Big Youth brings love and righteousness
Big Youth brings love and righteousness
The mightiest of MCs, the dopest of DJs, Jamaican legend Big Youth is on his way to New Zealand, writes Grant Smithies.
One of the biggest stars of Jamaican music, Big Youth is singing down the phone from Kingston, Jamaica. Perhaps surprisingly, he’s singing a punk song. “God save de Queen, it’s a fascist regime … love it, bredren, I absolutely love it!”. He’s waxing nostalgic about the late 70s, a time when the Sex Pistols were the hottest band in England and Manley Augustus “Big Youth” Buchanan was the hottest DJ in Jamaica – and now, 30 years later, the man is heading here. And by DJ I don’t mean some unimaginative bozo who spends all night playing records with the same tempo in a club. In Jamaica a DJ, or “toaster”, is the microphone king, the master of ceremonies…