Latest Release
- JUL 26, 2024
- 1 Song
- Sinsemilla (Expanded Edition) · 1980
- Reggae Greats · 1985
- Guess Who's Coming To Dinner · 1981
- Liberation: The Island Anthology · 1993
- Red · 1981
- Black Sounds of Freedom (Extended Version) · 1981
- Welcome To Dinna - Single · 2023
- RAS Portraits · 1986
- Red · 1981
- Reggae Anthology: Joe Gibbs - Scorchers from the Mighty Two · 2008
Essential Albums
- There’s something biblical and prophetic about this Black Uhuru masterpiece. Michael Rose sings with a kind of eerie authority, his voice piercing the lyrics and providing a needed counterbalance to Sly & Robbie’s humid, weighty rhythms. The harmonies are so spectacular that you could almost miss the Rastafarian messages in songs like “Leaving to Zion” and “General Penitentiary.” Each track also melts so seamlessly into its dub version that you’ll hardly realize what’s happened—until you suddenly feel reality (or the song) warping around you.
Music Videos
Artist Playlists
- Rockers and Rastas alike loved this classic reggae trio.
Live Albums
Compilations
About Black Uhuru
No reggae group sounded as consistently righteous, rebellious, and harmonically vital during the '80s as Black Uhuru. Formed in Kingston, Jamaica, by Don Carlos, Garth Dennis, and Derrick "Duckie" Simpson in 1972, Uhuru (Swahili for "freedom") announced themselves with an unsweetened cover version of The Impressions’ "Romancing to the Folk Song." By decade's end, the band had coalesced into their classic lineup: singers Simpson, Michael Rose, and South Carolina's Sandra "Puma" Jones, accompanied by rhythm legends Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare. From 1980's Sinsemilla through 1984's Anthem (which won the first Grammy for a reggae album), Black Uhuru re-invented reggae as an uncompromisingly heavy arena medium open to funk, disco, and synthesizers. When Rose went solo, Junior Reid replaced him on 1986's Brutal, with New York dance producer Arthur Baker brought in to co-produce. After Dennis and Carlos returned for four albums during the '90s, the band's lineup changed yet again for later albums, including 2018's As the World Turns.
- FROM
- Kingston, Jamaica
- FORMED
- 1972
- GENRE
- Reggae