ranking dread

[kalcidis]

Did you ever meet Ranking Dread, Dave?

Personally I rate him as one of the best. A RD discog I've done;
http://home.swipnet.se/kalcidis/discorankingdread/

[Dave K]

Did you ever meet Ranking Dread, Dave?

Personally I rate him as one of the best. A RD discog I've done;
http://home.swipnet.se/kalcidis/discorankingdread/

@K

Just once, at a club, because the people I was with knew him, but I didn't have a conversation w1ith him. By then he was no longer really "RD", but "RB". He only recorded for a few years.

As for "the best"....if someone came from another planet and wanted to hear what DJs sound like, I can imagine about 30 or so I would play before I got to RD. But if they asked to hear "the baddest DJ.....".

I see him as far from "the best", but to each his or her own. Have you ever heard Brigadier Jerry, Ranking Joe & General Echo and others from that era?

[kalcidis]

Yeah, I love Echo, Ranking Joe and Briggy and I realise there are tons of deejays like these three that have meant more for the deejay class than Ranking Dread. In that sense I'm entirely with you that he can't be considered the »best«. He was to obscure and wasn't influential enough. If you don't find like his style he's just a foot note unlike giants as Briggy, R. Joe, G. Echo that regardless if you like them or not had a real importance for the scene. Pioneering deejaying styles, having seminal hits and being trend setters.

I am however much quicker to draw my *Lots of Loving* LP rather than anything by the others and in that sense I see him as one of the best. A very personal reflection and entirely just my own opinion with no real reason other than that I enjoy him immensely.

RB = Ranking Bowyark?

[Dave K]

RB = Ranking Bowyark?

Hi K

RB = Robert Blackwood, how he was known while living here while seeking political asylum. He didn't receive asylum by the govt, and was deported to JA.

[kalcidis]

Aaah ... that I knew really. Had it written in my notes that it was one of his aliases.

In my notes I've also written that he entered Canada in '89 under the name of Michael Dix. But that doesn't mean that he used another alias while there.

[Dave K]

Aaah ... that I knew really. Had it written in my notes that it was one of his aliases.

In my notes I've also written that he entered Canada in '89 under the name of Michael Dix. But that doesn't mean that he used another alias while there.

@K

I believe Dix was an alias used just to get him out of the U.K., and to the Canadian shores. Once he arrived and his true identity was determined, he was simply known as "RB", his birth name I believe.

At that time, Canada was known for having very lax laws when it came to allowing "political refugees" to stay. It has since tightened laws somewhat. His claim was on the basis that the political party in power in JA at the time would persecute him for political affiliations. It worked for a while, but as we know, he was then deported to JA.

What's "the truth"? I really don't know what he was truly guilty of, or innocent of. I do know that there were all sorts or stories / rumours abounding, most of them not very nice (if they are true).

His attempts to stay deportation were well chronicled in the local papers, which usually referenced him as "a star reggae entertainer". By that time I don't think that he had recorded or performed for years.

I am sure that these articles can be accessed from papers if you have the time and inclination. But I don't remember them ever going deep into his personal life and career, they were always about the situation at hand. If I had known that anyone would have cared 20 years later, I would have cut them out for you, and put them in a drawer!

[seanmd]

Personally, I dont think he came close to the other DJs from that era, he did one or to good tunes. But I'd even put DJs such as Bobby Culture ahead of him, althoug thats a personal view gleaned from Sound System Tapes rather than studio stuff.

In respect of the gangster stories

I had a mate who lived in Stoke Newington who had no interest in reggae (he's still a mate,but he does'nt live there anymore). As I said, he's not a reggae fan at all. Anyway we were chatting one day, and he asked me if I'd heard of Ranking Dread, which I thought was strange coming from him. I said yes, I got a couple of tunes by him. My mate then went on to tell me how Ranking Dread was also a big time gangster around Stoke Newington and that he had 'cut' quite a few people around the place, including someone thay my mate worked with. To be honest I was a bit surprised at the time. Although over the years more and more stories have emerged.

[Well Charge]

The people who were there at the time have a different opinion of him:

"Hey I tell you the best DJ I have ever seen on an ongoing basis and any Shaka disciple will tell you. Ranking Dread absolutely unbelievable. But he could not do it on vynll only live. The man could and did give literally speeches and talk for 10 plus minutes striaght seriously about black people and then bust into another ting and to that all night"

from a very interesting thread between people who were into the roots scene at the time -->

http://blackchat.co.uk/theblackforum/fo ... 324-1.html

[Dave K]

@Wellcharge

Interesting that even his disciples agree that his recorded output isn't much to speak about, which is what we are discussing.

I am not sure I would want to hear a give a 10 minute speech at a dance, but if anyone has any tapes from this period, I would be interested in hearing what they heard in him.

It's interesting how some DJs don't translate well to record. Briggy is an example - nothing he recorded touches what he could do live on Jah Love from the late 70's to early 80's. Tapes are evidence of this.

My wife pretty much refuses to listen to DJ records. If she wants to hear DJs, she'll play a cassette. Personally I am okay with both!

[Well Charge]

Also the case with Yellowman imo