Stitchie originally performed as a secular dancehall reggae singer. He recorded three albums for Atlantic Records and one for Shanachie under the name Lieutenant Stitchie. In 1997, a serious car accident almost took his life. The tragic event had the singer contemplating his mortality and wondering where he would spend eternity. It was the beginning of a huge life transformation. During the next two years, the chart-topping artist attended Bible college and diligently read his Bible. He started writing only Christian songs and in 2000 released his first Christian album, Real Power, with Lion of Zion Entertainment. On June 9, 2002, Stitchie won the Outstanding Male Reggae Vocal Performance of the Year award at the Sixth Annual Caribbean Gospel Music Marlin Awards ceremony.
All Music-Diana Moes VandeHoef.

Dunbar and Shakespeare linked in 1975, but by then they’d already become established figures on the Jamaican scene. Lowell Charles Dunbar was nicknamed Sly for his adoration of Sly Stone, and in his teens had begun his career in the late ’60s playing in studio bands. For a while he was a member of the RHT Invincibles, a group led by Father Good’un that included such talents as Lloyd Parks, Bertram McLean, and Ansell Collins. The group cut several singles, but none were particularly successful. Dunbar would have better luck with his studio work and made his recorded debut with the Upsetters on the single “Night Doctor.” Producer Lee Perry was obviously impressed with the young drummer and consistently used him in the studio. Even so, Dunbar continued with his outside interests, joining Skin, Flesh & Bones, a group led by Al Brown that boasted the drummer’s old compatriot Lloyd Parks. In 1974, the drummer and fellow bandmember Ranchie McLean launched a short-lived label, Taxi, which focused mainly on the group’s and its members’ own material. Meanwhile, Shakespeare was also making a name for himself. He too had launched his career as a sessionman in his teens and by the early ’70s was a member of producer Bunny Lee’s house band the Aggrovators.

Inevitably, the two youths had crossed paths during this period — both were born and bred in Kingston and were only a year apart in age (Dunbar is the elder). Over time, both had worked with virtually all the major (and minor) artists on the island. It was producer JoJo Hookim who eventually brought them together when the two separately joined his studio band the Revolutionaries in 1975. Their partnership grew slowly and their first work together was on Jimmy Cliff’s Follow My Mind that same year. The duo then, oddly enough, was also asked to produce the established French singer Serge Gainsbourg’s 1975 album Aux Armes et Cætera. It was a bizarre pairing for all concerned, but the sessions went so well that the duo not only produced the singer’s next album, they also agreed to accompany him on his French tour.

1976 was even more dramatic. Sly & Robbie oversaw Culture’s seminal Two Sevens Clash album, one of the greatest albums of the roots age. The pair’s productions were slowly beginning to gain international acclaim, and joining superstar DJ U-Roy’s backing band for his U.K. tour brought them further recognition. Before the year was out, the duo had also appeared on Peter Tosh’s Natty Rebel album, inaugurating a four-year relationship that saw them accompany the former Wailer on tours around the States and Europe. Meanwhile, their session work back in Jamaica with Hookim continued apace, while Shakespeare also continued playing with the Aggrovators. However, their rising prominence is made clear by Leroy Smart’s 1977 Super Star album, whose musician credits proudly boast Robbie Shakespeare & the Aggrovators and Sly Dunbar & the Revolutionaries. The Heartbeat label has released two compilations that feature the Revolutionaries’ phenomenal work for Hookim’s Channel One label. 1989′s Hitbound! The Revolutionary Sound of Channel One features some of their most legendary work, with artists like Horace Andy, Junior Byles, the Mighty Diamonds, the Meditations, and Black Uhuru. The Mighty Two, ostensibly a compilation of Errol Thompson’s and Joe Gibbs’ greatest productions, also features the group at their best, backing the likes of Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown, Prince Far I, Culture, and many more. 1978 brought the legendary One Love Peace Festival, where the Revolutionaries accompanied Tosh’s electrifying performance. The set was recorded for posterity and released in 2000 by the JAD label.

