Reggae: 1984, ’85 Kingston, Jamaica is full of young, aspiring musicians. Ride past any of the city’s recording studios—Tuff Gong, Dynamic, Channel One, Aquarius—and you’ll see barefoot kids hanging out, listening to the riddims that escape through the fence or wall, and occasionally skanking in the hot sun. You can tell the kids who want to be drummers. They’re the ones with the sticks who bang them on cans, car hoods, and each other. And if you ask who the best reggae drummer in the whole wide world is, they’ll screech out in unison, “Sly! Yeah mon, it true. Sly Dunbar!” These are ghetto kids. They don’t have stereos at home. Some don’t even have radios. But Jamaica’s future reggae drummers can pick out a Dunbar snare crack a mile away. Actually, so can just about every other musician in this most musical of Caribbean capitals. Down in Kingston, […]

January 1986 Issue