King Tubby

Even today, King Tubby remains inextricably linked to dub. A lifelong fascination with manipulating audio gear propelled him to forge an innovative musical style that matured into a refined artistic discipline. Although he began professionally by servicing equipment, his reputation eventually commanded respect on a global scale. He collaborated with nearly every Jamaican performer, and the presence of his name on any remix signified an unimpeachable standard of excellence.

Osbourne Ruddock entered the world in Kingston, Jamaica, on January 28, 1941. During his teenage years in the mid-'50s, his closest contact with music came through radio repair work. At that time Jamaica witnessed a cultural shift as crowds abandoned dancehalls, where large ensembles had once performed live, and instead gathered outdoors around mobile sound systems that broadcast records from street corners. These setups began modestly yet rapidly expanded in both scale and mythic status, with rivalries turning fierce and occasionally violent. Speakers frequently suffered damage in these conflicts, prompting the operator of a Waterhouse sound system to seek Ruddock’s assistance in the late '50s. After restoring that speaker, he repaired others, ultimately becoming the go-to technician for systems throughout the city. An instinctive innovator, Ruddock soon devised improvements of his own. By 1968 he established his own operation, the storied Tubby’s Home Town Hi Fi, whose flawless sound prompted him to seek fresh challenges. Producer Duke Reid supplied one by hiring him as a disc cutter at Treasure Isle studio. There Ruddock began deconstructing and reassembling tracks much as he had once rebuilt sound systems, though these initial efforts remained conventional remixes. Ruddy Redwood, a sound system MC and Treasure Isle engineer, had already advanced the practice during the rocksteady era by emphasizing bass lines. King Tubby elevated the approach further, excising vocals, fragmenting and repositioning instrumental segments, introducing novel effects, and deploying phasing, abrupt transitions, and echoes. Many of these experiments appeared on acetate dubplates played at his own sound system. Such stripped-down versions proved essential to the rise of toasting DJs, for whom Tubby not only created exclusive dubplates but also booked top talent including U-Roy, I-Roy, and Big Youth.

In 1971 he launched his own studio, where he continued experimenting with studio effects. The facility soon attracted Augustus Pablo, Lee Perry, Prince Tony Robinson, and Glen Brown. Brown receives credit for the first record to acknowledge a King Tubby mix, the aptly titled “Tubby’s at the Control,” a reworking of “Merry Up” by God Sons, the alias of Tommy McCook and Rad Bryan. Robinson followed with “Tubby’s in Full Swing,” credited to Lloyd Robinson and Carey Johnson.

King Tubby produced remixes in extraordinary volume. Bunny Lee supplied a steady flow of singles, several of which were collected in 1974 on the landmark Dub From the Roots, with additional tracks appearing on the follow-up King Tubby Meets the Aggrovators at Dub Station. Years afterward the British Klik label reissued much of the former material as Shalom Dub with extra cuts, while Attack issued the rarer material on Dub Jackpot. Blood & Fire’s If Deejay Was Your Trade: The Dreads at King Tubby’s 1974-1977 and the French Culture Press release Bunny Lee, King Tubby & the Aggrovators both spotlight Tubby’s treatments of Lee productions, the latter focusing on DJ versions. Tubby also began working with Vivian Jackson after their 1971 encounter, when Jackson supplied a rhythm that became the hit “Go to Zion,” credited to Brother Joe & the Rightful Brothers—an alias for Jackson, Roydel Johnson of the Congos, and Albert Griffiths of the Gladiators. Their next collaboration, “Conquering Lion,” yielded another hit and bestowed upon Jackson the nickname “Yabby You.” Yabby You’s debut album Conquering Lion appeared in 1975, followed the next year by Tubby’s dub counterpart King Tubby’s Prophecy of Dub. Half of Yabby You’s 1977 sophomore release Wall of Jerusalem featured Tubby dubs. Augustus Pablo likewise commissioned remixes for his Rockers label, many issued as B-sides. Their partnership reached its zenith with the seminal 1975 album Ital Dub; session outtakes surfaced fifteen years later on the British Pressure Drop collection El Rockers. Ital Dub served as preparation for King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown, the recording that secured lasting renown for both artists. Their subsequent Rockers Meet King Tubby in a Firehouse further enhanced that legacy.

Throughout the early '70s Tubby’s experiments crystallized into pure dub, transforming remixes into complete reinventions. A decisive advance occurred in 1973 when he acquired a second four-track recorder, enabling vocal tracking. The new configuration debuted with Roy Shirley’s “Stepping Razor.” His first hit arrived the following year with “Watergate Rock,” a dub of Larry Marshall’s “I Admire You,” which in turn led Tubby to rework Marshall’s entire I Admire You album. That same busy year Bunny Lee released the aforementioned Dub From the Roots, while King Tubby joined Lee Perry for Blackboard Jungle Dub. He next collaborated with Niney “the Observer” Holness on 1975’s Dubbing With the Observer; the 1989 Trojan compilation King Tubby’s Special 1973-1976 restored that album and augmented it with carefully chosen Bunny Lee productions to create a thirty-track collection. After Holness, producer Harry Mudie provided material for the still-sublime Harry Mudie Meets King Tubby in Dub Conference, Vol. 1, with two further volumes following. Tubby also supplied mixes for Glen Brown, the first to publicly credit him. Trojan’s Dubble Attack: The Original Pantomime Dee-Jay Collection 1972-74 gathers Brown-supervised DJ tracks reconstructed by Tubby, while Blood & Fire focuses on Brown’s roots-oriented work on Termination Dub. Another client, Glen Darby, recorded productions at Channel One engineered by Jo Jo Hookim and Philip Smart; these eventually appeared on Guava Jelly’s two-CD set The Sound of Channel One: King Tubby Connection, pairing vocals with their dub counterparts.

By the close of the '70s King Tubby had redirected his energies toward mentoring a new generation of engineers and producers that included Prince Jammy—who would later assume the title King Jammy—Scientist, and Prince Philip Smart. Although he continued creating mixes, the pace slowed. In the new decade he and Jah Screw worked with Ranking Joe and the Roots Radics on the excellent Dangerous Dub, one of Tubby’s final full-length remix projects. That same year First, Second and Third Generations of Dub united the mentor with alumnus Prince Jammy and graduate Scientist, documenting the evolution of all three. Scientist and King Tubby recorded two further albums issued in 1996 by Burning Sounds: King Tubby’s Meets Scientist in a World of Dub and King Tubby’s Meets Scientist at Dub Station. Despite reduced output, Tubby remained central to the scene. He upgraded his studio once more and established his own labels—Firehouse, Waterhouse, Kingston II, and Taurus.

By the mid-'80s he had moved into production, releasing seminal singles by Sugar Minott and Anthony Red Rose among others. Occasional albums appeared, including the 1983 reunion with Bunny Lee on King Tubby the Dubmaster With the Waterhouse Posse and Sly & Robbie Meet King Tubby in 1985; both were considered disappointments, perhaps because Tubby had already exhausted dub’s possibilities. His strongest later contributions came through production work with emerging DJs and established vocalists such as Pliers, Ninjaman, Gregory Isaacs, and Johnny Clarke. King Tubbys Presents Soundclash Dubplate Style arrived in 1989, compiling dubs of his dancehall successes. As the decade ended, King Tubby appeared poised to maintain his influence. On February 6, 1989, however, he was shot and killed outside his Waterhouse home. The murder remains unsolved and is believed to have stemmed from a street robbery. In the ensuing years his stature has continued to rise, with previously limited material now widely available.