Ras Kush is one of the foremost ambassadors for the UK dub style in the USA, as a sound man, producer and architect of the Black Redemption record label. We first met in 1999; he was working in Jammyland, then the Lower East Side’s foremost reggae store, and I was doing a spot of crate digging. We got chatting about dub and sound systems and we’ve been conversing and collaborating ever since. He’s always been a mine of knowledge, so the other day I took advantage of his visit to Berlin to ask him to reminisce at greater length. We sat down with some black bean stew and a pot of cerasee and got chatting. Here’s the transcript: a feast of information concerning his musical background and development, hip hop and reggae in 1980s Brooklyn, drumming patterns and their relation to ritual, his encounters with Wackie’s and UK dub, the evolution of the Black Redemption sound system and label, and many other matters.
Once you’ve digested that, as a bonus, you get his recent Wax Treatment session: an intense two hours of dubplate pressure, recorded in Berlin on 28 Feb. 2010.
LEGENDARY REGGAE 