Contents - Beth Lesser

deejay than a singer, he had been working local sounds like Inner City Vibes.
Malvo recalls. “Tiger was a little comedian in Standpipe. So, when Black Star
played in standpipe, Tiger would come and ask for the mic and he sound
good, everybody make a lot of noise, so [Black Star] say, ‘OK, come’ – cause
him talented – and that’s when him join. Full of fun, and he was just crazy,
he do some crazy things.”
While he was corking sessions in the evenings, by day, he retained regular
employment, selling records at Aquarius Studio, bagging groceries at the
Welcome Supermarket and “holding the gate” at the Kentucky Fried Chicken
boardroom on Old Hope Road. “When I was at the gate, I got this call. Black
Star sent for me to do a dance in America. And I told Mr. Myers [Mark Myers,
his boss] that people wanted for to do some shows and he said, ‘Tiger, it’s
alright. you can go. I won’t fire you if you go’. When I came back, I still had
the job, but I was into music so much, I even did a concert for Kentucky. It
was beautiful.”
Black Star went on an extended tour taking Tiger and the crew. In Washington
D.C., he bought a Roland 505 drum machine. Back in Jamaica, he
added a Casio keyboard. Like a kid, Tiger, “loved his toy cars and gadgets,”
according to Malvo. Also, he loved electronic devices, musical and visual.
He walked with his camcorder and had a library of videos, mainly comedy.
At home, he would make his front porch into a studio anytime a musician
dropped by. First he would bring out the Casio Keyboard, then, a Tascam
four track mixing board. And finally, the drum machine. After quite a bit of
patching, he was ready to rock. On a lazy day, Wire Lindo * might drop by to
jam while a crowd of youths watched, mesmerized, with their faces pressed up
against the iron grill. “I do something that a deejay never do yet – build them
own rhythm,” he boasted in 1987. What Tiger was doing, back in 1985, was
revolutionary – he was building his own rhythm tracks in his own home. His
first LP, Me Name Tiger, was entirely self- produced. Self taught in music and
electronics, Tiger made all the rhythms for the album, and the next several
albums to follow.
A dazzled press began to take notice and Tiger started to receive awards
from the music industry, the same industry that was often very anti-dancehall.
In 1986, he performed at the Annual Rockers Awards with major press
coverage, and scored a starring role in Sunsplash. But his best was yet to come.
In 1989 he teamed up with Steelie and Clevie for the LP Ram Dancehall. The
partnership worked well and in 1991, Tiger hit the charts again with ‘Cool
Me Down’ (which was featured in the movie Cool Runnings) and ‘When’
which became his biggest hit yet, attracting the major label Columbia who
released his Claws of the Cat LP in 1993.
Through the later ‘80s and early ‘90s, he served as a compelling role model
for deejays in the field, many of whom picked up his high octane style. Tiger
* Keyboard player with the Wailers
284 | RUB A DUB STYLE – The Roots of Modern Dancehall