About Me
Born Manley Augustus Buchanan, 19th April 1949, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. A stylistic and artistic innovator of the highest order, Big Youth started adult life, following a youth of extreme poverty but found solace in his Rastafarian faith and music. In 1968 the young man started to hear the voice of the Rasta man, spending time in the Back A Wall Community. He began to wear his hair in dreadlocks; he became interested in his own history as a black man. Starting as a cab driver, he subsequently found employment as a mechanic working in the Skyline and Sheraton hotels in Kingston. He practised while at work, listening to his voice echo around the empty rooms. Like most deejay's Youth would sometimes be allowed to take the microphone at dances and thereby gain some experience. His popularity grew steadily until Big Youth became the resident DJ for the Lord Tippertone sound system (one of the top Kingston sounds in the early 70s), where he clashed regularly with other top DJ's and gradually built a reputation. It was not long before he was approached by record producers. Big Youth elevated the role of the deejay to that of an artist in their own right, and the art of deejaying to Internationally recognisable and recognisied art form. Deejay's like Big Youth help shape the foundation for rap music today in America as an artform, starting some 30 years ago. Even the popular singjay style in Jamaica was originated by Big Youth. He also the first deejay to start singing and developed a chanting style derived and heavily influnced by the Psalms. Not the first to toast (chating over a rhythm) on record but the most original. As he rode the rhythm he added observations on life in the ghetto, evangelised for his Rastafarian Faith, added children's rhymes, cinema referenced, mento couplets, pop songs, biblical references and lines inspired by 'The Last Poets: Everything and anything went into the mix to create something quite startlingly original. The first reggae star to openly sport dreadlocks on stage and album covers. After this there was to be no looking back as the Youth carved out a career in Reggae music that that very few could ever come close to. Check his cameo in the reggae film Rockers for evidence of his positive influence and disarming smile. His front teeth are embedded with red, gold, and green jewels. His first major hit "S-90 Skank" stayed at number 1 in Jamaica for many weeks. Celebrating the West Kingston cult of the motorbike (the S90 was a Japanese Honda), it opened with the sounds of an actual bike being revved up in the studio, and continued with Youth proclaiming, "Cos man if you ride like lightning then you'll crash like thunder'. For the next few years he did indeed ride like lightning and Bob Marley was the only artist to approach his popularity. Perhhaps more importantly he was really the first artist to express 'roots' philosophy so coherently, and thus persuasively both in his music and in his life. He was the first to come up with the pharse 'Natty Dread Inna Babylon' which was picked up by so many subsequently- even Bob Marley : Representing the authentic sound of the ghetto, Big Youth has set new standards for deejays to say something constructive and to try to educate his listeners. His music gave penetrating insights into the ghettos of Kingston and of the influence of Rastafarianism on the youths of Jamaica. He formed his Negusa Nagast (Amharic for King of Kings) and Augustus Buchanan labels in 1973 for greater artistic and financial control of his career. The consummate cultural toaster, Big Youth ruled the dancehalls across the '70s, and although his career. The next decade Big Youth has gone on hiadious, but has returned with a vengeance in the '90s. He continues to have an impact on both his own nation and beyond. In the Millenium the legend is back stronger than ever, with SMASHING remix hit's like "Every Nigger Is A Star" and "10 Genz 1". See the new video Every Nigga Is A Star raw version at Damestar.com : "Big Youth is here fi the youths as I would say" Big Youth.... GLORY TO JAH THE HIGHEST!!!
