Q: How did you get involved in the dub scene? Does it go all the way
back to the beginnings at Randy's Record Store?
Style: It goes all the way back to Roots Radics, when they had Scientist
there mixing some of the versions, like some of those productions we did
with John Jolar (sp?)...
Q: I was listening to some of those tracks today on a Blood and Fire
reissue...
Style: Yeah mon, that's a guy from London put those together. They're
repackaging them. That was way back. Things was different then. It
started from that time with Scientist and Tubby. How Adrian Sherwood
came into this was from dealing with people like Prince Far I who was a
hot deejay in them times internationally, not only locally. That's how I
met Adrian Sherwood. After Prince Far I got killed in Jamaica, Adrian
was a bit scared about Jamaica. He had never been in Jamaica until like
last year.
Q: So they only worked together in England?
Style: Yes, he worked with Far I only in England. Far I gave him
something like power-of-attorney to do things for him, look after his
business while he was living in Jamaica. Adrian would be the one in
London to help get distributors for his products. I would usually go to
England to do tours with Prince Far I, as his drummer. He'd usually have
Fish Clarke and Flabba Holt....
Q: the core of Roots Radics...
Style: Yeah mon, but then he got killed in Jamaica unfortunately. He was
shot.
Q: Was it a personal dispute or do you know?
Style: To be honest, that's an unsolved murder, you know. Nobody knows
what happened. It's a mystery. As I say, Adrian Sherwood got scared
because he thought it was all involved with the music and ray, ray, ray,
and this and that...
Q: The stories you hear are of the sound system operator with a gun in a
holster....
Style: Let me tell you something. Dem thing are a lie. Let me tell you
something about reggae music. A lot of people speak things 'bout the
reggae music, and if you ask me, there's a big conspiracy seems like.
I'm a protector for the reggae music 'cause I man respect this. This is
what we're growing: the Rastaman vibration. People are trying to create
this ugly horrible face with reggae that reggae musicians are people who
as you say are behind the turntable with his gun in his holster, all dem
thing are wrong. (At this point Style is getting very excited and anger
creeps into his voice.) They're making music nowadays with Rasta in some
horrible part for the almighty dollar. Some a dem Rasta accept some a
dem almighty dollar to create some fucked up face and make it seem like
reggae associated with bad news. Some of the record companies get scared
and don't want to sign plenty artists. And if you sign you better know
what you sign because you could be signing either your death warrant or
signing off, you know what I mean?
Q: You could be signing away your soul...
Style: 'Tis true mon. Look at Junior Reed. A film company come to
Jamaica asking Junior Reed to sign a contract to play a character in a
film, they have this show called "Dancehall Queen" where you have Junior
Reed robbing a taxi driver or holding up some gate receipt with a big
gun while you have Lady Saw and all these people on stage who have no
soulful and religious teaching for the people. You get the message? They
actually kill the rasta vibes and make it look like from Bob Marley, for
him crowned the reggae king and him dead and gone, and it's nothing more
to compete with that after him gone and now every thing else is like
crap. It's not true! Right now you have a whole lot of youth in Jamaica
who have greater things to offer as far as taking that teaching of Bob
Marley to a higher level. And those people have been signed and shelved.
They're on the shelf and cob webs are growing on those products and the
people will not hear them. There's no more teachings of Selassie I and
the Emmanuel Melchisedek (sp?) Order, there's no more of that. We have
to actually make the people understand and know what's going on and make
people aware that we personally realize that these things are going on.
Even me, right now with my dub, I have to be careful of the conspiracy.