RARE EARLY U ROY

It's scratched, it's dilapidated, it's of questionable appeal to most people, even reggae fiends, but it is U Roy's first record, and because of that, there was no question about it's post-worthiness. For the uninitiated, U Roy was one of the earliest Jamaican DJ/toasters to hit it big. Not the very first, mind you, but the first to chart in Jamaica in rapid succession. Toasting is a particular type of reggae that, as many of you know, eventually hit the US via Jamaican transplant Kool Herc, who was credited with tweaking the DJ method, eventually leading to rap and hip hop.

So here's a few by U Roy, starting with the first and taking a rather sporadic chronological path, through his peak in the mid-seventies, when he went international, and leading a path to a 2002 curiosity that finds him guesting on a cut by Tiken Jah Fakoly from Côte d'Ivoire in West Africa. That particular cut is interesting because the native language in Côte d'Ivoire is French, so you have U Roy on a cut with Fakoly singing part of the song in French. Oui! Oui!

Stop the presses! Here's something else I just found while doing an image search for this post, and, if you're into sound systems and DJs, it's pretty remarkable. Live sound system sets featuring U Roy fronting the King Attorney Hi-Fi in Jamaica, from 1975. The sound ain't the best, but I don't know about you, I sure didn't think I'd ever hear a live set of this vintage with U Roy. The whole rundown of the sets is at Who Cork the Dance, and this particular page also hosts DJ sets by U Brown, Dillinger, Ranking Trevor and others.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
U Roy - Earth's Rightful Ruler mp3 (via DivShare) at Dave's Jukebox
U Roy's first w/intro by Peter Tosh (1970)
U Roy - Your Ace From Outer Space mp3 at Clumsy and Shy (1970)
U Roy - Way Down In South mp3 (via DivShare) at Dave's Jukebox (1972)
U Roy - Runaway Girl mp3 at Tous les jours la grande chose (1975)
U Roy - Chalice in the Palace mp3 (via DivShare) at Flea Market Funk (1975)
U-Roy - Natty Rebel mp3 at Tous les jours la grande chose (1976)
Tiken Jah Fakoly w/U Roy - Justice mp3 at Flapy (?) (2002)
The live DJ sets:

The King Attorney Hi-Fi sets at Who Corked the Dance King Attorney hosts U Roy, Dillinger, Ranking Trevor and others. Click on "Reup"," and it'll take you to MediaFire, which is a bit of a pain, but they're fast downloads, and really, you may never again have the opportunity to hear U Roy on the fly in the seventies.