b. Delroy Reid, 1965, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies. Born in the Tower Hill area of Kingston, Reid grew up in the infamous Waterhouse ghetto. He made his first recording in 1979 at the age of 13 for the equally youthful singer Hugh Mundell, entitled "Speak The Truth", and released through Augustus Pablo's Rockers label. Another Mundell production, "Know Myself", a version of Dennis Walks' classic, "Drifter", appeared on Greensleeves Records in 1981. After Mundell's untimely death - Reid was in the car when he was murdered - he achieved some success as part of the Voice Of Progress group, with a single and album entitled Mini-Bus Driver for producer Robert Palmer's Negus Roots label. Recording throughout the rest of the early 80s as a solo artist, Reid found success with tracks such as "Jailhouse", "Sister Dawn", "Pallaving Street" and "Give Thanks And Praise" for King Jammy. Other singles included "The Original Foreign Mind", a self-production on Sugar Minott's Youth Promotion label, on which he adopted a fast delivery similar to that of the new wave of UK DJs such as Phillip Papa Levi and Smiley Culture. Further notable recordings included "Babylon Release The Chain" for Errol Thompson, "Chanting" for Delroy Wright and the monster "Boom Shack A Lack" for Jammys, released in the UK on Greensleeves. In 1985, Reid's solo career was interrupted when he was enlisted into the ranks of Grammy award-winners Black Uhuru, after lead singer Michael Rose's departure. The first release with Uhuru, "Fit You A Fe Fit", met with approval from the reggae audience. However, subsequent material, particularly the experimental, rock-influenced Arthur Baker production, "Great Train Robbery", and Grammy-nominated Brutal album, made more of an impact on the international market, serving only to alienate the grass-roots following he had worked so hard to establish. Aware of this credibility gap, Reid inaugurated his own label, JR Productions, and began to issue roots tunes such as "Pain On The Poor Man's Brain" and "Nah Get Rich And Switch", credited to Black Uhuru, but far more in the vein of his previous solo material. After recording Uhuru's Positive in 1988, Reid left the group to concentrate once more on his own career. Teaming up with English dance outfit Coldcut for "Stop This Crazy Thing", he reached number 21 in the UK pop chart in September 1988. In 1990, he made another appearance in the singles chart when he joined forces with indie-dance band the Soup Dragons, for a version of the Rolling Stones' "I'm Free", reaching number 5 in August of that year. Back in the reggae world, Reid's return to grass-roots favour came in 1989 with the anthemic "One Blood", followed by a well-received album of the same title. Its raw digital rhythms and roughneck ragga production firmly re-established his name at the forefront of the reggae scene. Since then he has issued a flood of tunes on his own label, including "Married Life", "Good Man Scarce", "Can't Tek the Gun Gun", a new version of "Mini-Bus Driver", "Friend Enemy", "Banana Boat Man", "Strong Survive", and the popular "All Fruits Ripe", as well as producing other artists such as Junior Demus, Ninjaman, Dennis Brown, and Gregory Isaacs. He has also opened his own studio, one more step towards complete artistic independence. Junior Reid, like that other Waterhouse singer, Yammie Bolo, is an artist who has continued to display his commitment to roots reggae music, and looks set to carry on the winning formula into the millennium.

Listen to Junior Reid at Finetune.

• One Blood

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