Contents - Beth Lesser

1984 when the whole sound traveled to New York. Danny Dread went along
and played the sound for a while, but never felt comfortable abroad. So, he
returned to Jamaica.
Back home, Danny Dread joined Montego Bay sound Studio 54, selecting
off and on for deejay Papa Desi, and sometimes, Burro. But Danny was happiest
when Stur-Mars sound invited him on board and he started working, once
again, with his old sparring partner, Nicodemus.
Skeng, a.k.a. Kenneth Black, seemed to appear suddenly on the scene in
late 1985 with his new sound system and his bright, shiny label with distributors
situated in key cities. But Skeng had been involved with the dancehall
scene for a long time. “Skeng is not just a guy who just come around recently,”
Ainsley explains. “Skeng is not just a guy who make some money and buy a
sound like ‘nuff guys do. Skeng is a man who used to keep dance from back
in the days with King Attorney, Socialist Roots with Tony Welch and those
guys. That is how he know Nicodemus, Trevor Ranking and U Brown. Down
in Yorktown, Clarenden, in his area, way back in the ‘70s, he used to bring in
King Attorney, Socialist Roots come and play for him with Trevor Ranking
and those guys.”
Skeng was originally in the construction business. According to entertainer
Joe Lickshot, when he was just a young worker, Skeng’s boss had left the
business to him in his will. With the windfall, Kenneth invested in a string
of gas stations and a trucking business in Miami, the profits from which he
parlayed into the Black Brothers construction company in Jamaica.
Mr. Black became a wealthy man. He used his money to hold dances all
through the ‘70s and, by the mid eighties, he took it a step further, building
the sound and setting up his own label and studio in Miami. Thus, the
well known Skengman was soon promoted to Skeng ‘Don’, the new ‘don’ of
dancehall.
“who a The don?”
From Leroy Smart’s ‘I am the Don’ to Shabba Rank’s ‘Article Don’, the age
of the “Don” was being proclaimed in music. These larger than life characters
captured the imagination of Jamaicans. Wherever a Don went, things happened.
Imported cars breezed through customs, new shoes were modeled, and
everybody ate lunch.
Dons were supposed to take care of people, which they did even more effectively
than elected officials. They assisted the social and financial needs of
their community’s constituency. In return, they received undying loyalty and
devotion of the local people. Dons had always been there in the background
of society in Jamaica, making the wheels run smoothly. But, in the ‘80s, dons
were coming forward, celebrated in song, like deejay Lord Sassafrass’s 45 release,
‘Don of all Dons’, produced by the Don, Altiman,
Have fe know where the Don come from
334 | RUB A DUB STYLE – The Roots of Modern Dancehall