Judge Dread by Prince Buster is a classic court room drama in Jamaican style. The track was part of the album Judge Dread Rock Steady that was released in 1967 on Blue Beat.
Prince Buster
Prince Busters real name was Cecil Bustamente Campbell (1938- 2016). He was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer. From being a talented boxer he got the name Prince. Buster came from his last name Bustamente. The records he released in the 1960s influenced and shaped Jamaican reggae and ska music.
Judge Dread
In the mid 60s ska transformed to rocksteady that had more emphasis on the drums and the bass Rocksteady appealed to the rudeboys -young street corner hoodlums and gangsters- and they were often the topic of the songs. In 1967 Prince Buster took a hard stance against them. Prince Buster created a mythical character: Judge Dread. This was a super-tough Ethiopian magistrate who handed out
ridiculously long sentences to those rudeboys.Judge Dreadhas a rocksteady rather than ska rhythm making it easier for Buster to speak over it in the persona of this magistrate sentencing three rudeboys to hundreds of years behind bars. And if you listen closely, you can hear Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, as one of the rudeboys on trail.
Order, now my court is in session, will you please stand?
First, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Judge Hundredyears
Some people call me Judge Dread
Roots of Rap is dedicated to rap music prior to 1980! It is a blog about the history of rap music and the origins of hiphop culture. It's about rap before there was rap. It's about proto rap until it became mainstrain in 1979 when Sugarhill Gang’s song Rapper’s Delight, introduced a completely new audience to this genre.
