“He has 999 wives. He hails from an unnamed region of central Africa (“a thin layer of impenetrable rainforest,” he tells interviewers) known only as d’bush. His name is Prince Zimboo Abakunamabooba, and if he sounds fishy to you, he should. Outlandish back stories are common in hip-hop—a genre perched on the fault line between tell-it-like-it-is verité and winking artifice—but Zimboo’s mythology is patently unbelievable, 100 percent wink. Is he a loon? A comedian? A walking 419 scam, claiming African royalty as part of some elaborate performance-art hoax?” Jonah Weiner, Slate
“Bob Marley was a gamble. I gave him £4,000 up front to make the first album. Everybody said I was mad and I’d never see the money again. The Wailers had a reputation for being total rebels and being sort of impossible to deal with. It was simply because they had been treated unfairly. I took the risk and trusted Bob and it paid off many times over. They took me to the studio and played me some of the songs – “Slave Driver”, “Concrete Jungle”. I was looking for rebel, militant music. Reggae at that point was known as novelty music. I wanted to work on the record to make it more palatable for the rock audience. Jimi Hendrix was a model, I felt Bob could be that big. I moved things around, I added rock guitar, synthesisers, and expanded into solos. I needed to polish it to bring in the rock audience and to get them accepted as a black rock group. “Catch A Fire” only sold about 14.000 copies in its first year, but got great reviews.”" Chris Blackwell
“Island is now part of the Universal Music Group but retains such a cachet that its logo still adorns releases by Amy Winehouse, Keane, Scott Matthews and Paul Weller. Next month, Island celebrates its 50th anniversary with a week of concerts at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London, the publication of Keep On Running – The Story of Island Records, a coffee-table book edited by Chris Salewicz, and a photo, artwork and memorabilia exhibition in London, prompting its former supremo to comment: “It was always my intention at Island to make records that stood the test of time, and I’m proud that Island is still a potent force in music 50 years since that first release.”"Pierre Perrone, The Independent
“Over the 13 years that the studio on 241st Street was open, Mr. Barnes recorded artists like Sugar Minott, the Meditations, and Wayne Jarrett. The songs he produced included “Instrument for Jah,” “West Bound D Train,” and “Wack Rap,” an early rap single, released in 1979.
After rising rents forced him to close the studio in 1989, he said, he moved to Englewood, N.J., where he mainly mastered recordings for Japanese record companies.
“It wasn’t till much later that Wackie hit his heyday” and found wider popularity, said Ira Heaps, owner of Jammyland, an East Village record store that specialized in reggae. Mr. Heaps added that “Dance Hall Style“ by Horace Andy, a record on the Wackie’s label, was his store’s most popular album.” Niko Koppel, New York Times
“It’s disturbing when I see kids on buses, listening to music on their phones, and it’s just going: tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, with no bass. Bass culture is Jamaica’s gift to the world and technology is, kind of, ruining that. Bass is sexy. Women respond to bass. That said, dubstep is one of the most exciting musical forms out there. There’s always something going on” Guardian