Having worked ceaselessly over the last couple of years, Sly & Robbie had carefully put aside every penny they could. Now they finally had enough to open their own label, Taxi, the name nicked from Dunbar’s long-defunct first co-effort. A studio needs a house band, and the men built it logically enough around members of the Revolutionaries. The Taxi All Stars (aka the Roots Radics) included guitarist Rad Bryan, percussionist Sticky Thompson, and keyboardists Ansel Collins and Winston Wright. The label was inaugurated with Black Uhuru’s “Observe Life,” the start of another crucial relationship. Taxi quickly garnered its first chart hit with Gregory Isaacs’ classic “Soon Forward.” From thereon, Taxi was an unstoppable force on the Jamaican scene. The Island compilation Present Taxi showcases a dozen of the label’s early singles and includes Junior Delgado’s masterpiece “Fort Augustus” and the hit “Merry Go Round” as well as the Wailing Souls’ “Sweet Sugar Plum” and “Old Broom,” alongside crucial cuts from Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs, the Tamlins, former Unique Jimmy Riley, DJ General Echo, and more. Notable omissions include the duo’s work with Max Romeo and Prince Far I.

Sly & Robbie weren’t content to merely produce other artist’s work, however, and the pair continued their outside session work. Before the decade was out, the Riddim Twins, as they were now being called, were providing the pulsing rhythms for albums from such legendary vocalists as Bunny Wailer, the Mighty Diamonds, Jacob Miller, and myriad DJ stars including General Echo, Ranking Dread, and Barrington Levy. And this still wasn’t enough for Dunbar, who also released several solo singles and a pair of solo albums, Simple Sly Man and Sly, Wicked and Slick. However, their most crucial work was in conjunction with Black Uhuru, who, throughout this period, had recorded a stream of seminal singles for Taxi — “Shine Eye Girl” and “Plastic Smile” among them — which would be gathered up for the group’s Showcase album. Across the group’s powerful albums — Sinsemilla, Red, and Tear It Up — Dunbar’s heavy beats and Shakespeare’s sinuous bass, the heart and soul of the Revolutionaries’ sound, lie at the core of Black Uhuru’s music, while the duo’s throbbing, deeply dread production perfectly twined round the group’s own phenomenal vocal performance. This partnership reached an epiphany on 1982′s Chill Out, the album that rocketed the Riddim Twins to international renown and took them on a tour opening for the Rolling Stones as part of Black Uhuru’s backing band.

Meanwhile, as the new decade had dawned, Sly & Robbie inked a Taxi distribution deal with the Island label. Island head Chris Blackwell then hired the Jamaicans to work with avant-garde singer Grace Jones. The results — a sparse, funky, dubby, but robotic sound, led by Dunbar’s fascination with the new Syndrums — set fire to dance clubs around the world and impacted across the new wave scene. The pair’s fascination with dub was also growing, with their first excursions into the genre appearing on the flip sides of singles released in 1981. The following year’s Crucial Reggae: Driven by Sly & Robbie compiled an album’s worth of instrumentals and deadly dubs onto one convenient disc. This was followed in 1985 by the equally devastating A Dub Experience, another bundle of earth-shattering rhythms. Across the early part of the decade, Sly & Robbie worked with a dizzying array of artists, including the cream of the DJ crowd. Frankie Paul, Sugar Minott, Charlie Chaplin, and Half Pint all released seminal cuts overseen by the duo, while their work on Johnny Osbourne’s 1983 Osbourne in Dub is of particular note.

In 1984, the U.K. CSA label brought together this set with Black Sound Uhuru’s Love Crisis dub companion, Jammy’s in Lion Dub Style, which was also remixed by the duo. Even the re-formed Skatalites came knocking at their door and the end result was The Skatalites with Sly and Robbie and the Taxi Gang. Sounds of Taxi, Vol. 1 arrived in 1984, a label sampler of Taxi singles, B-sides, and dubs; a second and third volume would follow over the next two years. The Heartbeat label would later release the Taxi Fare compilation, an excellent entry into the world of Sly & Robbie, while Sonic Sounds’ Many Moods Of focuses the spotlight on the duo’s dubs from this period. The pair’s close connection to the dancehalls and their ever more experimental electronic sounds, coupled with Dunbar’s virtual desertion of his drum kit for Syndrums, foreshadowed the rise of ragga, and in reality, Sly & Robbie’s productions provided the blueprint for the eventual rise of ragga and the digital revolution. This was particularly evident on the pair’s own instrumentals, credited to either Sly & Robbie or the Taxi Gang and often titled in reference to Taxi itself — “Unmetered Taxi,” “Taxi Connection,” “Maxi Taxi,” and the witty “Rent a Car.” Here the pair show off their genius, perfectly welding together rocksteady tempos to a totally contemporary sound. Dunbar’s mechanized beats were so far afield from what others were creating as to be off the map entirely, while Shakespeare’s sinuous bass adds a rich organic feel to the sound. Together the two created a style utterly unique, with rhythms taut and menacing enough to rampage through the dancehalls, but still so organic as to hold the roots crowd in its thrall.

