ENTITY · GROUP / CREW / BAND
Roots Radics
Probable
The Roots Radics are a Jamaican band formed in 1978 by bassist Errol "Flabba" Holt, guitarist Eric "Bingy Bunny" Lamont and drummer Lincoln "Style" Scott. They became the dominant studio and stage band of the early 1980s, spearheading the sparse, bass-heavy sound that launched the dancehall era, and were closely associated with Henry "Junjo" Lawes's productions at Channel One. They backed artists including Gregory Isaacs, Bunny Wailer, Eek-A-Mouse and Israel Vibration.
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- Confidence
- Probable
- Sources
- Wikipedia; Bandcamp Daily.
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What people argued about this record — two documented positions each time, kept apart from verified fact. Browse every argument in the archive →
Credit the rhythm section
One side
Front artist
The other
Backing musician labour
Reggae histories often foreground singers and producers, but session musicians and rhythm sections require explicit credit trails where sources allow.
Read the argument →Sleng Teng: digital revival or the ruin of live reggae
One side
Democratizing computer riddim
The other
The death of the session-band sound
Wayne Smith's 1985 'Under Mi Sleng Teng', built by King Jammy and Noel Davey around a Casio MT-40 preset, is widely credited as the first fully digital dancehall riddim. Purists and some session players held that the drum-machine sound cheapened reggae and displaced the live rhythm bands (the Roots Radics and Sly & Robbie's circle) who had defined the music, while champions argued it democratized production — a youth with a keyboard could now cut a hit without costly studio time — and that it launched the most-versioned riddim in Jamaican history. Later writing frames the moment as either a revival that birthed modern dancehall or the ruin of organic reggae craft.
Read the argument →Share this record
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