Dread in a Babylon
Richard Burnett
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The self-dubbed "ace from outer space"
photo: Courtesy Montreal International Reggae Festival
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Rap originator U-Roy finally gets respect where respect is
Jamaican legend U-Roy is now 67 years old and has never been busier. And after nearly 50 years in showbiz, the world is finally catching up to the Godfather of Jamaican Dancehall and American Hip-Hop, and giving respect where respect is due."You just have to get good rest, keep your body intact or you can fall apart," U-Roy tells Hour with considerable understatement. "When you reach my age, you have to do more to keep going."
Fresh from headlining 25 concerts in Europe last month, U-Roy is resting back home in Jamaica before the next leg of his endless world tour, which brings the Godfather - the living legend who invented modern rap - to the all-new Montreal International Reggae Festival next week.
"You have to be in shape to survive, to live and feed your family," U-Roy explains. "You have to be prepared to go to war."
LIGHT A FIRE
Born Ewart Beckford in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1942, U-Roy began as a sound system DJ in 1961 ("sound systems" were set up on the streets of Kingston to play dance music for crowds). Inspired by his idol, legendary Jamaican DJ Winston "Count" Matchuki, U-Roy would go on to work for King Tubby's Hometown Hi Fi Sound System, where U-Roy developed the whole modern DJ style.
Later he worked for producer Duke Reid's Treasure Isle Records, where U-Roy was a disc-cutter, discovered dub and found that by dropping the vocal track and remixing the remaining rhythm tracks, he could create new versions of older hits - now a time-honoured Jamaican tradition.
"The
space left by the absent vocal tracks enabled U-Roy to improvise his own jive-talk raps or toasts when the sound system played dances," the Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae explains. "The effect in the dancehall was immediate and electrifying."And that is how dancehall music was invented.
But U-Roy would cement his place in music history with the world's first rap record, his 1969 remix with Duke Reid of the Paragons' Wear You to the Ball.
"I had no idea [I was making history]!" U-Roy says today. "I was just doing my work! I feel really good about it all because I never expected 40 years later I was going to be the man on top."
If U-Roy is only getting his just rewards and accolades now, the music world still hasn't acknowledged that Jamaica didn't just invent reggae, but reggae's chart-topping hybrid dancehall music, which was later ripped off by American rappers and became hip-hop.
"No, they [American rappers] don't pay enough respect," U-Roy says. "They think they are the ones who originated rap and I never heard of a rapper in America in the 1930s [unless] you wanted to copy Louis Prima. But those singers were not rappers. It was started down here in Jamaica.
"I was doing it as a kid. When I was 12 [in 1954] and used to love listening to Count Machuki. He had this great timing in his speech. When I was 14 I asked my granny if I could go to a dance and sometimes she'd let me go. The DJs would say a couple words over the mic like I do. But back then we never had 16-track tape recorders and stuff. So when I started a riddim, I'd have to [rap] from the top to the end. If you stopped you had to start over."
PASSING THE TORCH
Contemporary reggae rappers from Bounty Killer to Elephant Man, as well as all American rappers from Grandmaster Flash to Eminem, owe a huge debt to U-Roy.
Unlike so many entertainers who rap live-to-track, though, U-Roy prefers performing live onstage with a full band. "With real people you can talk to the band, you can change the riddim," U-Roy says. "It's spontaneous."
Audiences worldwide have come to expect that spontaneity. Along with his impeccable timing and conscious lyrics, it is what defines a U-Roy set.
"The first time I went to France 30 years ago was so important for me because I was surprised how people who did not speak English sang my songs!" U-Roy recalls. "That was amazing!"
Much like in America where James Brown - the most-sampled artist in hip-hop history and another of U-Roy's musical idols - was crowned The Godfather, in Jamaica U-Roy has been crowned "The Originator." It's a title and honour that U-Roy wears proudly.
"I feel good!" U-Roy says happily. "To be honest, I never thought all these years later that people around the world would still be listening to me! I feel blessed - blessed to still be a part of it all."
Stur-Gav Sound System with DJs U-Roy, Brigadier Jerry, Josey Wales and Charlie Chaplin
At the Montreal International Reggae Festival, Parc Jean-Drapeau, June 26
Info: www.montrealreggaefest.com
Let us not miss the fact entirely on who invented the RAP or SING-J STYLEE. Whoever invented it U-Roy came in and improved it beyond boundaries. He is truely a genius and so natural. someday some others will come in and do it their own way. Yeah, others are good too. Music goes on forever !! That is it. ONE LOVE.
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Naseem El-Nafaty
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He may be one of rap's predecessors, and among the numerous influences that paved the way for rap's invention, but he did not invent it any more than Cab Calloway, Lord Buckley or Gil Scott Heron invented it. This sort of specious, sloppy revisionist history does hip-hop AND its predecessors a disservice.
Also, Grandmaster Flash was not a rapper.
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Jay Smooth
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