LargeUp Interview: Talking Dubplates + Dancehall with Johnny Osbourne

Words by Jesse Serwer, Interview by DJ Gravy, Photos by Aviva Klein—

Johnny Osbourne is, in many ways, the definitive dancehall vocalist. Not only has he most likely recorded more dubplates (that’s exclusive versions of popular songs tailored for play by a specific sound system, for you all you new-jacks) than any one else, his essential ’80s recordings like “Budy Bye,” “No Ice Cream Sound” and “Little Sound Boy” are some of the purest reflections of the real dancehall sound-system experience ever released commercially.

Interestingly enough, Osbourne began his career a decade before his peers from dancehall’s dawn in the late ’70s. But the very same day he finished his debut album, 1969’s Come Back Darling, for Winston Riley’s Techniques Records, he found himself emigrating to Canada, beginning the first of several hiatuses that would mark his uniquely paced career. Now, at age 65, Johnny finds himself with yet another fresh start before him. Major Lazer’s co-opting of his “Mr. Marshall” as the heart of their arena-rocking, dancehall-meets-dubstep anthem “Jah No Partial” comes just as the singer finds himself able to travel internationally for the first time in decades. Fresh off his very first European festival appearances and a long-awaited return to Jamaica, Johnny will make his first Florida performance in who-knows-when tomorrow night (3/21/2013) at LargeUp’s Winter Music Massive at Blackbird Ordinary in Miami. DJ Gravy recently sat down with the Dancehall Godfather in NYC, as photographer Aviva Klein snapped some intimate portraits. Let me hear you say whoa-oh!!

LargeUp: You’ve been current in more eras of Jamaican music than almost any other artist, from the ’60s until now. How were you able to stay current through all of those eras?

Johnny Osbourne: Well, I don’t [stay] stuck inna no zone. I have yesterday, today and tomorrow. I’m from the old school but mi always tell a man, I’m not stopped there and I don’t live there. I reinvent myself always. I’m full of ideas. My mind too young for mi body.

LU: You recorded your first album Come Back Darling in 1969. Is it true you left for Canada the same day?

JO: The same day we finished the album. In the early morning I took the photograph on the step of the first Air Jamaica plane that them bring, and in the afternoon I flew out to Canada. I never come back to Jamaica until 10 years after.

LU: What was the reason for going to Canada?

JO: My mom immigrated to Canada from about ‘64, ‘65. I have one brother and one sister and she was trying to get the three of us together. She filed for us from a long time but I wasn’t really [wanting] to leave Jamaica because I didn’t know that outside of Jamaica could be nicer than Jamaica. I thought Jamaica was so nice. I had to take myself off the filing paper and let my brother and sister go. Then my mother come to Jamaica in 1969 and said if I don’t come this time, she’s finished with me. And then Jamaica was getting really politically violent in that time. I figured my mother don’t want to stay in Canada and worry about me. I didn’t want to make my mother cry so I have to just go with my mother.

LU: What was Canada like for a Jamaican in the ‘70s?

JO: Well, for one thing, Canada is one of the coldest places for a while. After going [to] some other places, I realized how cold Canada is. For just leav[ing] Jamaica the first time at 22 years old, [it was] a culture shock. And then I loved the music, and reggae wasn’t catching on in Canada. North American never take reggae so hard like that. But still, the same way, they had a club called Club Jamaica—and on a Sunday evening they’d have an open mic ting. A few clubs did. I kept at it and loved it. But away from that, it was a struggle fi a while.

LU: There wasn’t a lot of opportunities to do reggae in Canada at that time…

JO: That time. But I never give it up, because that was a part of me. Mi love music. From I was young, I always wanted to be a Nat King Cole or a Johnny Mathis or a Sam Cooke or a Billy Eckstine or a Johnny Ace. That was some people I used to listen to and say yes, I have to be like them.

LU: You did soul music as well up there?

JO: To really eat some food at that time, [I] put some bands together. The work was club work. You get some reggae music but them want Top 40 from America and so forth. I had to do some Top 40 material.

LU: What was Ishan People all about?

JO: I moved around with a lot of different people but Ishan People was one of the more solid bands. I started to get more serious with di ting with Ishan People. David Clayton Thomas from Blood, Sweat & Tears heard Ishan People and produced an album before I joined. I joined the group, [and] David Thomas did a second album. Ishan People was doing some reggae, Bob Marley and a couple popular tunes but we were still writing and doing original songs. David Clayton Thomas produced it for JRT, a big company in Canada. It wasn’t Johnny Osbourne and Ishan People, it was just Ishan People, a whole band.

