Included here is the NYC debut of Junior Reid as lead vocalist for Black Uhuru. After winning the first ever Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for 1985’s Anthem, Black Uhuru is dropped by Island Records and lead vocalist Michael Rose departs the group to pursue a solo career. They are promptly signed to RAS Records and they enter Music Mountain Studios in Kingston, Jamaica with engineer Steven Stanley to record the Brutal album.

Junior Reid is one of the most electrifying performers to emerge from Jamaica in the 1980s. Here he performs a medley of his pre-Uhuru solo hits “Shack-A-Lack” (over a hard Sly & Robbie “World-A-Music” riddim), the Joe Gibbs-produced “Babylon Release The Chain,” and the Jammy-produced “Original Foreign Mind.”

Performance also feat. Duckie Simpson, Puma Jones, Sly & Robbie.

BLACK UHURU | THE RITZ | 1986

Intro (Amy “Night Nurse” Wachtel)
Let Us Pray
Shack-A-Lack/Babylon Release The Chain
Original Foreign Mind/Many A Sorrow
Emotional Slaughter

BLACK UHURU 1986