Biography
Jamaica overflows with prodigious skill both in the studio and on the stage, rendering any assertion that a solitary figure reigned supreme over the island’s soundsystem era somewhat preposterous, yet polling would almost certainly place Prince Buster at the summit by an emphatic margin. His name became interchangeable with ska while remaining indispensable to rocksteady’s evolution. From the Judge Dread series through the rude reggae canon, Prince Buster stamped his mark on every corner of Jamaica’s musical terrain as vocalist and producer alike. Without him, 2-Tone would never have materialized, and consequently the third wave would have been impossible. Decades after his debut, Prince Buster continued to shape the landscape.
Cecil Bustamente Campbell entered the world on May 28, 1938, in Jamaica, the offspring of a railway laborer. While still a teenager, Campbell simultaneously chased careers in boxing and singing. He eventually abandoned the ring, a discipline sharpened during his youth leading a crew through one of Kingston’s roughest districts, though the experience later proved useful when he launched his own soundsystem. His vocal debut occurred at the Glass Bucket club in the mid-1950s, fronting several long-forgotten ensembles. Many of these groups featured drummer Arkland “Drumbago” Parkes, forging a lasting friendship between the two. Parkes introduced Campbell to Coxsone Dodd, then merely an operator of a competitive soundsystem locked in rivalry with another future producer, Duke Reid. Dodd hired the teenager not as a singer but as a security guard and general factotum. By 1959, Campbell had mastered the soundsystem trade and struck out independently, first opening Buster’s Record Shack and then establishing the Voice of the People soundsystem.
The next year the budding entrepreneur produced his first single, the instrumental “Little Honey,” credited to Buster’s Group (Jah Jerry, Rico Rodriguez, and Parkes). The track caused an immediate stir with its decisive departure from the American R&B dominating the island’s soundsystems. Prince Buster had effectively unveiled ska’s signature syncopated rhythm to an eager Jamaican public. A follow-up session incorporated vocalists Derrick Morgan, Owen Gray, and the Folkes Brothers, while nyahbinghi drummers Count Ossie & His Wareikas arrived from the hills to supply a previously unheard rhythmic foundation. Thirteen songs emerged from the date, every one a hit, beginning with the Folkes Brothers’ landmark “Oh Carolina.” Further successes followed with Basil Gabbidon’s boogie “War Paint Baby,” Eric Morris’s “Humpty Dumpty,” and Chuck & Dobby’s offerings, all supported by Buster’s Group, an ensemble that already included future Skatalites. Bunny & Skitter’s “Chubby” proved especially groundbreaking, presenting the pair a cappella over Count Ossie & His Wareikas’ tribal drumming. Although it failed commercially compared with “Oh Carolina,” both recordings helped ignite a wave of nyahbinghi-infused releases.
Prince Buster made his own recording debut in 1962, issuing a string of hits that year. One was “Hey Got to Go,” co-written by teenage Derrick Morgan, whose lyrics encapsulated Prince Buster’s sentiments toward rival producers. The business rivalry, still dominated by the older men’s deeper pockets, turned personal in 1963 when Morgan departed for Leslie Kong. The move was not entirely straightforward, since the singer had already cut “Lover Boy” for Reid and stayed loyal until Reid briefly withdrew from the industry. Reid had nonetheless recorded Morgan’s songs without always releasing them, leaving the vocalist eager to work with whoever offered the most opportunities. At that moment it was Kong. Adding further provocation, Morgan’s follow-up “Housewife’s Choice” incorporated an instrumental break lifted from one of Prince Buster’s own compositions. Outrage ensued. The ensuing exchange generated numerous landmark singles. Prince Buster opened hostilities with “Blackhead Chinaman,” a pointed attack on Kong. Kong countered with Morgan’s “Blazing Fire,” which borrowed the melody of Buster’s hit “Madness.”
