Search - Linton Kwesi Johnson :: Reggae Greats

Island released this "best of" compilation in 1984, mere months after Linton Kwesi Johnson (a.k.a. LKJ) left the label following a dispute over the mixing of Making History. It leads appropriately with "Reggae Sounds": LKJ the human bass beat master wafting the listener away to a dark and sweaty Brixton dancehall, building an impressionistic portrait with word, rhyme, and riddim of the music dread enough for the entire world to understand. "Bass Culture" illustrates the seductive reggae recipe of "blues, suffering, and bloodclaat pressure," while "Street 66" rocks racism by taking the dancehall scenario to its all-too-inevitable conclusion: police breaking up the party... and a few bones. "Di Great Insohreckshan" expands that portrait from miniature into a full-blown mural, painting the brilliant rage of black rebel youth fighting out against the grim colors of institutional racism. --Elena Oumano