Read on for Part 2 as Johnny discusses his return to Jamaica after 10 years in Canada, and the birth of dancehall and the dubplate

LU: When you went back to Jamaica, did you feel out of touch with the music scene at first?

JO: No, because as long as I was in Canada, my heart was still in Jamaica and my mind was on the music. I was storing things in my cranium so when I go back I can unleash them. When I go back in 1979, I just went to Studio One because that was where I wanted to do some recording more than anyplace. That’s where I did a song “Water More than Flour” and start doing a few more. I did a few songs then I started doing the album Truth and Rights.

LU: What was the process to get into Studio One?

JO: I had been trying that for years but the people doing the audition… there was so much people every Sunday. The crowd big, and by the time they get round to me, it finish. Next week, Sunday, the place full. [I’d] ry and try and try every Sunday for years, it never work out. Being that I already recorded Come Back Darling from 1969, and I made my mark, when I come back, I go back to Mr. Dodd and him remember the voice. I say mi just come back from Canada, mi haffi do something at Studio One. So I went and get some old tapes with dust on them and dust them off and pick out mi riddim and start singing. That’s how we pick out dem riddims on the Truths and Rights album.

LU: How long did it take being back into Jamaica before your tunes were being played at dances?

JO: What really happen, I make one named “Water More than Flour.” Meanwhile, while making dem Studio One tings, I was still over [at King] Jammys. I was making music at more than one place. I was making an album at Jammys, Folly Ranking. During that period [I’d] try and make as much music as [I] can make. When mi hear riddim and love riddim mi just make it. I was doing Folly Ranking for Jammys, and then Junjo Lawes heard me and he loved the song “Folly Ranking,” so he wanted a lovers rock that would sound ram. He wanted a lovers version of “Folly Ranking,” so mi just mek “Fally Lover.” So I had one for Jammy’s called Folly Ranking and Junjo Lawes’ lovers version. And then I was still working at Studio One, and did “Ice Cream Love” with Junjo. Then right away dem start giving back  Johnny on this sound, so my tune will play upon the sound. And Junjo had Volcano Sound, mi tune a play upon the sound. Right away mi start to step up pon dem.

LU: What was the first point you knew you had a big hit tune that could kill any crowd?

JO: Like 1980. Mi come back to Jamaica from 1979 and 1980, mi ready fi dem. Everything mi touch ah like gold. “Folly Ranking,” “Ice Cream Love”…

LU: You have a different lyrical style with each of those producers. With Roots Radics it’s more mystical, slower, not as much party songs.

JO: The riddim have a mood. So the mood of the riddim give me that mi work with

LU: Is it accurate to say that you are the original dancehall artist?

JO: I don’t want to say I am the original but one of the originals of the dancehall artists. Maybe [there are] other dancehall godfather[s] but mi di original dancehall godfather because when mi say dancehall… in my young days there wasn’t TV around really, we have mostly sound system, if you ah watch a movie you go ah cinema. The dancehall is a ting where a whole heap of tings aren’t going on, dem just play the music.

LU: You’re referring to dancehall as a place not as a genre…

JO: It’s a destination where like in your youth you [would] go to movies on 42nd Street. But remember most times we can’t even afford the movies. We can go outside of the dancehall and stand there for free and listen to the music. So the dancehall wasn’t a genre of music. Dancehall was a place where you go.

LU: You are known for studio songs that reflect the culture of dancehall, the place. “Rewind,” “Dubplate Playing (In the Ghetto Tonight).” Can you give us a play by play? After you voiced for Jammys, the concept of dubplates changed. Is that accurate?

JO: Yeah, because sometime me and Jammys, if I have a song and I want to give it a test run, we just go in the dub studio, record it as a dub and play it at the dance tonight. Nobody else have it, the crowd react to it, we come back to the drawing board, take out the sound’s name, and finish writing. And have it [because] the people dem already feeling the song. To record for Junjo and Jammys at the time was kind of important at the time because dem have sounds that play out. So that was a testing area. We get a likkle idea on the riddim and we just test it out when the sound played, and [if] the people react to it we know sum’n can go on. So we just go back and fix it up now, take out the sound [references]. So now we have a song and the people love it. The sound system [would ] want a special cut for themselves. And then Jammys is the producer and him have a sound. He might get a special cut for him sound before anyone else get it.

LU: Where did the chant in “Budy Bye” come from? What is the original lyrics?

