Secret History of Rock. The Most Influential Bands You've Never Heard (33 page)

U-ROY

Super Cat [from Reggaematic website]:

All ah we come from where Daddy Roy live, you know. Josey Wales is living in Kingston, you know. So is Super Cat, so is Bounty Killa, so is Beenie Man, so is Admiral Baity, so is Early B, so is many many more who come from that era there, you understand. Daddy Roy was the founder in the corporate metropolitan Kingston area in that time. So all the little youths who ah go to school, who love music and respond to musical vibes, was inspired by [him].

While rap music can be tied to a long and varied line of African-American oral tradition, the specific style of rapping that developed in hip-hop music – with spoken rhymes over prerecorded dance music – can be most directly traced to Jamaican talkover music, where a disc jockey rhymes along to the records he spins. The first DJ to popularize talkover was U-Roy, whose audience – rousing rants and amusing shout-outs to the popular songs he played at parties – and eventually released commercially – defined the art of deejaying that young Jamaicans like Kool Here brought with them to the Bronx in the mid-‘70s. And in applying U-Roy’s talkover style to American funk music, these immigrant turntable showmen essentially became the first rappers.

DJ Spooky (Paul Miller):

U-Roy was the first hip-hop MC, really. He was a huge influence. Especially I loved his vocal inflection and the way he rhymed, the rhythm patterns and the way he mixes his voice into that.

Though most current rappers are too far removed from U-Roy to be aware of their debt to him, makers of rap’s Jamaican equivalent (actually a precursor) – a style called dancehall – openly acknowledge U-Roy as “The Originator” of their toasting style. Popular dance-hall stars such as Shabba Ranks, Buju Banton, and Super Cat, as well as reggae-flavored American rap groups such as Spearhead and the Fugees, have been directly influenced by U-Roy’s vocal style. And U-Roy’s earliest recordings – which are essentially previous hits with U-Roy’s vocal track added – provide a clear historical context for notorious hip-hop recyclers like Puff Daddy.

U-Roy was born Ewart Beckford in 1942 and grew up in a Kingston, Jamaica, shantytown. By his late teens, he had become involved in the world of sound systems, the popular mobile DJ setups that traveled the Jamaican countryside playing the latest R&B and ska records. These sound systems would announce locations where they were setting up outdoor dances (not unlike the more recent raves), and it was the DJ’s job to offer the best mix of music while he entertained and inspired audiences to dance with funny, often rhythmic, banter known as toasting. Jamaican DJ toasting, introduced in the ‘50s by Count Machouki, was an outgrowth of the flamboyant announcing styles of radio DJs in the southern U.S.

Wyclef Jean, the Fugees:

For me, U-Roy was definitely one of the founders of that toasting style. I grew up with all that stuff, because my uncle had a sound system. I’m not Jamaican, but I grew up with Jamaican music.

As a DJ during the ‘60s, U-Roy developed his toasting style with sound systems such as Dickie’s Dynamic, Sir George Atomic, and the popular Coxsone’s Downbeat Sound System. With
King Tubby
’s prestigious Home Town Hi-Fi sound system in 1968, U-Roy developed a reputation for a toasting style that was more clever and inventive, as well as faster, than any other DJ around. By 1969, when U-Roy entered Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle studio to record his toasts, popular DJs such as King Stitt had already released their own talkover recordings. It was U-Roy’s string of hits in 1970, though, that made talkover a commercially viable style that would spawn numerous U-Roy imitators and evolve into both dancehall and rap. His
Rule the Nation
,
Wake the Town
, and
Wear You to the Ball
– all recorded over
King Tubby
dubs that removed vocals from popular songs – simultaneously occupied the top three positions on the Jamaican music charts.

Michael Franti, Spearhead:

U-Roy was probably one of the first people to every really rap on a record. To take a dub plate and put his own lyrics on it, and put it out as another record. Which is what people are doing today with sampling.
Wake the Town
is a wicked track.

