Photo courtesty of daddyfreddy.com – go deh!
Droid has uncovered a great video featurette on Daddy Freddy which includes his appearance on Record Breakers. Essential viewing made all the better by Cheryl Baker and Roy Castle expressing their admiration/confusion.
Interesting trajectory from yard stuff to “ragga house/hip hop” to Congo Natty to The Rootsman to The Bug. Woebot had him down as a bit of a day labourer at first I think and then revised his opinion.
I love his stuff, of course. Especially that Fashion 12″ Baba Loo Baba La Baba Loo Baba Laba (Them No Bad Like Me). Interesting to see that he’s done some albums with Exterminator according to the biog.
Freddy also rocked out on London’s Sir Coxsone Outernational soundsystem in the mid to late 80s and needless to say I’d be quite up for a copy of this sound tape from ’88: “Coxsone vs Saxon feat Tenor Fly, Daddy Freddy, Barrington Levy, Peter Metro, Ricky Tuffy” !!!
Have to kind of agree with the Woebot here – he does seem to have gotten around – from hip-hop to house to jungle, and now breakcore business… as I think I mentioned years ago on Dissensus, my first exposure to him was through the babaloo sampling ‘dubplate style’ by Marvellous Cain on Subbbase – which he then redid the vocal for ‘babaloo’ on the Marvellous Cain LP ‘Guntalk’, which is almost unique for featuring a bunch of mainstream dancehall atists actually doing live vocals for a jungle record… so it appears that ‘rent a ragga’ may not be the most innaccurate label to pin on him – though his price is high over $400 for a dubplate these days…
I might have that soundtape somewhere. Ill have a look. If its the one Im thinking of, the sound is a bit dodgy on it (so whats new!) ;).
Seen Dubplates.com? you can basically contact hundreds of singers and commission a special, if you pay enough. Including Burning Spear, whoever..
“special offer on Bounty Killer” “the legendary Beres Hammond”
is there anyone who is clearly NOT rent a ragga? Admittedly this is specials and not recording, but I would say actual collaborative recording shows more depth and imagination than a special.
It’s hard to tell on the internets, what the tone is, when y’all are discussing the fact that he has recorded with tons of people from all over the spectrum. In some artistic fields that would be considered automatically a good thing. Am I right that some think it is not?
I think Daddy Freddy is generally quality. Consistent, maybe a bit samey, but he a great ingredient in a good producer’s work. Regardless of genre. And I think he is more adventurous than many.
Big up Ripley – I think you have already got to where I was going. Seems to me that there is a tension between “authenticity” and diversity here. The whole of the JA music industry is set up for “rent a ragga” vocalists being paid a lump sum to put their words on top of the latest riddim and that is why the whole “version album” state of affairs is such a mess.
To my mind Daddy Freddy proved his worth when he got on the mic on soundsystems like Coxsone in the UK and Daddy Merchant, El Bebo International, Youtman Promotions etc in JA. If he hadn’t proved himself there, it’s doubtful he would have survived! But somehow this is all negated because he branched out later in the 80s.
I think there is an argument about his lyrical style being gimmicky, but this is also true of Eek-A-Mouse, Goofy et al and they seem to be fine.
It’s an interesting discussion to have – and most people having it seem torn between keeping JA people firmly in the box marked “yard” and opening things out (as with their own projects, or stuff like The Bug).
😆 Meant to expand on my comments before this happend! I totally agree with you Ripley – yes, it is a good thing that Freddy has gone for diversity – I dont have any issues with his ‘authenticity’. If it wasnt for his open mind/commercial instinct, he never would have collaborated with junglists, and i never would have heard of him. My comments above dont invalidate high my high opinion of him – hes a great MC – a touch of the novelty act about him – but thats par for the course..
I dont think the comparison with cutting dubplates is accurate though. Youd be hard pressed to get Bounty or Beres to do a tune like ‘Ragga-house’ – sure you can get their acapella when you pay for a dub – but its not the same thing at all, there is no conscious effort on the part of the artist to diversify or spread themselves around – its intended strictly for dancehall and soundclash – and if a soundboy did splice their lyrics up with another genre it would have little to do with the artist and (from what Ive heard), they would gain little or nothing from the process. In fact, i know of one UK artist who wont do split channel dubs any more because his vocals have been used without permission on a release…
BTW – I heard he was a pain i the hole to work with (I think) from someone connected to the bug.. anyone else stumble across this info or am i imagining it? Seems like a nice bloke in the video…
http://chantellefiddy.blogspot.com/2006/03/buggin-out.html
“Q: Any memorable experiences recording it?
Working with the somewhat erratic Cutty Ranks, who decided to insult the engineer and provoke the producer on several occasions, whilst getting severely blunted and seriously mashed up on guiness, before dropping some seriously homicidal lyrics on ‘Boom Boom Claat’.”
So I think Cutty rather than Freddy. Incidentally I remember Kevin telling me that with some vocalists he would have them voice on a minimal un-noisy backing track of the tune because they would have had real problems with the full-on Bug sound in the studio. But there were some who were able to get into the vibe of The Bug who got the full mentalist sonic onslaught to chat over.
Oh btw in case anyones wondering – dubplates.com is a bit of a rip off. 25 – 40% more expensive than some dealers out there…
Aha! Thats what I was thinking of! Apologies for dispariging the magnificent Freddy!
The worlds fastest rapper is Ricky Brown aka No Clue. Check out the guiness books site to confirm. He broke the record in 2005, so have your facts straight before publishing false information.
Fair do’s: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/arts_and_media/music_feats_and_facts/fastest_rap_mc.aspx
John’s title is perfectly true. Freddy was the worlds fastest rapper for 15 years or so. Ricky Brown’s a blow-in!
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Yeah John! Get your facts straight before publishing false information. Is ANY of this blog accurate? WHO benefits from these smears???
😆
I CAN BEAT RICKY BROWN NO CLUE RECORD I JUST WANT A SHOT AT IT IF ANYTHING SO I CAN PROVE THAT IM THE FASTEST RAPPER KNOW JUST GIVE ME A CHANCE OR YAL CAN REACH ME AT 903 3375832 PLEASE I JUST WANT ONE SHOT.