The duo was quick to champion upcoming talent, notably Ini Kamoze, and were there to assist producer Bobby Digital’s rise to stardom. Their generosity also helped launch George Phang to fame, for in return for a favor the Riddim Twins gifted the producer with a clutch of their own rhythms. With them, Phang would create such hits as Barrington Levy’s “Money Move,” Sugar Minott’s “Rydim,” Frankie Paul’s “Winsome,” and many more. Sly & Robbie threw their weight and rhythms behind many more producers during the latter part of the ’80s. Gussie Clarke, Phil “Fatis” Burris, Clive Jarrett and Beswick “Bebo” Phillips, and Myrie Lewis and Erroll Marshall all owe much of their success to the duo’s deadly rhythms, which helped their releases to flood the dancehalls and the charts. However, the pair continued to garner the attention of vocalists. Sly & Robbie were an integral element of Toots Hibbert’s Toots in Memphis album and, with Bunny Wailer, co-produced Marcia Griffiths’ “Fever” single. But their attention was not focused exclusively on Jamaicans, and over the years Sly & Robbie have consistently worked with artists far removed from the reggae scene. The duo has employed their talents with such unlikely artists as Joe Cocker, Joan Armatrading, Ian Dury, Bob Dylan, Robert Palmer, the Rolling Stones, and Herbie Hancock. The breadth of their productions and playing seemingly knows no boundaries. Arguably the best showcase for this diversity can be found on the Hip-O label’s compilation Sly & Robbie in Good Company, part of the label’s Ultimate Collection series. The album boasts 17 tracks that hit virtually all the pair’s poles, from roots to dancehall, DJs to veteran vocalists, and on to their more unusual assignments over the years.

Meanwhile, even as the ragga scene gained steam, Dunbar continued to play live drums, but not for much longer. 1988′s The Summit was the last album from the duo to do so. This was just one of a long line of albums of Sly & Robbie’s own work that had spilled forth since the beginning of the decade. The duo’s debut, Sixties, Seventies + Eighties = Taxi, appeared back in 1981. As its title slyly suggests, the album boasted a surprisingly eclectic batch of covers from the earlier two decades. Sly-Go-Ville and Kings of Reggae followed swiftly on its heels over the next two years. Both were excellent albums, but 1985′s Language Barrier was a more acquired taste. Overseen by Bill Laswell, Sly & Robbie’s integral rhythms clash unhappily with Laswell’s creative productions, which offer little sympathy for beats. Better were The Sting and Electro Reggae, which followed Language over 1986 and 1987. The following year Sly & Robbie joined forces once again with Laswell in another masochistic studio exercise, which resulted in the very aptly titled Rhythm Killers. Much more entertaining was Taxi Connection Live in London, which arrived that same year. 1988 brought the aforementioned The Summit, overseen by Fattis Burrell, a game plan for the electronic revolution that was about to shake the entire dancehall scene. The next year’s Silent Assassin was equally prescient, a deadly dub-rap hybrid that featured a guest appearance from hip-hop heroine Queen Latifah.

The new decade opened with DJ Riot, a title that accurately summed up the album’s intent. In 1992, Dunbar formed a new production team with Peter Turner and Maureen Sheridan and a second one with Bedrose & Malvo. With the former pair, he would oversee such artists as Junior Reid and Sabre, while the latter grouping would work with the likes of such up-and-coming DJ stars as Spragga Benz, Mad Cobra, and Snagga Puss. In a very different vein, Dunbar would also oversee a clutch of revivalist religious recordings. But even with all this outside activity, Dunbar and Shakespeare’s relationship remained solid and extremely active. The pair has produced some of dancehall’s leading lights, overseeing hit singles and albums by Shabba Ranks, Chaka Demus & Pliers, Beenie Man, and Luciano, among many, many more. 1996′s Hail Up the Taxi conveniently bundles up the best of the pair’s productions and session work from the first half of the decade. Their own recordings have remained equally strong. Perhaps as a brief respite from the dancehalls, in 1992 the pair released Remember Precious Times, a sublime album of covers of roots and reggae classics. Still under the spell of Laswell, Sly & Robbie joined him yet again for Mysteries of Creation, but for those who have yet to acquire a taste for the producer, the mystery remains why the pair continue recording with him.

