King Tubby

Born January 28th 1941, King Tubby is known primarily for his influence on the development of dub in the 1960s. In the 1950s, King Tubby's musical career began with the sound systems, set up on the streets of Kingston and playing dance music for the people. As a radio repairman, Tubby soon became quite helpful at most of the sound systems around.

Tubby began working with Arthur "Duke" Reid in 1968. At Treasure Isle, a studio, Tubby began making remixes of hit songs, usually by simply removing the vocals. In time, Tubby (and others) began shifting the emphasis in the instrumentals, adding sounds and removing others and adding various special effects, like echoes, feedback and filtering. By 1971, Tubby's soundsystem was one of the most popular in Kingston and he decided to open a studio of his own. His remixes soon proved enormously popular, and he became one of the biggest celebrities in Jamaica.

During the 1970s, Tubby's work in the studio gave rise to modern dub music. He had a long string of hit songs, and worked as a producer for some of Jamaica's most popular artists, including Lee Perry, Bunny Lee, Augustus Pablo and Yabby You. In 1973, he began recording vocals to put along the instrumentals. By the later part of the decade though, King Tubby had mostly retired from music, still occasionally recording remixes and tutoring a new generation of artists, including King Jammy and Scientist.

In the 1980s, he focused on production for Anthony Red Rose, Sugar Minott and other popular musicians, for his Firehouse group of labels. He was shot and killed by unknown persons, probably in a robbery attempt, in 1989, February 06th.

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