JO: It’s “put it by number one.” Put it by.

LU: So “put it by” became “Budy Bye”. Meaning make this the No. 1 song. And then people sang it back to you or you did it so fast that’s what they heard?

JO: It sounded like “Budy Bye.”

LU: I heard you actually recorded that in New York. Is that right?

JO: I think the studio is Quad. On 42nd Street? A lot of people thought it was recorded in Jamaica.

LU: 47th. That’s where 2Pac got shot, where you did “Budy Bye.” But it was for Jammy’s?

JO: It go for Tad’s. It’s a Jammy’s riddim. Tad’s bought a cut off of Jammy’s. The rest of the story and history or mystery between Tad’s and Jammy’s. Dem supposed to know about the history. Or mystery.

Read on for Part 3, as Johnny talks Major Lazer and why “the old school mixed with the new school” is still his rule.

LU: You were unable to travel for many years. Why was that? And now that you can, what are your plans to make up for that lost time?

JO: Well, guess what. I couldn’t travel for a while because I was inna New York and was missing some papers, and the process wasn’t going right so you haffi just wait til you’re time come again. It took a lot of time. Now that process is complete. I can’t make up for the lost time but what I’m gonna do is take up back the musical whip and start writing music again.

LU: Diplo got the tape of your song “Mr. Marshall”  from Jammys for Major Lazer’s “Jah No Partial,” and remixed it over some dubstep. How did you hear about the song and what was your initial reaction?

JO: Diplo came to New York and my agent Neil Robertson was telling me that they are remixing the song and they are coming to New York and they wanted me to be a special guest at Terminal 5 on the West Side. I spoke to Diplo on the phone and they wanted me to see the reaction of the people when they play the song. They were going to introduce it. [They said] we’ll put you as a special guest. They introduced me and introduced the song and I saw the people’s reaction. It was pandemonium. They didn’t take anything away from me, or from my song. They kept my song [as] my song, and add what they have and put them together. What I say is I get the old school mixed with the new school and make it a one big school, and that’s still mi rule.

And then they invited me to London. For the Red Bull Soundclash last November. And when I [sang] “Oh, Mr. Marshall!” a capella…[it was a] problem!

LU: What is your impression of a group like Major Lazer who are putting reggae into a new context with this new hybrid thing they’re doing. To see those kids that wouldn’t normally come to a reggae thing but will because of this hybrid. How does this new thing affect you?

JO: Whatever they are doing, it’s a nice bridge [that is] bridging the gap. I see young kids in Europe listening to my music and going crazy, and I’m wondering if these young kids even know mi name. When you say Johnny Osbourne and ask them they’d say “Wha?” So I think it’s a good thing at my age, [for] young kid[s] to hear Johnny Osbourne, who generally don’t have any way of knowing about me.

LU: How many dubplates would you estimate you have recorded?

JO: That is one thing I could never tell you, you can’t even figure that out.

LU: Tens of thousands? Every sound has a Johnny Osbourne dub.

JO: Every sound who is really a sound, should have even one.

LU: Has anyone ever confused you with Ozzy Osbourne? His name is really John.

JO: My real name is not John. I used to like Johnny Mathis and Johnny Ace. And then, when I was recording in the early days, in case my song didn’t sound good, I didn’t want to use my real name. [So they] don’t know it’s me.

LU: What is your next project as far as a Johnny Osbourne release?

JO: Right now, I’m working on some jungle. I’m doing some dubstep riddims, I’m doing some drum and bass. When I go out into the world I see people are listening to all kind of reggae. Not just one genre, all kind. The plan for right now is to make an album of new music.

LU: Who are some of the producers or people involved with that?

JO: Can’t say that right away because there’s a few people I want to work with. I want to talk to them first. I don’t want to call somebody’s name and say they’re going to be on it and I haven’t spoken to them yet. I was talking with Dean Fraser. Dean is one of the people.

JO: Right now, Freddie McGregor is my bredrin and the Truths and Rights album, me and Freddie McGregor did a lot of work together. And the Bobby Babylon album, me and Freddie worked pon them two albums. Me and Freddie do a lot of things together. That would be one of the people.

LU: What’s the one thing you’d like to be remembered for?

JO: More to remember mi originality and good lyrics and good melody. I don’t like too much copying.

LU: What would you say has been your most memorable performance?

JO: To me right now, that Garance Reggae Festival in 2012, Rototom 2012.  The crowd was with it, them love it. And I enjoyed it also.