LargeUp Interview: A Last Chat with Wayne Smith

Words and Interview by Sherman Escoffery—

In August 2012, I heard from my friend Dwayne Smith, son of reggae singer Wayne Smith, that his dad was moving back to Jamaica in a few weeks, asking if I wanted to interview him before he left New York for good. I never realized that it would be the last time I would see him and the second to last time we would speak.

It was raining hard that day and I almost never went to meet up with Wayne Smith but when we did we we went to a Golden Krust restaurant and reasoned over how he had changed reggae music and ushered in the digital revolution of dancehall music with “Under Mi Sleng Teng”— something King Jammy’s described as music that belong to the youths of that generation. I can still remember my reaction the first time I heard the Sleng Teng rhythm: “What the fuck is that?”

I never got to ask Wayne all the questions I wanted to that day, and unfortunately I won’t get to. The next time we spoke he had called me to put him on to a custom broker to help him clear his belongings that he had sent back home to Jamaica from New York. That was the last conversation we had.

LargeUp: Wayne, Lets go all the way back. How did you come into the business?

Wayne Smith: I was born in Waterhouse, and the only studio in Waterhouse at the time was King Tubby, zeen. Tubby used to have his sound and everything playing in Waterhouse. Growing up, my brother used to move with the Wailing Souls, Black Uhuru and Michael Rose. All these artists used to have to pass around our way to go to Tubby. Jammy’s used to have a sound and he was learning engineering at Tubbys and he was our neighbor. If you jump over our back fence, you gonna reach over Ms. James and Mr. James. Trevor James [King Jammy’s brother] and my mother used to go to the same school. Junior Reid and me were good friends because Junior Reid used to move in my brother’s gang. Lacksley Castell and me used to go school together so we were in the music all over because we were hanging with a lot of top artists, Hugh Mundell…..

LU: You mentioned some names that a lot of people don’t talk about, Hugh Mundell and Lacksley Castell, talk a little bit about Hugh Mundell and what you knew about him.

WS:  Well Hugh Mundell did cool but I was never that close with him, me and Junior Reid were close, they always came to check Junior Reid in Waterhouse and we were all there. I would hail them up and we would do some reasoning while they waited on Junior Reid before they drove out. At that time Hugh Mundell and Lacksley Castell were up there as big artist. Me and Junior Reid as youths were still trying to pull through, but they were big in England at the time, from back in the late 70s.

LU: What was the first song you recorded?

WS: The first song I recorded it never did gwan with nothing too tough, I did it for some Buckers youth from Balcombe Drive. The tune was “Want You Tonight Girl,” that was 1979. We cut some copies but I never had any name at that time. That was at Harry J. Studio.

Click here to read on.

LU: Who was the next producer you worked with?

WS: I recorded an album for a producer name Jay Pug, who was always around at Tubby, he gave me a chance. Jay Pug was a producer but he was also a gangster who always had his gun and him, he loved badness. There was another producer who said he would give me chance, so I was carrying his big heavy bags with studio tape for him every day, and after maybe six months or more he said he was going to give me a chance. So one day he tell me he is going to record me then when we are about to start recording, he tells me the tape is full.

Jay Pug sees me everyday trying to get someone to record me and one day he pull me aside and ask me if I want to record a song and I said yes. He sends me into the recording booth, picks up a tape left at the studio by Bunny “Striker” Lee and tells the engineer to record me on that. The engineer starts protesting, so Jay Pug pulls out his gun and threatened him; so he put on the tape and Jay Pug tells me to sing. So I am in the booth and started singing on the first riddim, which was “Drum Sound.” I had nothing written out, but in no time, I did a song call “I’ve Got To Get Her Back,” and I was just singing off the top of my head. He tells the engineer to throw on a next riddim and I sung, and he threw on a next one and I sung, and in no time I recorded ten songs. Jay Pug then said he had an album with me now [laughs].

LU: So off the top of your head, you recorded 10 songs?

WS: Yeah! Linval Thompson was there and asked “A who that a sing?” and it was me. He said “Bloodclaat youth, You wicked!” And that was what they sent to England as [a] special but not releasing it, but Jammy’s heard it in England and a lot of people heard it and started recording me now because I used to use a little of Barry Brown style with a Linval Thompson sound till I created my own style, so people used to love that.