U-Roy’s huge popularity can be attributed, in part, to his use of familiar backing tracks. But more, U-Roy built on the nonsensical scatting of previous DJs with eccentric catchphrases like “This station rules the nation with version” (familiar to American pop audiences through its adaptation on Musical Youth’s “Pass the Dutchie”) and humorous running commentary to bits of the original lyric (such as “did you hear what the man says, baby? Dig my soul brothers and soul sisters!”). As younger toasters such as I-Roy and Big Youth emerged to further advance the style he’d introduced, U-Roy became known as Daddy Roy, or simply “the King.”

In 1975, U-Roy signed with British label Virgin, who introduced his music to larger audiences than ever before. By then, U-Roy had embraced Rastafarianism and his lyrics had taken on the more spiritual slant heard on
Dread in Babylon
and later releases. Back in Jamaica, he also began his own Daddy Roy Sound System, which introduced other top DJs such Charlie Chaplin and Josey Wales. Now in his late fifties and living in Southern California, U-Roy continues to record and perform around the world.

DISCOGRAPHY

Dread in Babylon
(Virgin 1976; Caroline, 1991)
; U-Roy’s first album available outside of Jamaica.

Natty Rebel
(Virgin 1976; Caroline, 1991)
.

Rasta Ambassador
(Virgin, 1977; Caroline, 1991)
.

Version Galore
(Front Line, 1978)
; this collection features many of U-Roy’s early hits, and offers a good taste of the original “talkover” style.

Jah Son of Africa
(Front Line, 1979)
.

Crucial Cuts
(Virgin, 1983)
; a collection of the best tracks from his Virgin records.

Music Addict
(RAS, 1987)
.

True Born African
(Ariwa, 1991)
.

Rock with I
(RAS, 1992)
.

Smile a While
(Ariwa, 1993)
.

3 Pack
(Caroline, 1994)
; a three-CD box set retrospective.

Original DJ
(Caroline, 1995)
.

Your Ace from Space
(Trojan [UK], 1995)
.

Babylon Kingdom Must Fall
(Ariwa, 1997)
.

LAST POETS

Darryl McDaniels, Run-D.M.C.:

When I look back on the things I heard, I see the Last Poets as inspirational on us as rappers and composers. They were the first ones to keep it real, to deal with the attitudes and emotions of what was going on in society. They were the first ones to inspire you to speak out and not hold it back. Express your opinion. By them doing what they did, it helped us do it on record. We’re using the same heart, the same expression.

Though it was not necessarily the most direct antecedent of today’s rap music, the Last Poets’ technique of laying rhythmic poetry on a beat provided early hip-hoppers with an important example of how vocals could be used to confront social issues and raise black consciousness. By the late ‘80s, groups like Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, and Michael Franti’s Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy were drawing direct connections between their music and what the Last Poets had done two decades earlier. Yet perhaps the Last Poets’ example as a band of writers and vocalists working under one unified name was even more important than their message in laying the groundwork for the modern rap group.

Michael Franti, Spearhead:

The Last Poets may not have invented rap, but they were definitely there when rap was being invented. The idea of storytelling and talking over a beat is something they advanced. It’s important to look at those pioneers and see that when rap was coming out as an artform it wasn’t just all about trying to get ahead and make money. Voices were reaching out and saying things, because they weren’t being said somewhere else. They brought a voice to people who weren’t being represented. I definitely dug what they were doing. It wasn’t just singing or rhyming, you could get out there and say what you want on top of a beat, and say it in a poetic fashion.

The three original Last Poets first performed together in May of 1968, at a Malcolm X birthday celebration in Harlem. They were three distinct individuals, all products of their time: David Nelson ran an antipoverty program and was closely involved with the black students’ movement at Columbia University. Gylain Kain was a downtown bohemian poet in the mold of one of the group’s direct predecessors, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones). And Charles Franklin Davis – who would soon adopt the Yoruba religion and change his name to Abiodun Oyewole – was the middle-class product of upward mobility whose belief in integration had been severely shaken by the assassination of Martin Luther King only a month earlier.

