Search - Various Artists :: Deejays: Classic Reggae

Thanks to the global popularity of hip-hop, there's been renewed interest in the Jamaican deejays of the early 1970s and beyond, who essentially invented rap by talking over records at dancehalls and outdoor fetes. But this liberating, devastatingly inventive music easily stands on its own, no other excuses needed. The Deejays does the practitioners proud. Any collection that includes both genre-setter U Roy and lyricist extraordinaire I Roy is sure to induce paroxysms of pleasure. Toss in the impressively eccentric Big Youth on the deceptively low-key "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing" and add the always reliable Dillinger, and you've got a can't-fail anthology. Kicking off the disc is U Roy's clarion call for the art form he helped invent, "Wake the Town," while Scotty reprises one of the first songs to bring the deejay style to international attention with "Draw Your Brakes," a version of the Wailer's "Stop That Train" featured in the movie The Harder They Come. Kudos to compiler Ian McCann for including one of the earliest examples of the form on record, Sir Lord Comic's 1968 poetry throwdown over a chugging ska riff on the aptly named "The Great Wuga Wuga." --Bob Tarte.