A flood of albums appeared during the rest of the decade: The Punishers, Mambo Taxi, Babylon I Rebel, Reggae Dancehall, Friends, and Present Taxi Christmas were all released between 1996 and 1998, as Sly & Robbie took on movie and TV themes, dub, and dancehall, brought their mates into the studio, and celebrated Christmas to boot. In 1999, they entered a strip club videocam in hand for Strip to the Bone, which married striptease to devastating dub. Dub was also the point of entry for Massive and Dub Fire. From there it was into jazz, when the pair collaborated with Monty Alexander for the Monty Meets Sly & Robbie album. The Riddim Twins have also continued to record on a regular basis, both as the crucial bottom end for others’ work as well as their own music. Another slew of Sly & Robbie releases followed in the early 2000s, culminating with 2006′s Rhythm Doubles, which was nominated for a Best Reggae Album Grammy.
All Music-Jo-Ann Greene.

Sizzla was born Miguel Collins on April 17, 1976, and was raised in the August Town area of Kingston by devout Rastafarian parents. After honing his vocal skills, he landed a gig with the Caveman Hi-Fi sound system, where he first made a name for himself as a performer. He cut his first single for the small Zagalou label in 1995, and soon moved on to Bobby “Digital” Dixon’s Digital B imprint. However, he didn’t manage a breakout success until saxophonist Dean Fraser recommended him to producer Philip “Fatis” Burrell. Sizzla released a series of singles on Burrell’s Xterminator label, including “Judgement Morning,” “Life’s Road,” “Blaspheme,” “We Uh Fear,” “I’m Not Sure,” and the Shadowman duet “The Gun.” His first LP, Burning Up, appeared on Xterminator later in 1995, and he toured extensively alongside Luciano and Mikey General. Unlike kindred spirits Capleton and Buju Banton, Sizzla’s early material was culturally oriented right from the start; he was able to build an audience without any of the lyrical slackness that helped establish the other two.

Creatively speaking, Sizzla really came into his own with the release of his second album, the Burrell-produced Praise Ye Jah, in 1997. Widely considered one of the top conscious dancehall albums of its time, Praise Ye Jah was quickly trumped by the release of the Dixon-produced Black Woman & Child that same year. The title track was a smash hit and became something of a cultural reggae anthem. Sizzla scored several more hits during 1997, including “Like Mountain,” “Babylon Cowboy,” “Kings of the Earth,” and the Luciano duet “Build a Better World.” This hot streak kicked off an enormously productive recording binge that lasted over the next several years, with much of his output still done for Burrell.

1998′s Kalonji was issued in the U.S. under the title Freedom Cry, and featured the successful singles “Love Amongst My Brethren” and “Rain Shower.” No less than three albums — Be I Strong, Good Ways, and Royal Son of Ethiopia — appeared in 1999, with Be I Strong achieving the highest profile among them. 2000 brought three more albums: the double-CD Liberate Yourself (which featured one disc of Sizzla material and another of his protégés), Words of Truth (which featured a bonus live disc), and Bobo Ashanti, a well-received, highly spiritual set with a stronger hip-hop flavor. Refusing to slow down, Sizzla issued four more albums in 2001 — Black History, Taking Over, Rastafari Teach I Everything, and Blaze Up the Chalwa — and often displayed a harder edge and a willingness to embrace digital production. That approach changed in 2002, when he concentrated on softer, mellower, more romantic material, which dominated that year’s albums Ghetto Revolution and Da Real Thing. Two more albums, Light of My World and Rise to the Occasion, appeared in 2003. Soul Deep was released in 2005, with both Ain’t Gonna See Us Fall and Waterhouse Redemption landing a year later. All Music-Steve Huey.

