Big Youth

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Manley Augustus Buchanan (born 19 April 1949, Trenchtown, Kingston, Jamaica), better known as Big Youth (sometimes called Jah Youth), is a Jamaican deejay, mostly known for his work during the 1970s.

Influenced by U-Roy, he started toasting on Lord Tippertone's sound system in 1970. His early singles for Lee Perry ("Mooving Version") and Phil Pratt ("Tell It Black") were artistically and commercially unsuccessful. The first album to feature his vocals, Chi Chi Run was produced by Prince Buster in 1971. By then he had begun working with Augustus "Gussie" Clarke, a teenage producer whose rhythms and singers were more in tune with the vibes on the streets of Kingston, and "The Killer" (on a version of Horace Andy's "Skylarking" rhythm) became his first major Jamaican hit. Following this, he released "S-90 Skank", featuring a motorbike being revved in the studio, for Keith Hudson's Imbidmts label, versioning the producers own "We Will Work It Out". This became his first Jamaican number one hit. Over the next two years, he cut records with many local producers, including Glenmore Brown ("Dubble Attack"), The Abyssinians ("I Pray Thee"/"Dreader than Dread"), Yabby You ("Yabby Youth" - later known as "Lightning Flash (Weak Heart Drop)"), Bunny Wailer ("Bide"/"Black on Black") and Joe Gibbs ("Medecine Doctor").

In 1973 he released his first album entitled Screaming Target, produced by Gussie Clarke. The album is still considered as a classic of its genre.^{[citation needed]} Throughout 1974 and 1975 he continued to record for other producers, releasing his next LP Dread Locks Dread on Klik Records in 1975. Although ostensibly a Big Youth LP produced by "Prince" Tony Robinson, it in fact only featured six vocal tracks, two of which - "Marcus Garvey Dread" (originally "Mosia Garvey" on Jack Ruby's Fox label) and "Lightning Flash" had been released as singles for other producers.

By this time he had begun releasing his own self-produced recordings on the Negusa Nagast label in Jamaica, sometimes buying rhythms from producers for whom he had worked, but latterly using his own musicians. Many of his singles, such as "Hot Stock", and "Battle of the Giants" (with U-Roy) were released on this imprint. His first self-produced LP was Reggae Phenomenon (1974 - later re-released as part of a double set on Trojan), succeeeded by Natty Cultural Dread (1976), which was swiftly followed by Hit The Road Jack later the same year. Having recorded only deejaying records initially, by now Big Youth was developing more confidence as a singer; while his vocal range was never the greatest, his singing sides continued to improve in musical quality, and began to become as common as his DJ tunes.^{[citation needed]} This was helpful, as new young DJs such as Trinity and Clint Eastwood were appearing on the scene, and Big Youth's chanting style was becoming less fashionable.

By the early 1980s, events had combined to make reggae much less successful than it had been five years earlier. The rising tide of violence had driven many musicians and producers to leave Jamaica for the UK and U.S., reggae had not broken through to widespread commercial success, and, in the wake of Bob Marley's death a lot of major labels either dropped their Jamaican artists or spent little on promoting them, and the music returned to its insular roots. "Slackness" (sexually explicit lyrics) became far more fashionable than cultural Rastafarianism, and teenagers looked more towards the United States for their heroes. While his records continued to find a market, tunes like "Jah Jah Golden Jubilee", "A Luta Continua" and "Chanting" failed to capture the public imagination. The modern digital rhythms were far from suited to Big Youth's style, and his forays into the studio became less frequent.