“Madness” itself had drawn its rhythm from “They Got to Go.” Months passed without resolution as the antagonists traded barbed classics. The conflict soon spilled beyond the studio into soundsystem dances and the streets, with supporters clashing on dancefloors and sidewalks. Government intervention finally forced a public truce. By then Prince Buster, as both artist and producer, was issuing so many singles that he launched two additional labels, Islam and Buster Wild Bells, to accommodate the surplus from Voice of the People. His British distributor Blue Beat struggled to keep pace, releasing over 600 Prince Buster productions across eight years—roughly two new singles weekly, two of them by the artist himself each month. Already a superstar in Jamaica, he achieved comparable stature in the U.K. Blue Beat compiled many of these sides on the 1963 album I Feel the Spirit.
The year 1964 proved equally prolific, as did 1965, yielding classics such as “One Step Beyond,” “Al Capone” (which reached the U.K. Top 20 two years later), and “Burke’s Law” (widely regarded as the template for Eek-A-Mouse’s vocal approach). Blue Beat issued three compilation albums of Prince Buster productions between 1964 and 1965: Fly Flying Ska, Pain in My Belly (whose title track is a Maytals classic), and It’s Burke’s Law. These collections remain the definitive overview of the period, featuring Don Drummond’s “Ska Town,” Owen Gray’s “River Jordan,” the Maytals’ “Dog War,” and “Al Capone.”
In 1966 ska slowed into rocksteady amid the rise of rude boys. Prince Buster, ever attuned to street sentiment, captured the moment with “Hard Man Fe Dead,” “Rude Rude Rudie,” and “Shanty-Town.” The following year Derrick Morgan issued “Tougher Than Tough,” in which a lenient magistrate dismisses four rude boys charged with violent offenses. Its success demanded a response; Prince Buster delivered “Judge Dread,” sentencing the defendants to centuries behind bars. The fictional trial gripped the nation. Other artists joined the cycle, flooding the market with magistrate-and-defendant records. Prince Buster returned with “The Barrister,” credited to the Appeal, in which Judge Dread jails the barrister. Further exchanges culminated in “Judge Dread Dance (The Pardon),” yet Morgan had the last word on “Judge Dread in Court,” imprisoning the judge for impersonation. All appeared on Blue Beat’s Judge Dread Rock Steady, which also included the moody hit “Ghost Dance.”
The two-year-old Jamaican smash “Al Capone” simultaneously climbed the U.K. charts, prompting a British tour documented on the album On Tour. Back home, rocksteady gave way to reggae, and Prince Buster stirred fresh controversy in 1968 with a series of explicitly rude singles: “Wreck a Pum Pum,” “Big Five,” “Rough Rider” (penned for him by Eddy Grant), and “Wine & Grind” (later covered by the Beat). The Fab label collected many of these on Wreck a Pum Pum (1968) and She Was a Rough Rider (1969), while Melodisc assembled Big Five in 1972. “Big Five” itself launched English DJ Alex Hughes’s career; adopting the name Judge Dread, he extended the “Big” series to “Big Twelve” and became the first British reggae artist to score in Jamaica, where audiences were surprised to discover their hero was an overweight white man.
While Judge Dread accumulated hits, Prince Buster pursued other directions. He recorded Beatles covers, addressed Rastafarianism by decade’s end, and produced successful DJ sides for Dennis Alcapone and Big Youth. He also cut hits with Alton Ellis, John Holt, the Heptones, and Dennis Brown. Yet roots music’s ascendance left him ill-equipped; having converted to Islam in 1961, he could not credibly voice Rastafarian themes. By 1973 he withdrew from active production. For the next fifteen years he remained silent, though reissues bearing his self-penned, often acerbic liner notes kept his catalog alive. Even the 2-Tone movement, deeply indebted to him, elicited no new recordings. In the late 1980s he resumed live appearances, touring Japan with the Skatalites in the early 1990s. He returned to the studio in 1992 and guested on the Skatalites’ Hi Bop Ska album in 1994. Most subsequent recordings were made with Gaz Mayall of the Trojans; in 1997 he reunited with the Skatalites for Island Records’ Ska Island. The following year he reentered the British charts for the first time in over three decades with a new version of “Whine and Grind.” The new millennium found him residing in Miami and making occasional festival appearances across the U.K., Europe, the U.S., and Canada. After several strokes, Prince Buster died in Miami in September 2016.