He hung on with the Federals across the next two years and a string of failed singles, he and Spence then forming the Chosen Few with singers Noel “Bunny” Brown and Richard MacDonald. In 1970, the group received some positive exposure as backup vocalists on Hopeton Lewis’ single “Boom Shacka Lacka,” and broke out on their own with “Psychedelic Train,” a single produced by Harriott, that topped the Jamaican charts in 1970. It was with Harriott that Scotty emerged as a popular DJ personality on records, his witty and charming persona appearing on more than half a dozen chart hits over the next year, including the single “Sesame Street” (credited to “Scotty & the Crystalites”), and he made it onto the soundtrack of The Harder They Come in 1973. Scotty’s solo single “Riddle I This” was also selected as the leadoff track for The Trojan Story, Vol. 2 when it came time to present that label’s history in the late ’90s.

In 1974 he moved to the United States, establishing a record company and recording studio in Florida. His career faltered later in the decade, and he resumed recording in the 1980s in Jamaica without much success. He had started recording again in recent years and was working on an album for Studio One at the time of his death from prostate cancer in early 2003 at age 53 (some sources say he was 51). All Music-Bruce Eder.

Banner became interested in music early in life and began to try his hand at songwriting. Early on, he sang in St. Andrew. By the late ’80s, he was working on the single “Life Goes On” with Winston Riley, a producer who also sings with the Techniques. The song earned him a large number of fans and led to the recording of a similarly named album. Producers began to sit up and take notice, among them Bobby Digital and Philip “Fattis” Burrell, and he was off and running with his recording career. Island Jamaica offered Banner a recording contract in 1993. The following year he put out Now & Forever, and two years later the company released Chill. The album benefited from the input of experienced producers Sly & Robbie and the Jamaican Music Awards honored the effort by naming it the year’s Best Produced Album. The release spawned several successful singles, among them “Universal Love,” “Cheater,” “What We Need Is Love,” “Michelle,” “You Gotta Be,” and the title track. Banner supported the release with tours that took him to the U.S., Europe, Africa, and Great Britain.

By 1997, Banner had put out the album Clean Up Your Action and had established a label of his own that he dubbed Sweet Angel. The new label issued his Lover’s Story album the following year, and it spawned another hit single, “Ladies Man.” Goldfinger worked as producer on a trio of the recording’s tracks. In addition to performing, songwriting, recording, and running his record company, Banner also took on the duties of a producer. He also began a professional association with Blend Dem Productions, a label headquartered in Jamaica.
All Music-Linda Seida.

During the next two years, he released a solid string of hit singles: “Hand Inna da Air,” “Rude Bwoy Living,” “No Cater,” “Who Next,” “No Fun Thing,” “Mark Death,” “Things a Gwaan,” “Jump Up and Swear.” Many of those tracks were included on his first album, Jack It Up, which was issued in 1994. In the wake of his Jamaican success, Capitol Records offered Benz a major-label deal later that year. His second album, Uncommonly Smooth, appeared in 1995 and harbored distinct crossover aspirations; the Chevelle Franklyn duet, “A-1 Lover,” was aimed at R&B audiences as well as reggae fans, and the cover of “Spanish Harlem” featured original artist Ben E. King. The gambit failed to win him an international audience on the level of Shabba Ranks, however, and Capitol quickly lost interest.Benz returned to Jamaica and spent the next few years as a singles-only artist, also collaborating with rappers like Wyclef Jean and KRS-One. He continued to find success in his homeland with tracks like “Car Crash,” “Born Good Looking,” “Funny Guy Thing,” “Dolly House,” and “Machine Gun Kelly,” among others. In 1999, he recorded a clash album with Beenie Man titled Two Badd DJs, and topped the Jamaican charts with the single “She Nuh Ready Yet (Hype Up).” The song also appeared on his long-incubating third album, Fully Loaded, which was finally released in 2000. It featured duets with Lady Saw (“Buckshot”) and Foxy Brown (“Too Stoosh”), and production work from house legend Todd Terry, among many others. Benz made his motion-picture debut that same year in Brooklyn Babylon, and in 2001 played a leading role in the gangster film Shottas. Also in 2001, he returned Foxy Brown’s favor by guesting on her hit single “Oh Yeah,” and teamed with Elephant Man for the Jamaican smash “Warriors Cause.” In 2002, he issued his fourth album, Thug Nature, which featured extensive supporting contributions from his stable of up-and-coming talent, the Red Square Crew. All Music-Steve Huey.