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March 21, 2008
King Jammy billed for "Death Before Dishonour" sound clash
By: Joseph Cunningham
King Jammy, whose real name is Lloyd James, was born in Montego Bay, in 1947. He is a dub mixer, record producer and sound system owner who started out in the late 1960s by building amplifiers and repairing electrical equipment while still living at his mother's house in Waterhouse. From these proceeds he started his own sound system. He also built equipment for other local systems.
After leaving Jamaica to work in Canada for a few years in the early 1970s, King Jammy returned to Kingston in 1976 and established his own studio at his in-laws' home in Waterhouse.
His first major break came when one of King Tubby's selectors, Phillip Smart, left Jamaica to work in New York. King Jammy replaced him, getting to work with the likes of Bunny Lee and Yabby You. For the first few years of his career, Jammy almost exclusively created Dub. In the late 1970s he began to release his own productions, including the debut album from Black Uhuru in 1977.
In the 1980s, he became one of the most influential producers of dancehall music. His biggest hit was 1985's "Under Mi Sleng Teng" by Wayne Smith, that had an entirely digital rhythm hook. Many credit this song as being the first "digital rhythm" in reggae, leading to the modern dancehall era. Jammy's productions and sound system dominated reggae music for the remainder of the 1980s and into the 1990s. He continues to work as a producer, working with some of today's top Jamaican artists.