Roots Archives Forum

perhaps the mod. can take off the multiple posts... greetings and welcome to the forum, malawi... good to see the 'children of the emperor' man and jah love selector here

iiii love sweet jah jah,iiii ah live amount zion....barry brown..if you know the tune well you will know the riddim and bass line...heavy!hear de ranking dread version...nuh trouble jah tubby,nuh trouble jah tubby,cos if yuh trouble jah tubby him ah go lick off yuh head,trouble jah tubby cos him ah forward ahead..nuh trouble jah tubby,nuh trouble jah tubby etc etc...dat deh dub kill all sound bwoy..dat deh dub silence jungle man sound from birmingham back in de day,digbeth civic hall,1979...those were the days man...yuh hear.....

I've always thought that Love A Dub was a beautiful song.

"Imma truuueee believer in love, a trueeee believer in LooooVE. Nothings gonna change me not no whey"

After i found out how much of a psycho he was this line makes me laugh every time.

I heard about RD a long time ago, that he was a criminal, in addition to his recordings. I did not know that his exploits were so many and that he was so deep into crime.


I was just reading Guns and Gangs by Graeme Mclagan and read a bit about him and decided to do an internet search where I came across this site. (been here before though) All I can say is I hope his days off crime are over and that Jah has mercy on him.

I will not deny his talent as a DJ and I take it those who say he is the best/greatest DJ realy mean on their list. Yu want to know all who he trails?
Jah Mikey of Socialist Roots, Briggy of Jah Love, Rankine Joe of Stur Gav, General Echo of Stereophnics, Lone Ranger with Soul to Soul, Super Cat on Soul Majesty, just to name a few of those I used to hear in Jamaica, the list can go on and on.
Yellow Man!? Which Yellow Man dat? Joke ting dat!! If he was not an albino, with his pirating/plagiarising everybody else, he would not even be as good as me, and I only DJ when taking a shower.

"Yout and yout agree to cool runnings"

Blackman Redemption - Bob Marley

Re: The Cook Report

Yeah I remember seeing this at the time. Though the guy Cook was mithering was refereed to as Errol Codling, an alias of Ranking Dread. Basically Cook approaches him in his usual manner, the guy shrugs his shoulders, kisses his baby and plays innocent, end of scene.

I can remember there being some thing in the narration along the lines of "He thinks he's so above the law he makes his own pop videos under the pseudonym Ranking Dread"

Ranking Dread, I heard he passed away, I was one of the his sweethearts I would say.

I never saw the bad side of him, he did me no wrong apart from the fact that I was in love with him and I guess he had several others.

On the romantic side, he was smooth, real gentle and being with him was real nice back then, he treated me kind. I met his friends, looking back I would same his demenour was humble, he was not boastful at all.

RIP Ranking Dread, hope your off-spring will prosper and not pattern your lifesyle. You were extremely talented and you made it in the music business, had you held on and not become a victim of circumstance, then all the bull shit that goes on in Jamaica you could have passed it by, had you come from a weathly family, you would have made a nice husband.

The man was clean, his clothes were always prestine, don't ask me why, brand new marina and boxers usually silk, you could cut a piece of paper with the the seam in his trousers, he was sharp and the ladies loved him, I think his life was a waste in the sense that it was taken in the end, a lesson others should learn is to persevere, as I said he did me no wrong, I met him when I was 19 years old and can say he took care of me, when we were together.

RIP my First Love Ranking Dread, there was an eliment of fear being with him, but he was kind, I heard the rumours but I felt nice being his girlfriend.

what you said teresa is damn true i remember seeing him at phebies/cubies in london,nottinghill carnival and all over birmigham back in the day...he was a clean person


jah rest his soul...

I wonder who was the leading lady in the Dreads life, just a thought.

The baby he was holding in the Cook Report must have grown up by now, can understand his children not wanting to go public.

However we must not be quick to judge the man as there is very little evidence.

Greetings good people, thank you all for the great info on this man. Through all his highs and lows, one thing surely must be noted: he had the best stage name of all... "Ranking Dread" tuff stuff...