Sunday, May 27, 2007

Saturday Nite Video Flashback: Black Uhuru

This one's kind of a selfish pick. (I suppose they all are.) I found this clip on YouTube with the comment that it was filmed at Reggae Sunsplash in Montego Bay in 1986, which I attended when I did some work for a Jamaican reggae magazine down there. I first went to Sunsplash in 1984. Good times. Irie.

So, I suppose unless you're a die hard reggae fan like me, you may never have even heard of Black Uhuru, but they had an unmistakable sound - heavy on the rhythm (Sly & Robbie style) with the social militancy message of the times. They're still around in a morphed form but, as usual, the classics are their anthems.

This is General Penitentiary:


I was also introduced to Black Uhuru member Michael Rose that summer when we ran into him at a vegetable market in Kingston. Don't ask me what we talked about though. That was a long time ago. But, it was one of the highlights of my trip as well.
 

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