Little Roy (born Earl Lowe in Witfield Town, Kingston,

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

) is a

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

.Bush, Nathan
Little Roy Biography
,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, retrieved 2011-02-14

Biography

Little Roy began his career at the age of 12 years in 1965

recording A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

a few unsuccessful tracks with producers

Coxsone Dodd Clement Seymour "Coxsone" Dodd (26 January 1932 – 4 May 2004) was a Jamaican record producer who was influential in the development of ska and reggae in the 1950s, 1960s and beyond. He was nicknamed "Coxsone" at school due to his talent a ...

and

Prince Buster Cecil Bustamente Campbell (24 May 1938 – 8 September 2016), known professionally as Prince Buster, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer. The records he released in the 1960s influenced and shaped the course of Jamaican contemporary ...

. He is part of the musical legacy, one of the founding Fathers of what we call ROOTS REGGAE ERA. He was the first to record a song with the word REGGAE with producer

who named him Little Roy although the song was unsuccessful.Larkin, Colin (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'', Virgin Books, , p. 172 He had his first

number one hit A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single or simply a hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record' ...

with "Bongo Nyah" (1969)at the age of 16 years for Lloyd Daley ("the Matador"), the first song about the

Rastafari movement Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is a religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control o ...

to be successful commercially in Jamaica. For his song "Don't Cross the Nation" (1970), Little Roy worked with

the Wailers ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

and producer

Lee "Scratch" Perry Lee "Scratch" Perry (born Rainford Hugh Perry; 20 March 1936 – 29 August 2021) was a Jamaican record producer, composer and singer noted for his innovative studio techniques and production style. Perry was a pioneer in the 1970s development o ...

.He worked with the late

Dennis Brown Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD (1 February 1957 – 1 July 1999) was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of l ...

on the bass and

Leroy Sibbles Leroy Sibbles (born Leroy Sibblies, 29 January 1949) is a Jamaican reggae musician and producer. He was the lead singer for The Heptones in the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to his work with The Heptones, Sibbles was a session bassist and arra ...

in the song 'Tribal War'. Starting in 1972, Roy worked with Maurice "Scorcher" Jackson and his brother Munchie. Roy recorded the songs "Tribal War" and "Prophecy" in the 1970s. The rhythm from "Prophecy" was used by

Steely & Clevie Steely & Clevie was a Jamaican dancehall reggae production duo that was composed of members Wycliffe Johnson and Cleveland Browne. The duo worked with artists such as the Specials, Gregory Peck ("Poco Man Jam," 1990), Bounty Killer, Elephant Man ...

in 1990, leading to a hit record by

Freddie McGregor Freddie McGregor (born 27 June 1956, in Clarendon, Jamaica) is a Jamaican singer, musician and record producer. His music career began when he was seven years old. Biography In 1963 he joined with Ernest Wilson and Peter Austin to form The Cl ...

. Roy decided to re-issue some of his old material on an album titled ''Prophesy''. A new album, ''Live On'', was released in 1991, and he worked with

Adrian Sherwood Adrian Maxwell Sherwood (born 20 January 1958, London, England) is an English record producer specialising in the genre of dub music. He has created a distinctive production style based on the application of dub effects and dub mixing technique ...

on the 1996 album ''Long Time''. Roy released another album in 2005, ''Children of the Most High''. In May 2011 Little Roy collaborated with Prince Fatty and the Mutant Hi-Fi to record

Sliver Sliver may refer to: Entertainment *Sliver (novel), ''Sliver'' (novel), a 1991 novel by Ira Levin **Sliver (film), ''Sliver'' (film), a 1993 film adaptation of the novel **Sliver (soundtrack), ''Sliver'' (soundtrack), the soundtrack to the 1993 fi ...

/Dive cover of

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

's early single. An album of Nirvana songs, ''Battle for Seattle'', was released in September 2011 on

Ark Recordings Ark Recordings is a London-based independent record label, run by Jamie Davis (of Transcopic Records) and Russell Warby (VP of WME Agency UK, Music Power 1001). The label was launched in 2005 after Transcopic Records went on a hiatus, and Dav ...

.United Reggae,
Interview: Little Roy
, retrieved 2011-06-29

Discography

;Studio albums *''Tribal War'' (1975) *''Columbus Ship'' (1981), Tafari/Copasetic *''Prophesy (1989) *''Live On'' (1991) *''Long Time'' (1996), On-U Sound *''Gregory Isaacs meets Little Roy'' (1996) *''More From A Little'' (1999) *''Children of the Most High'' (2005) *''Heat'' (2010), Pharos *''Battle for Seattle'' (2011), Ark (UK chart peak: #111)http://zobbel.de/cluk/110917cluk.txt *''Right Now'' (2016) ;Compilations: *''Prophesy'' (1989), Tafari *''Tafari Earth Uprising'' (1996),

Pressure Sounds Pressure Sounds is a British DIY record label, specializing in releasing reggae music. Run by Pete Holdsworth, it is one of the most enduring reggae labels in the UK, specializing in reissuing obsolete tunes. It was originally a subsidiary o ...

*''Packin' House'' (1999),

(Little Roy & Friends) ; Singles (partial): *1969 – Bongo Nyah/Bad Name (Little Roy and The Creations) (Camel, Randy's, Pama) *1969 – Without My Love/Here I Come Again (Little Roy and Winston Samuels) (Crab) *1970 – Scrooge/In The Days of Old (Camel) *1970 – You Run Come/Skank King (Camel) *1971 – Yester-Me Yester-You Yesterday/Yes Sir (Escort) *1977 – Prophecy (Morwell Esq) *1989 – Prophecy (Original Press) *2014 – Disaster and Signs (Tuff Scout) *2015 – The Right Way (Tuff Scout)

References

{{Authority control 1953 births Living people Musicians from Kingston, Jamaica Jamaican male singers Jamaican reggae singers Performers of Rastafarian music Jamaican Rastafarians

Biography

Discography

See also

References