Throwback Thursdays: The Making of Gregory Isaacs’ “Rumours”

Words by Jesse Serwer

“Rumours” is one of Gregory Isaacs’ tuffest tunes, a mid-career smash that put the Cool Ruler back on top of the reggae crooner heap in 1988. Recently, we saw French DJ Manudigital shine a light on the technology behind this classic, re-building the Rumours riddim from scratch using an Oberheim DX drum machine, Yamaha DX100 and Yamaha CS01 keyboard.

Now, in comes the real ting: “Rumours” producer Gussie Clarke in the studio breaking down the construction of this classic track. The clip comes via From the Foundation, a collection of Clarke’s biggest productions, dropping tomorrow, Oct. 9 (on CD/digital) through VP Records’ 17 North Parade imprint. Along with “Rumours,” the anthology, available for pre-order here, features classic tracks from Augustus Pablo, Big Youth,  Dennis Brown, Shabba Ranks and Sizzla, to name a few, along with other classics on the Rumours riddim like JC Lodge’s “Telephone Love.”

On Oct. 16th, 17 North Parade will release a vinyl companion piece, with exclusive tracks not on the CD/digital version

We’ve got a copy of the vinyl set to give away. To enter, share this post on Twitter with the hashtag #FromtheFoundation.