Big Youth

Bringing cheerful singsong vocals with chant-down-Babylon fervor, Big Youth arrived hot on the heels of early-’70s reggae toasters U-Roy and Dennis Alcapone. Born Manley Augustus Buchanan in a poor neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica, in 1949, he was nicknamed “Big Youth” by fellow staff at the Sheraton Hotel where he worked as a diesel mechanic. By 1970, he was helming Tippatone’s sound system; soon after, he began working with rising teenage producer Augustus “Gussie” Clarke, charting high with “The Killer,” a version of Horace Andy’s “Skylarking” rhythm. The sound of a revving motorbike kicked off “S.90 Skank,” his first chart-topper. Youth’s Gussie-produced 1972 debut album, Screaming Target, helped him chart seven singles simultaneously and remains a classic of the subgenre. While Youth thrived during the ’70s, the next decade’s digital dancehall sound didn’t particularly suit him. After a few sporadic releases, Youth re-emerged alongside French producer Brain Damage on 2021’s dub-heavy Beyond the Blue, his first proper album in a decade.