Black Uhuru - Red

While Sinsemilla found Black Uhuru in transition, the follow-up Red, finds the band completely assured and sounding just as legendary as the golden-age of reggae it subsequently replaced.
With Bob Marley in the throes of cancer during this time, many reggae supporters were looking for the heir to the throne and Black Uhuru’s leader, Michael Rose, sounds ready for the challenge. An album of overly political themes, it surpasses some of the landmark albums that reggae contributed in the seventies, and that includes some of Marley’s own work.
In the classic “Youth Of Eglington,” Rose slyly nods to The Clash’s “Guns of Brixton,” pleading for an end to Jamaican violence (“The youths of Eglinton/Won't put down their Remington/The youth of Brixton /They brave their 45 Smith & Wesson pistol pistol”).
“Sponji Reggae,” probably the album’s most well-known track, documents the distracters that Rose faced during the pursuit of his music dream.
Again, Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare are the pair that bring Red to a higher level entirely. Not only are the rhythms precise (as usual), they incorporate some additional electronics that served as some of the same production strategies for the rest of the decade.
Not only does Black Uhuru meet the expectations set forth during Sinsemilla, they exceed it. Red is perhaps the band’s pinnacle achievements and one of reggae music’s most essential records in history.

Black Uhuru - Sinsemilla

Arguably, Black Uhuru was the last great classic reggae band and, even more arguably, perhaps the last reggae band that truly mattered. Admittedly, I’m probably not the best person to dish out such statements since my reggae collection effectively ended around 1985, or around the same time lead singer Michael Rose left the band to pursue a solo career.
But for me, I’m hard pressed to come up with another band or artist that was able to release, count ‘em, four great sequential albums, starting with 1980’s Sinsemilla.
It’s the first album that featured Rose’s stunning vocal abilities and the one that propelled the band from little known Jamaican band to one that seemed ready to carry the torch from reggae’s first breakthrough wave into the following decade.
Rose handled most of the vocals on the album (backing vocalist Puma Jones appears on the album art, but she wasn’t committed to tape until the following album, Red) as well as the songwriting duties.
With an album title like Sinsemilla, you can guess the most memorable track involves a pocketful of weed and the virtuous pleasures it provides. The re-issue version provides a pair of bonus tracks (the discomix of “Sinsemilla” and my favorite Black Uhuru track of all time “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”) and well as some enhanced sound.
This is critical, because Rose’s biggest impact on Black Uhuru was enlisting the talents of Sly Dunbar & Robbie Shakespeare for both the production and rhythm performances on the album. Having performed/produced on literally thousands of sessions, Sly & Robbie sound positively inspired in the house of Uhuru and the rhythm section on Sinsemilla is probably the most memorable thing about it.
With Rose getting comfortable in his role as the band’s leader and Jones yet to actually appear with the group, Sinsemilla is the sound of Black Uhuru getting comfortable with each other and discovering their audience outside of the islands. They may have sounded tighter and more assured in later releases, but Sinsemilla is an album that hints at their enormous potential while still managing to be one of reggae’s most landmark albums even in this process of discovery.