are firmly in Colombian territory on the sounds featured here with the exception of a brief excursion into Peru for the Orientales’ La Danza del Mono.

tracklist

Navidad Negra – Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros

La Papera – Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros

Peñata El Cumbiambero – Los Hermanos Tuiran

Cumbia Colombia – Alfredo Gutierrez / Nacho Paredes

La Danza del Mono – Los Orientales

Cabeza de Cholito – Afrosound

Elionora – Miguel Duran y su Conjunto

Cumbia Africana – Cumbia Siglo XX

El Muerto Borrachon – Miguel Beltran y sus Gaiteros

La Yuca Raya – Kammpala Grupo

Una Mañanita – Grupo Naidy

Navidad Negra - Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros / La Papera - Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros   Pedro Laza was a Cartagena native, bassist and leader of Los Pelayeros, the band that he formed in 1952.  These two sides reveal the man’s music in two distinct fashions–between the melancholic and more produced-feeling Navidad Negra and the adrenaline-fueled, carnavalesque La Papera.

Peñata El Cumbiambero - Los Hermanos Tuiran This track takes us back into slower tempo territory with the familiar nostalgic lyrics, shuffling percussion and bittersweet accordions.  Juan and Emiro Tuiran are the hermanos who put together this outfit that has enjoyed much popularity over the years in cumbiacentric circles from Colombia to Mexico and beyond.

Cumbia Colombia  - Alfredo Gutierrez  What can I really say about Alfredo Gutierrez–one of the greats of the accordion that continues to be central figure in the Colombian music scene today. Truly a living legend.  That being said, what really gets me here is Nacho Paredes’ vocals–he kills it with the sparse, call and response laden, slightly mad sounding voice.

La Danza del Mono - Los Orientales  Yes, the mono dance.  This selection from Los Orientales de Paramonga has more of a funky, fuzz guitar thing going as was the fashion at the time in Peruvian cumbia circles.  It comes to me from a compilation on Caliente records named ‘Bailando con la Dolores y con el Sonido Sexicional’ that features recordings from the Dinsa catalogue.  Peruvian outfits like Los Mirlos and Los Destellos were pretty big in Colombia for a time there and spawned a slew of inspired Colombian recordings including the one that we hear next.

Cabeza de Cholito - Afrosound  This track is taken from Afrosound’s ‘La Danza de Los Mirlos’ Lp, a 1973 release that contains two of the group’s better known hits–Caliventura as well as the title track La Danza de Los Mirlos.  Nevertheless, Cabeza de Cholito is the highlight on this album for me, composed by Julio Ernesto Estrada (aka Fruko) and featuring some truly wicked psychedelic guitar stylings towards the second half of the tune.

Elionora - Miguel Duran y su Conjunto  Really I think that the whole mix was an excuse for me to play this track here, so I hope that it was at least worth it up to this point.  I dont know much about Miguel Duran but this track really just devastates.  The loose vallenato style cumbia here is really my cup of tea, and I’m disappointed that I wasn’t checking for more of this kind of stuff while in Colombia.

Cumbia Africana - Cumbia Siglo XX  Back to Barranquilla here with Fernando Rosales’ Cumbia Siglo XX.  The west african guitar stylings start to show themselves on this track, indeed this is a good example of how costeño musicians digested and retransmitted the panafrican sounds that were being played by the picós at verbenas and casetas around Cartagena and Barranquilla.

El Muerto Borrachón - Miguel Beltran y sus Gaiteros And here we find ourselves back in more traditional territory with this gaita from Miguel Beltran.  It can be found on the ‘Felito En Carnaval vol. 1′ Lp released in 1980 by the Barranquilla powerhouse Felito Records.

La Yuca Raya - Kammpala Grupo This track is taken from a split Wganda Kenya / Kammpala Grupo Lp and to be honest I’m not sure whether Kammpala Grupo is its own separate entity, or another combination of Fuentes house musicians being presented as a ‘new’ band (this happened a lot–Fruko, Latin Brothers, Afrosound and Wganda Kenya all consisted mainly of the same musicians).  Either way the marimba, percussion, sound effects and singing create quite a heady combination.

Una Mañanita - Grupo Naidy The marimba vibes continue here, closing out the mix with a fine example of Juga music from Colombia’s pacific coast.  You can find information about the CD it came from, including full, informative liner notes, over here.  I recommend buying a copy if you are interested in hearing more of this pacificolombian music.  It also has the original version of El Botellón that was awesomely updated by Uproot Andy on ‘Bersa Discos #4′.