Before I was with Jammy’s, I was working at Channel One with the Hoo-Kim brothers’ Hit Bound label and other people like Harry J, and I still used to go around by Tubby. Jammy’s heard my unreleased album for Jay Pug while he was in England and asked, “A which youth that?” When he came back from England in about 1981, he sent Junior Reid to get me because him wanted to work with me. After that, I started to record for him but nothing really had a big impact. The first song he put out with me was “Life Is A Moment In Space,” a Barbra Streisand cover, it did well in England.

Then I voiced an album, Youthman Skanking, he put out in England. That did gwan good. I wasn’t a jump up artist like Little John who, when he came into the dance and sing, people would buss shot, jump up and beat down the fence. I was just a cool, cultural artist. One day Jammy’s come to me and said “Wayne, people love and respect you, but we want you to step it up and go more harder now- singjay now.” Which I never used to do.

LU: So those times you were with the reggae thing, you never really playing with the dancehall thing.

WS: Yeah, more one drop and love songs and Jammy’s say “alright, step it up” and then I start to  sing “Come Along” and I went hard. In ’83 Channel One put out a cover I did of Boy George’s Karma Chameleon on the Hypocrites riddim and that gwaan good. There was a guy name Bills Eye, a customs officer, and he had a sound system name Heat Wave, that Bobby Digital used to play. So I am getting hot now and Jammy’s had flown out, so is just me and Bobby Digital at Jammy’s studio now. Bills Eye had given us some riddim do some special. Which is a exclusive record for that sound or an unreleased song, versus a dubplate where you sing about the sound and the selectors. So we got the Stalag riddim and Darker Shade Of Black riddim and I sung “Come Along” and “Ain’t No Meaning Of Saying Goodbye” and cut it as special now. These just a mash up any dance where it got played. Bobby Digital called Jammy’s in England, and when Jammy’s came back to Jamaica, he put it out through Dynamic Sounds.

LU: You were featured in the documentary Deep Roots Music recording “Ain’t No Me” for King Jammy’s.

WS: Who did that one? Yeah man, I am getting old you know, I don’t even remember. [laughs].

Click here to read on.

Photo: Beth Lesser

LU: You were also featured in Beth Lesser’s book Dancehall: The Story of Jamaican Dancehall Culture. There is a whole bunch of pictures in there, one wicked photo by Beth Lesser with you, Tenor Saw and Echo Minott.

WS: Yeah, she’s been doing it from back in the 80s when we were at Jammy’s. She was taking picture an all sorta things for years, she has been documenting dancehall for years.

LU: So you are at King Jammy’s studio, he was out of the country and you and Noel Davey buck up now.

WS: Every artist who was going down to Jammy’s stop by my yard because I had a little name now because of “Come Along” and “Ain’t No Meaning.” So I see [Noel] one day and he said he was going get a keyboard because a guy gone a England suppose to buy one for him. I told him to come see me when he got it. Him comes back a few days later and said he got the keyboard, and we start to rehearse in my yard. I told him I was gonna take him to the studio, and he started doing some overdubs for King Jammy’s.

One day now I pressed a button on the keyboard and heard the pre-program track and he came back and said “Wayne, what you do?” I showed him and we slow it down, and he started to strum over the beat, but I wasn’t singing “Sleng Teng,” I was singing something else —“Under Mi Dragon and Mi Damn Raw Egg.” Every day we were there with the same riddim over and over, perfecting it, then one day we were pressing the button and it didn’t come on. So he said we’ll link up tomorrow because Jammy’s wasn’t here, he was in England.

A couple days passed and I was sitting on my wall, watching all the artists go pass and a man told me that Noel was around by Big Road rehearsing with some other guy on the same track that was in the keyboard. I said, let me go check him. I went to see Noel and told him we have to go to Jammy’s now to go record the riddim, because Jammy’s was back. So we go over to Jammy’s, and I told him I have [a] riddim that I wanna voice a tune on, and him say alright.

So we connected up everything, Noel pressed it and it started playing. We already have the tempo and key that we rehearse in everyday, the only thing was I was singing those different lyrics. So all Jammy’s did was put the jack in the keyboard, and we run it off to the tape. Noel put on the strum and do him thing [hums a tune] before Asher—Tony Asher come waaay after “Sleng Teng” start mash up the place. [It was then] Jammy’s do a instrumental and make Asher come play. So it was just me and Noel and, when Jammy’s listen to it, him feel it, so he put a clap [claps out beat] on it and said, “alright, ready to voice.”

