Stitchie, Early B, Echo Minott, Peter Metro, & more

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This is an edited compilation featuring Stitchie, Early B, Peter Metro, Blacker ranks aka Blacker, Dominic, and George Henry. Backing bands featured are The Sagittarius Band and Lloyd Parkes & We The People Band. The stage shows venues were the National Arena, Kingston, Jamaica, and Paradise Park, Westmoreland, Jamaica.

Cleveland Laing (born 29 September 1965), better known as Lieutenant Stitchie, is a Jamaican deejay who originally worked in the dancehall style but switched to gospel reggae in 1997 after surviving a car crash, thereafter working under the shorter name Stitchie. Laing was born in Spanish Town and worked as a biology teacher at Spanish Town School before embarking on a career in music, for a time pursuing both. In the late 1970s, he began his career as a singer. In the mid-1980s he began working on sound systems such as the Django sound system (as DJ Ranking Noseworthy), and released his first single under the name Ranking Citrus, or Citchie for short is known for his love of citrus fruits. He went on to work on the Stereo One sound system, where he adopted the stage name Stitchie after being credited as such via a misprinted record label. In 1986 he began working with Prince Jammy, recording the single "Wear Yuh Size", followed in 1987 with his debut album Great Ambition. His style was humorous, often adopting the voices of several different characters during a song. His single "Natty Dread" topped the Jamaican charts for fourteen weeks. Commercial success led to a record deal with Atlantic Records in 1988, Stitchie becoming one of the first dancehall artists, 4 years after Yellowman, to sign a deal with a major record label

Echo Minott was born Noel Phillips in 1963 and grew up in the Maverley area of Kingston, Jamaica. He started singing from an early age, appearing in local talent contests and school concerts. His first break came in 1980 when he recorded the album “Youthman Vibration” for legendary producer Prince Jammy, at the age of 17 years. This album wasn’t released in Jamaica and appeared on the Starlight label based in London, U.K. In 1983 he recorded the tune “Ten Miles” for his cousin, producer Errol Marshall, and this was his first tune to be released under the name Echo Minott. It was in 1985 that Echo Minott finally became an international reggae star with the monster hit “Lazy Body”, released on the Black Scorpio label. It was number one all over the reggae world and led to a whole album of versions of the rhythm. At this time, Echo was a regular member of two of Jamaica’s top sound systems Black Scorpio and King Jammys.
It was with Jammys that Echo was to have his next hit singles. “Original Fat Thing” and “Put One Hand On The Key” were both enormous hits on Jammys’ new revolutionary Sleng Teng rhythm track. Echo hit again in 1986 with the extraordinary track “What The Hell”, also for the Jammys label, which remained top of the Jamaican charts for three whole months.
King Jammys followed these hits with the “What The Hell” album and also another big hit “Emmanuel Road”, which re-worked an old Jamaican folk song in the dancehall style. Many other hits like “Mr Ruddy” (Witty), “Follow Me” (Music Master), “Been Around The World” (Jammys), “Whip Appeal” (Black Scorpio) and “Artical Don” (Two Friends), ensured that Echo Minott remained a household name within the reggae scene for the rest of the eighties, and into the early 90s. In 1992, Echo left Jamaica to live in New York and immediately had a massive international number one reggae hit with “Murder Weapon” (Signet), which rode a version of Shaggy’s “Oh Carolina” rhythm. When the jungle explosion hit the UK in 1993/94, Murder Weapon was re-worked in the new style and became another enormous hit again.

Peter Metro (born Peter Clarke, Kingston, Jamaica, c.1960) is a reggae deejay, who released five albums in the 1980s. Initially performing under the name Peter Ranking, he changed his name when he discovered that another deejay was using that name, and since he was the resident deejay on the Metromedia sound system, he chose the name Peter Metro. His use of Spanish gained him many fans in South America, and he is acknowledged as the first multilingual reggae toaster. His work with Yellowman and Fathead on the albums Yellowman, Fathead, and the one Peter Metro (1982) and Live With Yellowman and Sassafrass (1984) kept his profile high through to the mid-1980s. He appeared at the Reggae Sunsplash festival in 1987 with English deejay Dominic, captured on the Reggae Sunsplash Dancehall X '87 video. In 1989, he appeared as a guest on the CD Bora Bora by the Brazilian rock band Os Paralamas do Sucesso. He performed the song "The Can" and "Don't Give Me That", the latter being an anti-cocaine statement that made reference to Richard Pryor's mishap with crack in 1980.