A. Madoo & General Echo – Sister Sue
B. Madoo – Coming From Town
Cha Cha – CHAD 19

More info @ Discogs

Osbert Madoo, also spelled Maddo, was a Jamaican reggae and dancehall singer who went by the nicknames Madoo and The Bionic Singer. He was born in Dalvey, St. Thomas, and came up in East Kingston, where the sound system scene was his training ground. His big break came in 1977 when he grabbed the mic at a sound system session and never looked back. He quickly paired up with DJ General Echo, and together they became regulars on the Stereo Phonic System, building a loyal following across the island.

The early 1980s were his peak years in Jamaica. Tunes like Sister Sue and Coming From Town, both featured here, were getting heavy play, along with breakthrough tracks Jammin’ So, Joe Grine, and Backway Mr. Landlord. With General Echo he also scored on Hotel Fee. His debut set, Best of Madoo, dropped in 1980 on Winston Riley’s Techniques label, collecting his best work for Riley in one place. Two more albums followed: Rock With Papa Madoo, which Madoo himself claimed was a bootleg, and You Wanna Turn Me On.

Then came a tragedy that changed everything. The Half-Way Tree Killings took the lives of several of his Stereo Phonic colleagues, including General Echo, Flux, and Leon ‘Big John’ Johns. General Echo and the others were shot dead by police in Kingston in July 1980. After that, Madoo left Jamaica and eventually settled in Bangor, Maine. His music largely faded from circulation for years, with reissues and remasters only surfacing decades later.
Osbert Madoo passed away in Bangor in October 2015, aged 56, reportedly from heart problems. A genuine pioneer of the early dancehall sound, and a man whose story deserves to be better known.

General Echo, aka Earl Anthony Robinson came out of Fletcher’s Land, Kingston, born in December 1955. He first appeared on record in 1972, catching a riddim on a tune called Ordinary Version. By 1975, he had built his own set, the Echo Tone Hi Fi, but he didn’t limit himself to his own platform. Through the late seventies he sharpened his MC skills on legendary sounds like Ray Symbolic and Stereo Phonic, soaking up the culture and building his reputation dance by dance.

Where plenty of artists at the time were locked into conscious and culture lyrics, Echo went a completely different direction. He adopted the name Ranking Slackness and made himself the man who brought explicit, naughty humor right to the front of the dance. His debut album, Rocking & Swing, also known among collectors as Teacher Fe Di Class, came out in 1979. He followed it with the Slackest LP on the Techniques label, featuring tracks like Bath Room Sex that pushed well past what most people were used to hearing on wax. Bold moves, but the crowd loved it.

Then 1980 arrived and General Echo was on a different level entirely. He linked with Winston Riley and voiced Arleen over the Stalag riddim. That tune was an absolute monster, sitting at number one in Jamaica for weeks. International labels came calling, with Greensleeves and Island Records both getting involved. He dropped the classic 12 Inches of Pleasure with Henry ‘Junjo’ Lawes producing, and delivered the heavy Drunken Master for George Phang. The future looked wide open.

But it never got there. On November 22, 1980, police stopped a car in Kingston carrying Echo, his selector Flux, and Leon ‘Big John’ Johns, the owner of the Stereo Phonic system. All three were shot and killed. No full explanation was ever given, and the loss hit the reggae community hard. Three gone in one night, just like that.

A. Wade Brammer & Lui Lepki – My Love / Can’t Take Mi Landlord
B. Dean Frazier / Joe Gibbs & The Proffessionals – Phase Shipter
Joe Gibbs Music – JGMD 8106

More info @ Discogs

Wade Brammer, better known as Trinity, was one of the deejays whose career defined the transition from roots reggae to the early dancehall era. Born February 10, 1954, in Kingston, he came up through the Alpha Boys School, and took his stage name from a 1970 Italian western film. Family ran deep in the business too. Wade was the older brother of Robert Brammer, who the world came to know as deejay Clint Eastwood. He cut his first recording, Set Up Yourself, for producer Joseph Hoo Kim back in March 1976. But it was his work with Joe Gibbs the following year that really cemented his legacy. Three Piece Suit, toasted over a reworked version of Alton Ellis’s I’m Still In Love With You riddim, was a massive tune, and it directly inspired Althea and Donna to come back with Uptown Top Ranking as an answer record on that same riddim. That one went all the way to number one in the UK.

The late 1970s were Trinity’s golden years. In 1977 alone he cut more than 20 singles for producers like Winston Riley, Tommy Cowan, Joe Gibbs, and Yabby You. Pure prolific vibes. Albums like Shanty Town Determination and Uptown Girl came out of this run, and he was also an early pioneer of the clash album format, most notably going head to head with Dillinger on the 1977 release Clash. On top of that, he was deep in the sound system culture, voiced tracks alongside Dennis Brown and Barrington Levy, and ran his own label, Flag Man, releasing his own material and helping other artists get their music out.

When the musical tide shifted in the late 1980s, Trinity shifted with it, moving from deejaying into singing. He released albums including Telephone Line and Hold Your Corner in 1987, often recording under the name Junior Brammer. He also put out material under his birth name, Wade Brammer, including the featured Joe Gibbs 12-inch My Love from 1980. He stayed active as a producer and live performer right up until the end. Wade Brammer passed away on April 9, 2021, at the National Chest Hospital in St. Andrew, Jamaica, from complications related to diabetes.

A quick note on the name before we get into it: you’ll see this man’s name spelled a number of different ways across records and databases, including Lui Lepki, Lue Lepkie, and Ron Lepki. Born in Kingston in 1957, Louie Lepkie was a deejay and toaster who did some of his best work during the late 1970s and early 1980s, recording extensively for producer Joe Gibbs and backed by the Professionals.

His very first recording was Can’t Take Mi Landlord, the tune featured here. It also showed up on his debut album Late Night Movie under the alternate title Rent Man Skank. From there he went on to release two more albums: the well-regarded Willie Red in 1982, and a 1990s compilation, Face To Face, a set with Johnny Ringo that drew on tracks from the Willie Red sessions.

Lepkie performed at Reggae Sunsplash 1981, where he paid tribute to Bob Marley. He also put in work with Jah Thomas and the Midnight Rock label through the mid-1980s, cut sides for Sly and Robbie, for Youth Promotion, and recorded for both Gorgon and Volcano. Busy man. Tragically, his story ended far too soon. Multiple sources report that Louie Lepkie was shot and killed outside the Manhattan Dancehall and Reggae Lounge in New York in December 1987. He was just 30 years old. Wicked loss.