News & Updates — dub

Born day shout-out to Michael Campbell aka Mikey Dread! He operated sound systems, hosted the massively popular Jamaican radio show Dread At The Controls, worked on TV, cut sides with Lee Perry, Sonia Pottinger, Carlton Patterson and Joe Gibbs and performed with the Socialist Roots Sound System. He started his Dread At The Controls label, producing Edi Fitzroy, Sugar Minott, Earl Sixteen, Althea & Donna and Junior Murvin. He also produced music for and toured with The Clash. His contribution can be heard all over Sandinista! and "Bank Robber". In the '80s he worked with Adrian Sherwood and UB40, also...

Among the greatest and most influential of Jamaican singers, Lincoln "Sugar" Minott was already a known entity on the Kingston scene by 13. After working as a selector on various sound systems he started The African Brothers (with Tony Tuff & Derrick Howard) in 1969. They were a successful unit through the early '70s, especially with their rasta perspective. At 18 Sugar started working as a session musician at the famed Studio 1, becoming a recording artist under his own name shortly thereafter. His '70s & '80s recordings for Studio 1, Channel One, Wackie's, Taxi, Trojan and his own Black...

Long a cult figure, the legend and appreciation of Arthur Russell only increases with time as more of his music gets issued and reissued and re-examined. His ability to cross from disco to minimalism to orchestral to hiphop to singer/songwriter material of unique personality is testament to his creativity. A lot of his worked was unfinished at the time of his passing but clearly brilliant and much of it sees release in a seemingly never-ending stream of fascinating documents. From Iowa, he was a hick with serious artistic aspirations, taking up piano and cello at an early age. He studied...

One of my favorites in recent years, the wonderful Sharon Jones captivated growing legions of audiences in the new millennium with her high-energy, charming personality and powerful voice on stages around the globe. A former security guard who made the big time, despite being told she was "too short, too fat, too old and too black", she worked hard for all of her success. Born in Augusta GA, she grew up in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. She contributed backing vocals to recording sessions before her work on a Lee Fields studio date convinced the producers that they had a special talent in...

Happy born day shout-out to Lincoln "Style" Scott, the great Jamaican drummer with Dub Syndicate, the Roots Radics (who became the Channel One house band around '79) and about a million Adrian Sherwood/On-U Sound projects. His earliest record appearances were with Sugar Minott ("Hard Time Pressure") and David Isaacs. In '78 he became drummer for Prince Far-I & the Arabs, who were also largely the same group as Sherwood's Creation Rebel. With the Radics he helped lay the foundation for what became known as dancehall music. He played with Gregory Isaacs (that's Scott on "Night Nurse"), Barrington Levy, Eek-A-Mouse, Bunny...