Session Transcript:
David Rodigan
Red Bull Music Academy, London 2002

The video stream for this lecture can be watched here.

At 15, David Rodigan started DJing, and at 55, he doesn't show any signs of stopping. He's practically an honorary Jamaican, playing regularly at soundclashes in Kingston and at the annual World Soundclash in New York. Soundsystems have a highly developed set of rules - for example, something as simple as ordering your set is subject to arcane regulations. First you've got to play the vocal version of your tune, then your DJ gets on the mic, and only then can you play the dub. And don't even get him started on lighters and forwarding a tune...

"Sound systems are like football clubs. You have your supporters and you take great pride in everything."

"At soundclashes, you're talking exclusivity beyond belief!"

David Rodigan: »Osbourne Ruddock, alias King Tubby the dub master, was an electronics genius, who had a bungalow or dwelling house in Western Kingston. At the back of that house he had his own recording studio. He formed a soundsystem called King Tubby's Home Town Hi-Fi, with Duke Reid, V-Rocket and all the other soundsystem operators. They strung these sounds up and they would play in competition with each other. They would get their sound and you would get your sound and play at the other end of the road and you would see who could play the loudest and who could play the most exclusive recordings. They would go to work in America as farm workers or at a car factory and they would bring back old 78's or 45's and they would scrape the labels off. They would then use these records to play against each other, with these handmade soundsystems. They would compete against each other with exclusive recordings and the quality and sheer volume of their soundsystems. The soundsystem, the mobile discotheque, was everything and the making of records was an inevitable step from buying them in America. Duke Reid and Coxsone [Clement Seymour Dodd] began recording in Kingston - first in the radio station and later at Federal Studios. King Tubby's studio was essentially a mixing place.

Tubby was fascinated by electronics. He was repairing radios and hairdryers, anything that was electrical. He also had the idea that you could strip a rhythm down from the multi-track. This was called dubbing. In those days he was called King Tubby. Occasionally, he could be seen in photographs wearing his crown as recognition of his work. And so the rhythm was called dub.

In those days there were no single DJs working on their own, no club DJs. You were with a soundsystem, which was a team. The idea was that you would have white labels of singles, but the idea was to be completely exclusive. The only way you could do that and have something that was completely unique to use in a contest with another soundsystem, was to cut a dubplate. It was at King Tubby's studio and later at Channel One that these acetates were cut. Soundsystem operators would go there and they would ask to hear unreleased tunes that were still on the multi-track tape machine and they would cut a new mix from them.

In January 1979 I went to King Tubby's studio and I asked if I could cut some dubs. I didn't realise at the time, but he put me through a grilling. He played me a selection of songs and each one I said I didn't want to cut. He pretended to be rather annoyed and then he started smiling. He threw the keys to his assistant engineer who then unlocked a cupboard, took out another multi-track reel and put it on. I requested that he cut that there and then. It was the first dub I ever cut.

What he then does is he takes the multi-track and changes the vocal, so you get a different mix to the one that's on the street. That is then your unique dubplate that no one else has. Then he would take the rhythm and dub it.

In a soundsystem clash you would play your vocal version first. Then you would lift it up, your DJ would be on the mic, and you would play part two, the dub version. The DJ would either chant over it or you would play the raw rhythm on its own.

Soundsystems are rather like football teams. You have your supporters and you take great pride in your soundsystem. The dubs you had were exclusive and you would spend your last buck on a dub! You would work hard all week and pump all your money into cutting dubs. You would fly to Jamaica to cut dubs, these were exclusive recordings that no one else could play, which you could use in a soundsystem contest to win. So it was all about exclusivity.

They would literally string up four soundsystems on a lawn in downtown Kingston, Rockport, up in Montego Bay, wherever. A soundsystem clash was taken very, very seriously. It would start with half-hour turns, then they would play 15 minute turns and then it would boil down to one for one. Originally, when they played these clashes, they would play white labels, exclusive dub mixes. The contests became more and more exclusive, they started making dubs with their name called in it. They would go to the artist and say: "I need you to re-record that song for me, calling my name." They would then go into a soundsystem clash with these exclusive dubs, which no other soundsystem could play because it had your name in it. It then got to the stage that, if your name wasn't in the dub, then you couldn't be included in the clash. Now we are talking about exclusivity beyond belief!

If you went into a dubplate soundclash and started playing 45's, you would be booed out of the joint. You would be dead in the first round, because the MC would announce that the "45 shop is locked." You cannot play 45's, you can only play dubplates. That's when the soundsystem warriors take out their boxes with these exclusive recordings. An example would be something like Plastic Smile by Black Uhuru, where in order to take place in a soundsystem clash in New York, I got hold of the rhythm from Sly And Robbie. I found Michael Rose from Black Uhuru and went to the studio. We re-recorded the song, so it could be played in a soundsystem clash as a unique dub that no one else could play. You would hope that no one else was playing it. If someone else plays it, you can't play it. You may have spent a small fortune recording that. If you "play back" you'll be instantly dismissed from the clash - you're out. When it gets to the one for one, the crowd will boo if you're not delivering the goods and you'll be eliminated. It's about coming up with ideas for recordings. Either old recordings which you re-record, or new recordings.

There is a world soundclash in Brooklyn, New York every year in November. The recent soundsystem champions were Mighty Crown from Japan. They came and took the world by storm. They had carefully prepared and loaded their ammunition box over a number of years. When they came on the night, they took out all the competition and won the cup. I was matched up with them just over a year later in Hartford, Connecticut. What was rather exciting for me was that just before we entered into the clash, Wyclef Jean arrived in the wings and handed me a dubplate that I had not requested. He asked me if I knew what was the number one single in America. I said, I didn't know because I had just got off a flight from London that morning. He said: "Play this in the clash with Mighty Crown in the one for one and see what happens." So that's what I did.

[Rodigan plays the dubplate. The intro is from Maria Maria by Carlos Santana and Wyclef Jean. The lyrics boast

"Sound killer, sound killer,
Rodigan murder every sound boy,
Growing up in the land of England,
Come to kill some boys from Japan,
Tonight's your execution"]

Once the impact is created and if you get the "forward", you're anticipating with the up and up, the lighters go up and you've got your forward. You either take the forward, meaning you respond to it by playing it again, or you pull up and don't play again or you don't take the forward and you let the tune play for a little longer. The risk you take is that, if you take the forward and you go back on the tune again, the second forward may not be as big. It's down to your instincts as a selector whether you take the forward or you just let the tune play. That's the essence of sound system culture.«


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Go to: David Rodigan - Rodigan's Rockers