That concludes this installment of the Ruff Luxury.  Hope you have enjoyed the sounds as much as I do.

El Gran Fidel is one of Colombia’s foundational sound systems—referred to as picós from the English phrase ‘pick-up’—taking its place in the pantheon of Barranquilla’s immortalized picós alongside other heavyweights of the seventies and eighties like El Timbalero, El Coreano and El Rojo.

Originally owned and operated by Jaime Alvarez, El Fidel became known as ‘El Ministro de La Salsa’ dictating sounds and selections at verbenas and casetas (outdor soundsystem events) around the city.  The aesthetic of the picó was decidedly militaristic—drawing on the imagery and reputation of Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution.  The original artwork portrays a powerful Fidel, victoriously riding a camel across the front of the speaker box, with figures or mascots from other picós reaching up, attempting to hold him back or rise up to his level.  The image at once conveys the potency of the picó, and references the well-known photographs of Cuban Revolutionaries riding into Havana in 1959 amidst throngs of onlookers and supporters.   Curiously, the illustrations also draw heavily on orientalist symbology—Fidel rides a camel (not a vehicle of choice in either Cuba or Colombia) from a desert environment containing arabesque architecture and distinctly middle-eastern features, into a more familiar tropical/Caribbean terrain with palm trees, blue sky, and mountains on the horizon.

Arguably, El Fidel—along with its contemporaries—occupies a ‘golden-oldies’ style nostalgic space in Barranquilla’s current day musical geography.  The physical and sonic qualities of picotero culture have evolved significantly through the nineties and into the twenty-first century.  Tube amps, intricate illustrations and coveted Congolese records have in large part been replaced by larger speaker sets, drum machines, live mc’s and modernized champeta music and dance styles.  Still, there remains a veneration and respect for the older traditions that is alive and well among many in Barranquilla who continue to admire the music and culture of yesteryear.

Among these veteran picoteros, vinyl enthusiasts, and melomanos, a space has been carved out for the celebration of this historical culture.  A number of estaderos (outdoor bars/music venues) around the city feature replicas of the golden-era picós, including the legendary venue La Troja, where patrons dance to the sounds of vintage salsa records lovingly selected from the club’s cherished collection of Lps and 45s.  Replica picós have also become something of a hobby for fans, as events, clubs and associations dedicated to building and playing them have popped up around the region.  One such group is ASOREPIK—a collective of verbena veterans and enthusiasts who hold performances and gatherings that feature picós in miniature, playing the placas (similar to what we would call drops) and styles of music made famous by the original sets.  These gatherings range from formal anniversaries dedicated to showcasing the replicas, to neighborhood dances at parks or estaderos where the traditional styles are honored in an informal fashion.  One such event that we attended was a mother’s day dance in Santo Domingo (a working class neighborhood in southern Barranquilla) that featured replicas from Soledad—El Suby and El Melodico—alongside two of Barranquilla’s finest—El Dragon and El Gran Freddy.  These types of gatherings not only serve as a reminder of the musical and aesthetic legacies of picotero culture, but they also offer an alternative social space to the often rowdier, younger crowds that gravitate towards the modern picós.

During our stay in Barranquilla, Carlota and myself had the crazy idea of commissioning a replica picó that we would bring back to the states.  After meeting many members of ASOREPIK, and visiting various events, we were deep enough under the spell of these multi-colored sound systems to undertake the process of transporting one across many miles of ocean to have a small taste of Colombia in cold, drab Boston.  ASOREPIK member and carpenter by trade, Edilberto De La Hoz is a Soledad native responsible for building many of the picó replicas in the area.  Being a devotee of El Gran Fidel, with a beautiful replica of his own, it was only right that we decided on El Fidel for the picó to have him build for us.  So with our fingers crossed that shipping a decorated speaker box to Boston would be possible, we made arrangements for the creation of our own El Fidel (picós are something of a curiosity in most of Colombia, not being widely known outside of the Caribbean coast—one can only imagine the response of US customs to this strange object adorned with a painting of Fidel Castro).

