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I RoyText by Harry Hawks

Jamaica's most articulate and intelligent deejay whose records, ranging from caustic social commentary to humorous observations, set new standards in the deejay school.

I Roy

Real Name	Roy Samuel Reid
Born	Jun 28, 1944
Died	Nov 27, 1999
Place of Birth	St.Thomas Jamaica

"I Roy is a guy who can send a clear message. He's one of the more stylish deejays."
Lee 'Scratch' Perry(Lee Perry)

Born Roy Samuel Reid on 28th June 1944 in the rural parish of St. Thomas I Roy would always defend his deejay 'nom de mic.' against accusations of being a U Roy impersonator by stating categorically "Me name Roy Reid. U Roy name Ewart Beckford" and then spelling out "E.W.A.R.T.... Me name R.O.Y.". But there was never anything the least bit questionably unoriginal about the man named I Roy. Erudite and articulate he had studied at Technical College prior to beginning work as an accountant for the Jamaican Civil Service. His extensive education and his studied approach meant that he was always one step ahead of his rivals.

He began to learn the trade of chatting on the microphone for 'Soul Bunnies' a weekly "Wednesday disco party" discotheque near the Victoria Pier before graduating to the Spanish Town based sound system Son's Junior. His next move was to Ruddy's Supreme Ruler Of Sound, a Spanish Town legend, and he then moved on to Stereo before working with V Rocket hailing from May Pen in Clarendon before graduating to the Waterhouse, Kingston based King Tubby's Home Town Hi Fi in the middle of 1972. By this time he had left the Civil Service and exchanged his sober office wear for some of the wickedest suits ever sighted in a dance hall. His sartorial approach was a perfect match for his manner on the mic. and Bunny Lee recalled that "we used to call I Roy 'Knits' through him wear the knits ganzie" (expensive imported Italian knitwear). He habitually dressed with the same care and attention to detail that he put into his lyrics.

I Roy first entered the recording studio with Spanish Town resident Harry Mudie who, although he could never be termed prolific, produced some of reggae's most enduring and most versioned rhythms ever. I Roy's earliest recordings for Harry Mudie, 'Musical Pleasure', 'Heart Don’t Leap', 'It May Sound Silly' and 'Drifter', occasionally betrayed the stylistic leanings of Dennis AlCapone. But it did not take him long to assimilate his early influences and develop his very own style and Harry Mudie described him as "Jamaica's greatest deejay".

In 1973 Augustus Gussie Clarke had capitalised on his knowledge and understanding of the musical changes occurring in Kingston during the early Seventies while working with Big Youth on his first long playing record 'Screaming Target'. The second album from the Gussie & Puppy set up, 'Gussie Presenting I Roy', was I Roy's debut long player. A number of the same rhythm tracks appear on both albums. The two deejays gave radically different interpretations working on the same template and Gussie allowed I Roy the space and the room to express himself fully and fluently. 'Gussie Presenting I Roy' proved to be a milestone in I Roy's lengthy and illustrious career and he never ever looked back...

"... he's completely different from the rest of them. He's topical and deserves international recognition for his work." Augustus Gussie Clarke

As the decade progressed he would go on to work with every producer of note in Kingston and his prolific output was matched by his professionalism and prowess on the microphone. His lyrics dropped names such as Black Panthers Adam Clayton Powell and Stokely Carmichael... Alfred Hitchcock... Dennis The Menace... Florence Nightingale... and Mickey Spillane. I Roy was a man whose influences and vocabulary were far wider than the road between Spanish Town and Kingston.

Bunny 'Striker' Lee(Bunny Lee), a man who can always make things happen, introduced I Roy to King Tubby after U Roy travelled to the UK on tour with Max Romeoartist| and Max Romeo in 1972:

" ...I wasn't there but I Roy on Tubby's sound just get popular now because U Roy was on tour. Them never look back and I start to do a lot of recording with I Roy too and I Roy becomes like one of the most famous deejays. They used to say him is the most intelligent deejay. The man used to have some great lyrics!" Bunny 'Striker' Lee(Bunny Lee)