The trio extrapolated their name from South African writer K. William Kgositsile, who wrote that the time for poetry would soon end as the revolution begins. “The goal was to revolutionize the world using poetry as our weapon,” Oyewole says. “To make people wake up before the shit hit the fan.” Such noble intentions required more than the strength of a single writer. “Poets are generally individuals, set aside from everyone else. But to put three strong individuals together was saying the problem is such where we have to bring ourselves to some collective to address it.”

Afrika Baby Bam (Nathaniel Hall), Jungle Brothers:

The Last Poets influenced me from a cultural standpoint. Communicating to me what was going on around the times I was born. They educated me about the way society was and to a certain degree still is. Just the spirit of the music is what influenced me to write the way I write.

Sammy B, Jungle Brothers:

My parents listened to it, and that really influenced me because they were really into the black movement and I was really exposed to it at a young age.

As the Last Poets’ popularity grew through performances and workshops, the possibility of recording arose. But as Kain vehemently opposed the capitalist notion of becoming a “recording artist” and Nelson returned to community organizing, only Oyewole was left to carry on the Last Poets name. By 1969, he’d brought in two new poets who had been hanging around the group: Omar Ben Hassen and Alafia Puddim. It was this new trio that Alan Douglas (Jimi Hendrix’s producer) first saw on community television, and it was Douglas who first brought the group in to record their poems and chants on record.

With Douglas, the trio recorded two albums –
The Last Poets
in 1970 and
This Is Madness
in 1971 – that would forever secure their reputation. Featuring the African-styled conga of percussionist Nilaja and the group’s incessant chanting, the poets took turns reciting revolutionary verse to a beat. Tracks like
Niggers Are Scared of Revolution
,
White Man’s Got a God Complex
,
Time
(later sampled by A Tribe Called Quest), and
Run, Nigger
(sampled by N.W.A.) seethed with a passionate commitment to the struggle for black empowerment. Despite radical, often inflammatory language, the Last Poets’ reputation spread by word of mouth in the black community. Even without a mainstream breakthrough, the debut reached #29 on the Billboard album charts in 1970.

Wyclef Jean, the Fugees:

That was a major influence. Conscious rap. It made me be aware of what I’m saying. Listening to the Last Poets was like street poetry. It taught you a lot of things you didn’t know.

By
This Is Madness
, though, Oyewole had dropped out (as he says, “Words weren’t enough, I needed to be directly involved”) and original Last Poets David Nelson and Gylain Kain believed that Puddim and Ben Hassen were unqualified to carry on the group name. With Puerto Rican poet Felipe Luciano, Nelson and Kain formed a second Last Poets, who documented their work in the film
Right On!
before dispersing shortly after. By 1972, Ben Hassen had left his version of the Last Poets as well.

That left only Puddim, renamed Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin after converting to Islam, to carry the Last Poets through the ‘70s. Along with fellow poet Suliaman El-Hadi, the group released albums such as
Chastisement
and
At Last
, which introduced increasing amounts of instrumental accompaniment and singing to the spoken word – a style they called “jazzoetry.” During this time, Nuriddin also recorded work under the name Lightnin’ Rod that, while less revolutionary, was at least as influential. Following an earlier recording of the traditional toast “Doriella Du Fontaine” that featured Hendrix on guitar, Lightnin’ Rod released an album in 1973 called Hustler’s Convention. The album – long epic tale of a street-player gathering featured the funk accompaniment of Kool & the Gang, as well as other known musicians. With its more danceable accompaniment and colorful story, the record became a favorite of New York deejays in the mid- and late ‘70s, when it was undoubtedly owned and heard by the founding fathers of hip-hop.