Roots Archives Forum

Just listening to some Yellowman and can't help but think he is the king of the reggae one-liners. Some examples off the top of my head:
1. If all the girls should be cross the sea, what a great swimmer Yellowman would be.
2. Exchange is no robbery; she give me lovin, I give her money.
3. Macaroni, rice and peas, you lick your lips...pass the ketchup please.
4. Me put her in the kitchen to fry some chicken, put her in the kitchen to boil some rice; when me see whey she do me bawl "Jesus Christ"!
5. When me did born my mother disown me, me mother said "Lord, what an ugly baby".
Etc...

Anyone think they have a candidate who can challenge the king?

Yellowman has a lot of original lyrics, but also some "shared / borrowed" lyrics. 1 and 4 made the sound system rounds late 70's / early 80's before Yellow recorded them.

4 is a line from a TV commercial shown on Jamaican TV for Grace ketchup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3se_r0091Kw

Others, like 5 are definitely autobiographical. His parents literally left him in a trash heap when they found out he was a dundus (albino) child. He was placed in the Eventide Home for orphans.

Credit to him, he's a real survivor, and a very warm and kind person.

Best DJ for comedy and originality is General Echo, there is really no contest, Yellow would tell you this himself.
But like most DJs, Echo is best heard in a dance, which fortunately have been captured for posterity on the many Echotone and Stereophonic cassettes that circulate (he died in 1980).

Great info Davek. Thanks. I don't read anything about reggae, not even liner notes, so it's nice to learn some of this stuff from this site. Great commercial. I did know of it's existence, but never saw it. I need to get more Echo. Just have 1 album and random songs on collections.

Man, I never knew those lines were from an ad for ketchup. Great that he put it in a song though.

For me Yellowman is top of the class.

"Nuff a dem a talk about me nuh have girlfriend
You an idiot bwoy! Me have a hundred and ten!"