I go and put on the headphones but I never had anything written out. From I started singing, it was like, boom! I was just looking at the wall, like I saw all the lyrics written on a blackboard and I was reading it out, one take! “Weighing my brain…no cocaine…I don’t want to, I don’t want to go insane…” So they say bring it back, do the harmony now, and bam! There it was.

Now after I recorded the song, some artist came through, same age was me but they were already popular. And you know when an artist big, the engineer tends to listen to him more, even if you were singing long before that artist. We were all friends still, but Jammy’s ask them, “What you think about this song?” They said it sounded too straight, it wouldn’t be a hit. I have songs in the dance but I don’t buss yet, I am not a household name, and my friend really just say that to the producer? That was wicked to me.

I went outside and water started to run out of my eyes and I washed my face, because I don’t want anyone seeing me crying. I am thinking, everybody buss and I have been singing long time! Junior Reid buss and gone, Half Pint buss and gone and I still can’t buss! And this song that is supposed to lift me up, my friends are saying they weren’t feeling it! That’s not right. I said bloodclaaat! I went back inside the studio and say to Jammy’s, remember that you haven’t given us any money, we just did the song, put it out and see what happens—you have nothing to lose. He was thinking about it and said, “Alright, I’m gonna to play it at the dance tonight and see what happens.”

I didn’t even go to the dance that night because I was depressed. One thing I respected with Jammy’s, if you have something, he will listen to it and give it a try. Sometimes he can’t make a decision without other peoples’ input, but he will give you a chance, and he is a good engineer.

I stayed at home, then, about 6 am the next day, people started to beat down my window saying, “Wayne! Wayne! Him put on the tune you know! The whole night is it a play! It mash up the place!” I thought they were lying just to cheer me up. So later I walk over to Jammy’s and everyone telling me that the song wicked. And Jammy’s tell me some other producer heard the song and want to play over the riddim now, so he was going to flood the place before they can lick it. So Jammy’s starts to voice a lot of people on it and flood the place. Then that was it.

Click here to read on.

Photo: David Corio

LU: Sleng Teng dropped and revolutionized dancehall and you were the first artist on it—your and Noel Davey’s riddim. What happened after that now?

WS: After that it blew up big, big, big, and I started touring.

LU: Where was the first place you went on tour?

WS: Canada because, even when “Sleng Teng” a mash up the place, I couldn’t come over here. I was blacklisted at the U.S. embassy because of a mix up with my name. Wayne “Sandokan” Smith was a notorious gunman wanted by the police, even before he launched an attack on the Olympic Garden police station killing several policemen and stealing some guns. He was the most wanted man at the time. He was allegedly friends with Junior Reid, who was also my friend. Policeman Anthony “Tony” Hewitt raided my house and tore up my passport and threaten to kill me in due time, because of the name mix up and my association with Junior Reid. We were all from the same area.

After a while, my visa came through and I thought I was going to do a lot of shows. At the first, probably about 15 people turn up. Then someone explained people really never believe that I would come for the show: “Look how many years your song hot hot and you just coming to America, nobody believes you are here.” So I go on the radio now and promote my show. The next show was in snow, it ram packed!

LU: Where was that?

WS: Empire Skating Rink in Brooklyn. There was a long line of people around the block waiting in the snow same way. Those times it was me, Cocoa Tea, Bammy Man, Pad Anthony, Anthony Red Rose, all of us.

LU: Were you going to England?

WS: I never went to England at that time either, because the people I was moving with would say, Nah man, a America you fi go man. I never knew that my biggest fans were not in America, but in Europe. Now, every year I go on tour in Europe. I used to go a Japan too but the nuclear thing happen and I haven’t been back there. I also have a son in Japan I have to go and see. When I went to Europe, they wanted me to do songs I had recorded from 1981 and 82. I had to get the record transferred to CD so I could study it. All old songs I was performing. I have recorded a lot of songs. For King Jammy’s alone, I had recorded around 80 songs before “Sleng Teng.” A lot of those tapes got destroyed in Hurricane Gilbert. At Channel One I did over 40 songs.

LU: Now you’re in the process of moving back to Jamaica, how you feel that might impact your music?

WS: It’s not really music why I’m going back. I have to do music because music is my life, but the first thing is I like to be where nature is, and I don’t want to lose touch with nature. If I’m in the country, I know I can come out and see the morning dew on the trees and get more vibes and dem tings deh. I’ve been for a little while in the cold and everything and I don’t like cold [laughs].