It was shortly after I first started streaming the old Dread Broadcast Corp. programming that I first encountered Ras Kush via some NYC club website in 1999. I was amazed, in amongst the techno, house, etc, to discover a selecter playing all Wackies music, so much beloved by the D.B.C. back in the day. With some difficulty I made contact and, after some delay, Ras Kush eventually showed up on my door. It turned out he was freshly returned from Japan. Wackies had just, via the offices of Ras Takashi, formed a Far East Chapter, and Black Redemption Sound had been called upon to visit and wave the musical flag. Ras Kush gave me a tape of one of the Japanese sessions and that became the first of many of his sessions to grace the streamola bitwaves.
Unlike the other Sound System session tapes featured thus far this one is not common. I’ve no idea where it came from. Sturgraph aka King Sturgav was a, if not the, top sound in Jamaica in the early 80’s, and even toured internationally. Listening to this it’s quite possibly from a UK visit, since it features Daddy Colonel and Josey Wales who both became big names in the UK. Another indicator is the content – which appears to come from the early ease’n’seckle portion of a dance – where serious social topics like unemployment are addressed.
Here’s another of those classic sound system tapes – this time it’s King Jammy’s system playing out at Walkerman Lawn in 1987. MC’s/singers in the area like Major Worries, Frankie Paul, Tulloch T, Little Twitch.
Kush brought in this sound system tape, a classic of the genre and widely circulated, of Stereophonic playing Skateland. It is credited as a ‘V.Black Production’. Recorded in 1980 in the early days of the slackness boom certain sections – particularly the famous General Echo automobile metaphor – are definitely NSFW. Other MC’s/singers representing are Brigadier Jerry, Sister Nancy, Django, Madoo, and Barry Brown.
