ENTITY · SOUND SYSTEM
Lee's Unlimited
Well supported
Lee's Unlimited is a St Thomas sound system built by Trevor "Daddy Lee" Lee Sr. at Springfield in 1968, and one of the country sounds that held its own against the Kingston sets. It survived in the cassette circulation of the 1980s and 1990s through juggling sessions and clashes with Volcano, Metro Media, Bass Odyssey, Black Kat and Stone Love; a 1993 St Thomas meeting with Stone Love, and a tape carrying Peter Metro, Papa San and Welton Irie, are among the recordings the archive can point to.
The set works well beyond the parish: the Bahamas became close to a residency and Canada a regular stop, and it kept a working connection to the Miami crew Black Chiney. Since Daddy Lee's death in 2010 it has run in a second generation under his son, who went back to St Thomas for the amplifiers and the record boxes, and it now operates out of metro Atlanta, which makes it a plain example of what happened to a great many Jamaican sounds: the set survives, the address moves.
At a glance
- Type
- Sound system →
- Confidence
- Well supported
- Sources
- Jamaica Gleaner, "Lee Tafari charts new sound system direction" (8 July 2011); Jamaica Observer, "Lee Tafari goes back to basics" (13 February 2014); Lee's Unlimited Music Group legacy history; sound-tape catalogues; community clash uploads.
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Compiled and researched by The Jamaica Music Atlas music desk. The sources that informed it are credited above.
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