Cecil Bustamente Campbell entered the world on May 28, 1938, in Jamaica, the offspring of a railway laborer. While still a teenager, Campbell simultaneously chased careers in boxing and singing. He eventually abandoned the ring, a discipline sharpened during his youth leading a crew through one of Kingston’s roughest districts, though the experience later proved useful when he launched his own soundsystem. His vocal debut occurred at the Glass Bucket club in the mid-1950s, fronting several long-forgotten ensembles. Many of these groups featured drummer Arkland “Drumbago” Parkes, forging a lasting friendship between the two. Parkes introduced Campbell to Coxsone Dodd, then merely an operator of a competitive soundsystem locked in rivalry with another future producer, Duke Reid. Dodd hired the teenager not as a singer but as a security guard and general factotum. By 1959, Campbell had mastered the soundsystem trade and struck out independently, first opening Buster’s Record Shack and then establishing the Voice of the People soundsystem.
The next year the budding entrepreneur produced his first single, the instrumental “Little Honey,” credited to Buster’s Group (Jah Jerry, Rico Rodriguez, and Parkes). The track caused an immediate stir with its decisive departure from the American R&B dominating the island’s soundsystems. Prince Buster had effectively unveiled ska’s signature syncopated rhythm to an eager Jamaican public. A follow-up session incorporated vocalists Derrick Morgan, Owen Gray, and the Folkes Brothers, while nyahbinghi drummers Count Ossie & His Wareikas arrived from the hills to supply a previously unheard rhythmic foundation. Thirteen songs emerged from the date, every one a hit, beginning with the Folkes Brothers’ landmark “Oh Carolina.” Further successes followed with Basil Gabbidon’s boogie “War Paint Baby,” Eric Morris’s “Humpty Dumpty,” and Chuck & Dobby’s offerings, all supported by Buster’s Group, an ensemble that already included future Skatalites. Bunny & Skitter’s “Chubby” proved especially groundbreaking, presenting the pair a cappella over Count Ossie & His Wareikas’ tribal drumming. Although it failed commercially compared with “Oh Carolina,” both recordings helped ignite a wave of nyahbinghi-infused releases.
Prince Buster made his own recording debut in 1962, issuing a string of hits that year. One was “Hey Got to Go,” co-written by teenage Derrick Morgan, whose lyrics encapsulated Prince Buster’s sentiments toward rival producers. The business rivalry, still dominated by the older men’s deeper pockets, turned personal in 1963 when Morgan departed for Leslie Kong. The move was not entirely straightforward, since the singer had already cut “Lover Boy” for Reid and stayed loyal until Reid briefly withdrew from the industry. Reid had nonetheless recorded Morgan’s songs without always releasing them, leaving the vocalist eager to work with whoever offered the most opportunities. At that moment it was Kong. Adding further provocation, Morgan’s follow-up “Housewife’s Choice” incorporated an instrumental break lifted from one of Prince Buster’s own compositions. Outrage ensued. The ensuing exchange generated numerous landmark singles. Prince Buster opened hostilities with “Blackhead Chinaman,” a pointed attack on Kong. Kong countered with Morgan’s “Blazing Fire,” which borrowed the melody of Buster’s hit “Madness.”
“Madness” itself had drawn its rhythm from “They Got to Go.” Months passed without resolution as the antagonists traded barbed classics. The conflict soon spilled beyond the studio into soundsystem dances and the streets, with supporters clashing on dancefloors and sidewalks. Government intervention finally forced a public truce. By then Prince Buster, as both artist and producer, was issuing so many singles that he launched two additional labels, Islam and Buster Wild Bells, to accommodate the surplus from Voice of the People. His British distributor Blue Beat struggled to keep pace, releasing over 600 Prince Buster productions across eight years—roughly two new singles weekly, two of them by the artist himself each month. Already a superstar in Jamaica, he achieved comparable stature in the U.K. Blue Beat compiled many of these sides on the 1963 album I Feel the Spirit.