After some pretty difficult last minute maneuvering we were able to pack away the finished product and ship it off just before getting on a plane back to Bogota and eventually to Boston.  A few weeks later our improvised padded box arrived at my doorstep with only minor damage—El Gran Fidel had reached its destination.  Mounting the speakers themselves into the box was not quite as easy as I had envisioned, but within a short time the picó was up and running.  And that is the story of how El Gran Fidel made its way from a yard in Soledad, Atlantico, to an apartment in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

EL GRAN FIDEL  / DJ Trislam, Wayne & Wax, DJ Flack – Tuesday January 31st at Good Life Boston

Many thanks to Jessie P. for the photo at the top of this post, the vintage EL Fidel image comes from the great Africolombia blog courtesy of Fabian Altahona and Lain Camilo Dominguez Ospina

Next week (wed. january 25th) is the return of ‘throwback’ – a biweekly wednesday night affair that I will be making monthly appearances at for as long as my car stays alive.  Come on down to Macri Park in Williamsburg and enjoy the sounds of Group Home, Black Moon, Geto Boys and Al B. Sure.

This latest offering has been a long time coming I have to admit.  Sometimes the most difficult thing to do is to make a mix that doesn’t adhere to strict genre or thematic boundaries, but it really can be one of the most rewarding ways of listening to music.  Genre-hopping in a somewhat geographic manner, these songs in part are testament to the sort of records that can be found in Massachusetts–with Trinidad, Cabo Verde, Haiti and Jamaica all making solid contributions.  They also showcase some of the wonderful sounds of places like Guinea, Martinique, and Colombia.  I could only wish that records from these places turned up around here with some frequency.

Musical vibrations of earth.  Transmitting frequencies live from Ruffluxembourg.

**DOWNLOAD HERE**

tracklist

Lejana Campina – Dexter Johnson et Super Star De Dakar

Sans Humanite – Lara Brothers

Manman La Greve Barré Moin – Hurard Coppet & Max Ransay

Parede Bedje – Bana & Voz de Cabo-Verde

El Golpe Que Dan Los Hombres – Los Autenticos Corraleros de Majagual

Papa Loco – Coupé Cloué

Tara – Camayenne Sofa

Maristela – Azambuja & Cia

Rock On – Gregory Isaacs

Ewa – Dr. Victor Olaiya

Sack Dress – Lord Melody & Marjorie Johnson

Te Olvide – Grupo Cumbia Soledeña

Lejana Campina – Dexter Johnson et Super Star De Dakar  A Senegalese cover of a Cuban Son from the Septeto Nacional, this comes from a four track 45 on the N’Dardisc label.  A really great example of Latin music recorded by West African musicians–there’s something eerie and distant in the sound of the recording that I love and has made this one of my favorite pieces of wax over the years.

Sans Humanite – Lara Brothers Parang comes from the Latin music tradition in Trinidad and is mostly associated with Christmas.  The Lara Brothers are one of the most important Parang outfits of the 20th century (there is a nice page about them here).

Manman La Greve Barré Moin – Hurard Coppet & Max Ransay  Clarinetist H’urard Coppet (pictured at the top) brings the Biguine niceness on this disk alongside Max Ransay on the vocals and the rest of the unnamed band.  I think that I bought this lp in Montreal and wasn’t into it at the time, so it was a nice discovery when I fished it out of storage a few weeks ago.  The album is Sous Le Ciel des Antilles on the Parade label.

Parede Bedje – Bana & Voz de Cabo-Verde An uptempo Coladera selection from the one Bana and the Voz de Cabo-Verde band.  I’ve known of this band for a while from my very minimal exposure to Capeverdean music but recently was happy to find one of their records for cheap at a local spot.  This one is called Penssamento e Segredo and was originally released in Holland.

El Golpe Que Dan Los Hombres – Los Autenticos Corraleros de Majagual When I came back to Boston from Colombia, I had a lot, a lot, of records to listen to.  There was only so much that I could take in at a time, so I tended to ignore things that looked less promising for one reason or another.  It worked out pretty well because I am still discovering albums and tracks that I looked over or dismissed on first listen.  This song has so much of what I love about Cumbia music–everything from the rhythm, the horns, the vocals, is just raw.  There’s no other way to describe it.  Chico Cervantes handles the vocals for the Corraleros supergroup on this 1976 Discos Fuentes release.

Papa Loco – Coupé Cloué  Coupé Cloué really needs no introduction being one of Haiti’s most renowned musicians with a career dating back to the fifties.  Some nice minor key Konpa vibes on this one.

Tara – Camayenne Sofa I don’t know much about Camayenne Sofa except that they were a popular orchestra from Guinea that began as le Sextet Camayenne and recorded on Editions Syliphone–the national imprint based in Conakry.  ’Tara’ is the opening track on the consistent and dope La Percee LP.

