U-Roy – U. Roy

1974, Attack

If you want to know what deejaying was during its inception phase, this is the album to go to. This is U-Roy’s sophomore record, coming three years after Version Galore, the first deejay LP. By 1974 there was a small collection of deejay LPs available from other artists like I-Roy, Scotty, Dennis Alcapone, Big Youth, Jah Woosh and Tapper Zukie, and everyone was doing something a bit different with the deejaying concept. I-Roy went lyrical style, Scotty went silly style, Tapper Zukie went crazy style, Jah Woosh went normal style, Big Youth laid the foundations for the roots deejaying in later years, and U-Roy and Dennis Alcapone were just having a good time on rocksteady riddims.

This self-titled album from U-Roy is funny because it feels substantially less developed than Version Galore conceptually. Version Galore has a very identifiable character and idea, but “U. Roy” just sounds like deejaying in its simplest form. A riddim is played and U-Roy toasts on the top. At risk of pissing off U-Roy fans, if you’ve heard one U-Roy tune, you’ve basically heard them all, and that is truer on this record than any other. He may say something like ‘move your body’ or ‘come on baby when i tell you’ or ‘WOW’ and the difference between one tune and the next is mostly just in the instrumental. Or even the vocal – because on this album, there are tunes (Drive Her Home, Tom Drunk) where U-Roy toasts in the gaps between the entire, uninterrupted vocal track. This is probably the only novel detail we can latch on to and talk about for this whole record. The rest is just U-Roy, and we love his style. It’s a great listen.

My picks: Honey Come Back, Drive Her Home, Wake The Town, Everybody Bawling
Bim count: 0