I Roy first travelled to London in July 1973 where, backed by Dennis Bovell's Matumbi, he demonstrated that he could reproduce his non-stop talk live and direct on stage every bit as well as he did on record. He returned to the UK in November of that year and played a residency at Carnaby Street's Roaring Twenties club in the heart of London's West End deejaying for the UK's top sound Sir Coxsone. Roy eventually returned to Jamaica in June 1974. "I just stayed home and write and meditate... and just come back February come mash up the road..." Starting with 'Natty Down Deh' for Pete Weston in February 1975 I Roy proceeded to take the country by storm as hit followed hit followed hit. He worked with many, many different producers forming particularly fruitful partnerships with Glen Brown on 'Rasta On A Sunday' and 'Brother Toby Is A Movie From London' and with Lee Perry on 'Doctor Who' and 'Dread In The West', 'Full Warning' and 'Sound Education' for Jimmy Radway, 'Hot Stuff' for Keith Hudson, with Errol T(Errol Thompson) on 'Sufferer's Psalm', Roy Cousins with 'Monkey Fashion', Pete Weston and 'Black Talk' and 'Buck And The Preacher', 'Yamaha Ride' and 'Late Hour' for Leonald 'Santic' Chin(Leonald Chin), Derrick Harriott with 'Tougher Than Tough' and 'Frankie J & Melinda', with Bunny 'Striker' Lee(Bunny Lee) on the I Roy versus Prince Jazzbo saga, the wild 'Tiger From Bengalie' for Rupie Edwards, 'Prime Minister' for Lloyd Charmers, 'I Man Time', 'Proud Black' and 'Roots Man' for the Hookim Brothers at Channel One, 'Sidewalk Killer' for Ruddy's SRS label and an uncredited 'Talking Blues' for Bob Marley. 'Welding', a rather risqué release for the Hookims, narrowly missed the UK National Charts when taken up for release by Phonogram. He was not lacking in the long playing department either and collections such as 'Hell And Sorrow', which contained many of his Jamaican hit singles, and the Pete Weston produced 'Many Moods Of I Roy' were far, far heavier and far more consistent than your standard deejay fare.

He went on to work as in house arranger and producer at Channel One's Maxfield Avenue studio, alongside Ossie Hibbert, where as well as recording many hits for the label he also worked on their hits with other artists. Jo Jo gave I Roy a great deal of credit, not only through his recordings but also for his tireless enthusiasm, for his contribution to the 'Revolutionary Sound Of Channel One'.

"I Roy was able to turn a session round through his charismatic personality. He would vibe up the musicians and help us (Jo Jo and Ernest) coax more out of the players."
Jo Jo Hookim(Joseph Hookim)

Strangely enough I Roy very rarely ventured into self production and the sole release on his own Royco Inc. label, backed with 'Fiat 125' from Augustus Pablo, was the almighty 'Cow Town Skank'. It was also released on Derrick Harriott's Move & Groove label with Derrick handling the distribution from his King Street One Stop premises.

The 1975 feud between I Roy and fellow Spanish Town deejay Prince Jazzbo has now become the stuff of legend. I Roy inadvertently started it off when running a voice test at King Tubby's studio prior to recording for Bunny Lee one evening in which he berated Jazzbo's alleged difficulty in riding the previous rhythm: "Jazzbo man if you were a juke box I wouldn't put a dime into your slot". Although I Roy insisted it was only a test Striker released it as 'Straight To Prince Jazzbo's Head' and then encouraged Prince Jazzbo to enter the fray with 'Straight To I Roy's Head' and the barbed 'Gal Boy I Roy'. Even veteran Derrick Morgan was drawn in to the confrontation but I Roy came back at him with 'Straight To Derrick Morgan's Head'. The arguments have continued to this day as to who the eventual winner was and I Roy pointed out "well me take it for a joke but Jazzbo take it serious".

When Virgin Records started to invest heavily in Jamaican music in the latter half of the Seventies I Roy featured heavily on their release schedules and came up with numerous long players for their Front Line label which did much to raise his profile in the UK with the new reggae audience. I Roy never stopped making records and was as prolific during the Eighties as he had been in the previous decade but, over the years, his releases sold less and less well. Latter day classics such as his Volcano twelve inch, 'Two Big Sounds' where he describes a sound clash between Turbotronic and U Roy's Sturgav, were nowhere near as popular as they deserved to be. He was competing against a whole new generation of deejays, many of whom had learnt much of their approach directly from I Roy, but the fickle audience preferred novelty to experience. He continued to play his own Turbotronic Sound System but, after battling with ill health that had dogged him through the latter half of the Nineties, I Roy died of heart failure in the Spanish Town Hospital on 27th November 1999 aged fifty five. His untimely death dealt a serious blow to reggae music.

"For me he was too much of a gentleman for the game he was in... (he was) one of the proudest human beings who would never compromise his principles." Gussie Clarke(Augustus Gussie Clark)

His contribution to the deejay school was prodigious and every deejay that came after him had to work much, much harder. A man could no longer go to into the recording studio and throw down some of their choicest dance hall outbursts but, instead, endless thought had to be put into the form and content of their seemingly spontaneous rants. There is so much preparation and consideration in I Roy's astonishing early works that they were not like deejay records at all... certainly not like deejay records as they had previously been understood. I Roy's approach was completely different to U Roy, Dennis AlCapone and Big Youth but together these men created a completely new style of music that will live forever.

Date Added: Apr 20, 2011 / Date Updated: Jan 30, 2014