Maristela – Azambuja & Cia This song comes from an interesting Brazilian release from 1975 that is a mixture of music and spoken comedy.  The record label is CID, and it turned up in Fall River a few months back.  Southeastern Ma. is a great place to find lusophone vinyl for sure, I just wish I came across albums like this one more often.

Rock On – Gregory Isaacs The Cool Ruler kills it on this Niney the Observer production.  A longtime favorite that I just recently came up on, ‘Rock On’ is an absolutely wicked tune.  The Ziggy Observer 12″ is backed by ‘Jah is Watching’/'Hustling’ by Dennis Brown & Dillinger.  There’s another version of ‘Rock On’ with a more sparse rhythm track that is worth looking out for.

Ewa – Dr. Victor Olaiya  Highlife with Calypso seasoning by Nigerian pioneer Dr. Victor Olaiya.  This one comes from a Dutch compilation from the eighties.

Sack Dress – Lord Melody & Marjorie Johnson Nat Hepburn’s March of the Dimes Quartette and Cyril Diaz’s Orchestra are the backing musicians while Lord Melody and Marjorie Johnson trade verses on this fifties-era Calypso.  Cook Laboratories out of Stamford, Connecticut was responsible for this and a number of other worthwhile Caribbean music releases.

Te Olvide – Grupo Cumbia Soledeña Closing out the mix is Grupo Cumbia Soledeña’s  version of ‘Te Olvide’, originally penned by Antonio María Peñaloza and made famous by the Sonora Curro.  This concludes another installment of the Ruff Luxury mixtape show.  Please do let me know if you enjoy the music.

Another rainy day here in Boston and it’s really beginning to feel like the summer is over.  I can’t say I’m too disappointed to see it go though, the autumn is always one of my favorite times of year.  The last of the harvest, pumpkin ice cream, apple picking, and a frenzied rush to enjoy what little outdoor time remains before the infernal winter sets in.  For me (inshallah) these months will mark the beginning of a new employment, and the newfound ability to afford to go out and buy some wax–but in the meantime in between time I will continue to dip into the Ruff Luxury Record Pantry for more mediafire mixxup madness.  So do enjoy the latest offering, whether its winter, autumn, summer or spring–and tune back in soon for the next installment of A RUFF LUXURY MIXXUP.

In honor of the changing seasons I present to you, friends, a sonic succotash to sooth the senses.  Ital musical stew for your mind, body, and soul.

**DOWNLOAD HERE**

tracklist

Going Places – Hugh Mundell

Unity – Barry Brown

Best Things in Life – Barry Brown

Emanuel Road – Barry Brown

Love Your Brother – Naggo Morris

Love Jah Jah Children – Big Youth

Don’t Think About Me – Horace Andy

Strength & Power – The Uplifter

Free Basing – Ricky Grant

Up-Full One – Dennis Brown

Prophecy – Little Roy

Tomorrow night is the first Boston date of the Dub Invasion Festival—Adrian Sherwood and Brother Culture alongside Subatomic Sound System, Q-Mastah, C Dubs, and General Motor at Good Life.  This promises to be an excellent night of music and for the price of only $5(USD) there’s really no excuse.   The rest of the festival looks equally dope—with a lot of events including a King Tubbys tribute by the Deadly Dragon crew, a film screening, and masterclasses with Clive Chin, Mad Professor and Adrian Sherwood.  Predictably the New York end of things has a lot more going on but I can’t really complain, it’s surprising they even included Boston in the first place.

Back in 2007 I interviewed Brother Culture and was able to catch him perform a number of times during a stay in London.  He is a very talented MC and a really nice, down to earth dude.  Here are some excerpts from our conversation.

How did you get involved in being an MC and what were your early influences?