The year 1964 proved equally prolific, as did 1965, yielding classics such as “One Step Beyond,” “Al Capone” (which reached the U.K. Top 20 two years later), and “Burke’s Law” (widely regarded as the template for Eek-A-Mouse’s vocal approach). Blue Beat issued three compilation albums of Prince Buster productions between 1964 and 1965: Fly Flying Ska, Pain in My Belly (whose title track is a Maytals classic), and It’s Burke’s Law. These collections remain the definitive overview of the period, featuring Don Drummond’s “Ska Town,” Owen Gray’s “River Jordan,” the Maytals’ “Dog War,” and “Al Capone.”
In 1966 ska slowed into rocksteady amid the rise of rude boys. Prince Buster, ever attuned to street sentiment, captured the moment with “Hard Man Fe Dead,” “Rude Rude Rudie,” and “Shanty-Town.” The following year Derrick Morgan issued “Tougher Than Tough,” in which a lenient magistrate dismisses four rude boys charged with violent offenses. Its success demanded a response; Prince Buster delivered “Judge Dread,” sentencing the defendants to centuries behind bars. The fictional trial gripped the nation. Other artists joined the cycle, flooding the market with magistrate-and-defendant records. Prince Buster returned with “The Barrister,” credited to the Appeal, in which Judge Dread jails the barrister. Further exchanges culminated in “Judge Dread Dance (The Pardon),” yet Morgan had the last word on “Judge Dread in Court,” imprisoning the judge for impersonation. All appeared on Blue Beat’s Judge Dread Rock Steady, which also included the moody hit “Ghost Dance.”
The two-year-old Jamaican smash “Al Capone” simultaneously climbed the U.K. charts, prompting a British tour documented on the album On Tour. Back home, rocksteady gave way to reggae, and Prince Buster stirred fresh controversy in 1968 with a series of explicitly rude singles: “Wreck a Pum Pum,” “Big Five,” “Rough Rider” (penned for him by Eddy Grant), and “Wine & Grind” (later covered by the Beat). The Fab label collected many of these on Wreck a Pum Pum (1968) and She Was a Rough Rider (1969), while Melodisc assembled Big Five in 1972. “Big Five” itself launched English DJ Alex Hughes’s career; adopting the name Judge Dread, he extended the “Big” series to “Big Twelve” and became the first British reggae artist to score in Jamaica, where audiences were surprised to discover their hero was an overweight white man.
While Judge Dread accumulated hits, Prince Buster pursued other directions. He recorded Beatles covers, addressed Rastafarianism by decade’s end, and produced successful DJ sides for Dennis Alcapone and Big Youth. He also cut hits with Alton Ellis, John Holt, the Heptones, and Dennis Brown. Yet roots music’s ascendance left him ill-equipped; having converted to Islam in 1961, he could not credibly voice Rastafarian themes. By 1973 he withdrew from active production. For the next fifteen years he remained silent, though reissues bearing his self-penned, often acerbic liner notes kept his catalog alive. Even the 2-Tone movement, deeply indebted to him, elicited no new recordings. In the late 1980s he resumed live appearances, touring Japan with the Skatalites in the early 1990s. He returned to the studio in 1992 and guested on the Skatalites’ Hi Bop Ska album in 1994. Most subsequent recordings were made with Gaz Mayall of the Trojans; in 1997 he reunited with the Skatalites for Island Records’ Ska Island. The following year he reentered the British charts for the first time in over three decades with a new version of “Whine and Grind.” The new millennium found him residing in Miami and making occasional festival appearances across the U.K., Europe, the U.S., and Canada. After several strokes, Prince Buster died in Miami in September 2016.
Albums
