The Golden Years Volume 8

Achieving his first success on wax with "S 90 Skank" for producer Keith Hudson in 1972, Big Youth recorded Screaming Target, his debut full-length, one year later for Gussie Clarke. That album, along with a handful of 45s from the period, was largely responsible for bringing the DJ art form forward after U-Roy's innovations. Here, in place of hip, jive-derived phrases, listeners find Big Youth ruminating on themes that exemplified the new consciousness of the 1970s. The set-opening title track, for instance, finds the DJ promoting literacy and general positivity, Youth-style, over K.C. White's "No No No." Similarly, he chants down slavery and calls for equal pay for equal work on "Honesty." Elsewhere, "Tippertong Rock" is a misspelled reference to the sound system that the DJ got his start on, Lord Tippertone Hi-Fi. Many of roots reggae's most innovative releases emerged from the studios of young producers intent on rivaling established businessmen like Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid, and Prince Buster, and Screaming Target is no exception. 

http://www.allmusic.com/album/screaming-target-mw0000675572

Tracklist