I started to MC in about 1982, and primarily it was because I loved music, I loved sound systems from when I was in school.  My older sister who was nearest in age to me, her name was Sister Culture and she was an MC, and she used to chat on a sound called Jah Revelation Muzik which was the sound of the Twelve Tribes of Israel—a Rastafarian organization—it was international and this was the like London branch.  So when I left school and I started to go to a lot of dances where my sister was MCing, people would naturally say “special request to Sister Culture’s brother.” Now, I sort of got the name from people because I’m Sister Culture’s brother not because I’m an MC.  And then halfway into 82, you know, I started to rehearse a lot, and get interested in moving with the sound system.  The manager of the sound at the time was a guy called Cecil Reuben; he said to me, “can you MC like your sister? Cause you look like an MC.”  And so I was glad for this and I took it from there, that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.  I was working with Twelve Tribes initially for about ten years, all over the world, between Jamaica, America, Canada, Trinidad, England, I worked with all twelve Tribes sounds—worked with artists like Brigadier Jerry, Sister Carol, etcetera.  And then, about 92, after I’d been MCing for about ten years, I cam back from America, and the whole Twelve Tribes scene had kinda changed in London, and I wasn’t part of the Twelve Tribes sound system anymore.  That’s when I started checking out the UK dub scene, which was kind of having an upsurge at that time in the early nineties.  You had sound systems like Aba Shanti, Iration Steppas, obviously Jah Shaka, many others, too many to even mention.  I started to MC a lot on that circuit because at the time—in the beginning of the nineties—the actual kinda dancehall Jamaican roots which is where I was coming from had become very kind of, uh… the ragga movement had kinda taken over. There was not many spots with spontaneous like MCs, in such dances, but yet there was on the UK dub steppers scene, and I could sort of still go and chat the mic, and as an MC you tend to go where you can do your stuff.   So all in all its about twenty, twenty five years, that I’ve been doing this.

Taking it back even before that, was there a lot of music in your family—aside from your sister?  What kind of music were you hearing at home growing up?

It wasn’t a particularly music family, put it that way, but I have five sisters and one brother, all older than me, so a lot of it was the music they were listening to would influence me.  But when I was really young, when I was, sort of, seven, eight, nine, I was listening to stuff like the Osmonds and Michael Jackson, and David Cassidy, and all these kind of artists, you know what I mean it wasn’t like a purist reggae kind of upbringing.  But the first time I started to really get into my own music, it tended to be reggae music, because the three sisters nearest in age to me were all reggae heads, and they would bring Dennis Brown, or they would bring Dillinger tunes, and Big Youth.  But me personally, when I started to by records, I loved MC records—cause obviously I was an MC—and I was really influenced by people like Lone Ranger—an MC called Lone Ranger from Jamaica—I was really influenced by Brigadier The General, Josey Wales, Charlie Chaplain, Clint Eastwood and General Saint—it was a vast range of MCs that interested me.  So pon a personal level my house, my father would buy tunes by, um. . .  Desmond Dekker for example, my father would have like the whole Trojan “Tighten Up” series compilations—great reggae compilations that came out in the seventies—stuff like that.  But it was my sisters that started to bring sort of the more hardcore reggae into the house.  The Big Youth, and I remember African Herbsman Bob Marley’s album, Natty Dread was a big influence on my development.  And then when I was like seventeen-eighteen I started to get into real kinda English Rasta roots like Aswad, and Steel Pulse.  Not so much Mutumbi, but I researched Mutumbi later on.  Becoming an MC it was a fusion of those influences: Lone Ranger, Bob Marley, Aswad, and then I used to listen to loads of stuff produced by Sly and Robbie, compilations like How the West Was Won.  African Dub is another album that influenced me a lot, so on and so forth.

What can you say about the sound system scene when you were coming up in the eighties and how has it changed since then?

 What’s changed?. . . Well, I can talk about the eighties, cause it was the eighties I became a teenager—or sixteen, sorry—and it was there I started to listen to physical sound systems.  When I was around, like 81-82—I’m from Brixton so obviously my starting point would be Brixton.  Brixton was a place of great sound systems.  Sound systems like Sir Coxsone Outernational, Frontline International, these were king sounds, but there was many sounds in Brixton.  Then you had your West London sounds like Java, One Love, you had your North London sounds like Unity, Fat Man, you had your East London sounds, you had your Nottingham sounds.  But I used to listen to Sir Coxsone Outernational when I wasn’t with Jah Revelation MCing, if I went out to listen to a sound I’d listen to Sir Coxsone; I’d go to clashes with Sir Coxsone and Java from West London.  Java is the sound that General Levy came out of.  Then obviously there was Saxon, I didn’t mention Saxon sound, they were a massive influence on me from an MC point of view.  Because, what happened in England, a lot of the sound systems up to the seventies were mostly following what was happening in Jamaica, this is including the MCs.  A lot of the early MCs used to listen to MCs in Jamaica like Rankin Toyan, Welton Irie, Brigadier, U Roy, and they would more—I don’t mean imitate in a disrespectful way—but it was more like an imitation thing that was happening, whereas when Saxon came to the forefront between sort of 82 and 86, they brought a new dimension whereas they were all English MCs, and they were very rehearsed.  When Saxon played, when you had Tippa Irie, Papa Levi, Rusty, Sandy, Musclehead selecting, Trevor Rankin, it was an organized body of youths.  And this really struck me when I was young that this is how I wanna come rehearsed, I don’t wanna come to the dance and just sort of freelance which is a lot of what the earlier guys used to do—off the top of the head stuff—these [later] guys were coming with like really serious compositions that you couldn’t perform unless they were really rehearsed.  So I took a lot of inspiration from those guys and developed it in the Twelve Tribes, and really became the main MC in the Twelve Tribes for this kind of innovative style—especially using English style cockney lyrics but on roots themes.  Cause Jah Revelation was a Rasta sound, but it had the kinda dancehall element with a Rasta edge to it, it wasn’t like a sort of doctrinal Rasta sound like Jah Shaka, it was more like a kinda dancehall development from Jamaica, but was rehearsed.  And that’s what made Jah Revelation—in my opinion—stand out of the crowd.  But we had great dances in Brixton with Jah Revelation and Coxsone, all these sounds I’ve mentioned.

Who are some of the artists that you have collaborated with?

I’ve worked with so many people but the ones that I’m sort of still working with are Adrian Sherwood.  He’s one of my closest work associates.  The first professional tune I ever made was in 1996 with a reggae artist from Jamaica called Little Roy, he done an album for Adrian Sherwood, and I’ve been working with Adrian Sherwood ever since.  I’ve worked with Manasseh for seven years, “Darker Side of Town” is a Manasseh tune.  I’ve worked with more or less everyone really, I’ve made albums with Aswad, I MC a lot nowadays on European sound systems as opposed to doing PA’s or anything, I go and I’ll do like old-school MC sets on whatever selection they’re playing.  Even though I do PA’s, but I still like to stay close to that kinda sound system thing, you know?  And I’ve worked with some of the best sound systems in Europe, its hard to know where to start.  But the highlight, I MC’d a dance in 1985 in Jamaica called the Khaki Dance.  Everybody had to wear full khaki wear to get in, it was a three day dance in Kingston, and Twelve Tribes members from all over the world came for this, almost like a convention.  And it was great because it was the first time a lot of Twelve Tribes people from different countries had actually seen each other.  And I got to MC with Brigadier General, which is like my teacher, my spiritual leader as an MC—I rate Brigadier General above all MC’s.

A lot of UK artists don’t really get a lot of exposure across the Atlantic.  Do you have any thoughts on why that is.

I don’t know but the first album that I ever made was in America, in New Jersey with a producer called Bullwackie, from Wackie’s studio.  But going back to your point I think its because America is so big, and its so close to the Caribbean, that the influence is gonna be from the Caribbean, it’s as simple as that.  Jamaican artists will be well known in America, and there’ll be lots of homegrown.  But then again Americas different, on the east coast is more of like a sound system scene, on the west coast its more of a band scene, there’s loads of reggae bands on the west coast of America, but it tends to be a very inward-looking scene.  You have to be someone like Mad Professor, Jah Shaka, I can imagine, can go to America and get a certain crowd.  And then you’ve got like the Morgan Heritage, Third World kind of “stadium reggae”.  This kind of thing probably goes down quite well in America because its very Americanized anyway in the way its produced.  But UK reggae artists, apart from Maxi Priest, I can’t think of one that’s sort of made much headway.  Papa Levi back in the days—the MC from Saxon—had one tune that was well known in America, Jamaica and England, “Mi God Mi King”.  But really, I don’t know, I think it’s because Americas so big, and you have to actually be living there.  As an English artist I reckon you’d have to be living in America and be on a certain scene in New York, I know there’s a good roots scene in New York, a thriving kinda dub scene.  But when I was there I was moving with people like, I don’t know if you’ve heard of like this artist called Jamalski, he’s an artist used to work with the Zulu Nation, and he showed me a lot of sort of spots in Manhattan and stuff that was playing reggae.  But, I don’t know, it’s a mystery . . . I think with the internet it might change though, you might see a lot more movement when it comes to vocals and stuff like that, voicing tunes.  I voiced some tunes this week for some Americans, one being Druba, from Brooklyn, and one called Ras Amerlock, from Milwaukee.

Full Interview @ Musicmnp

Looking forward to this one.  I will be playing a set alongside the fantastic Pajaritos, Animal Blanco, and PC//MM at the third installment of Picó Picante.  The last event was a blast with great music from Pajaritos, PC//MM, Oxycontinental and Geko Jones (of Que Bajo?!/Dutty Artz fame) and the next one  will not disappoint–mark the date, I hope to see you there.