HearJAMAICA TOP 20 REGGAE ARTISTES of all time

1997 Touring the world time and time again, the band’s live sound matured and grew more sophisticated while remaining firmly rooted in reggae

Desmond Dekker was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician Together with his backing group The Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), he had one of the earliest international reggae hits with Israelites Dekker introduced the UK to Jamaican rude-boy culture and paved the way for the likes of Bob Marley with his songs about the daily struggles of Jamaican people Dekker recorded his most famous hits with Leslie Kong, who produced his music from 1963 on Together, they recorded some of his most seminal albums including 007 Shanty Town

Reggae is a musical genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. Reggae shares its roots with jazz and rhythm and blues music, and has been hugely influential in the evolution of many modern genres including dub, hip hop, and drum and bass. As we celebrate reggae month here are some of the best reggae artistes of all-time, each of them having helped to define and popularize the genre around the globe.

Bob Marley

No list of reggae icons is complete without Bob Marley in the top spot Bob Marley rose to fame with his backing band, The Wailers, starting in 1963

Bob Marley’s lifetime of creativity originated in Jamaica and became the foundation of inspiration that spread messages of hope, justice, and understanding around the world Marley’s songs sounded peaceful but were often political, with popular themes of love, redemption, and struggle Bob Marley released countless timeless singles including One Love, I Shot the Sheriff, Redemption Song, and No Woman No Cry Perhaps the most iconic Bob Marley album is ‘Exodus’, released in 1977 Bob Marley and the Wailers also held one of the most legendary reggae concerts in history in the One Love Peace Concert, in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1978 The concert was held during a political civil war in Jamaica between the opposing parties, the Jamaica Labour Party, and the People’s National Party Marley’s music continues to be loved all over the world In his lifetime, he has been awarded Rolling Stone’s Band of the Year and posthumously he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement in music and was placed at No 11 on the Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Artistes of All Time

Toots and the Maytals

Toots Hibbert, a prolific reggae hitmaker from Jamaica broke out in the 1960s to become a global success with his breakthrough album, Funky Kingston His tenor voice had a raspy tone that made him sound familiar to listeners across the globe Toots, a two-time Grammy winner, is credited as the inventor of the coinage, reggae after using the word on his 1968 single, Do the Reggay with his group the Maytals Toots was serious about the message and legacy he wanted to establish He said in an interview in 2010, “A hundred years from now, my songs will be played, because it is logical words that people can relate to ”

Hits, like Bam Bam from 1966, made Toots and his group among the decade’s biggest stars in Jamaican music

Peter Tosh

Peter Tosh was the fieriest of the famous Wailers, the others being Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer Even on the group ’ s early albums with Island Records, he wrote the most

In the year of his death, Tosh’s last studio album, No Nuclear War, was released It won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 1988

Burning Spear

Burning Spear, whose given name is Winston Rodney, is no doubt one of the most enduring reggae artistes of all time He is still recording and giggling today, over 40 years on Burning Spear’s first landmark album was 1975’s Marcus Garvey, which extolled the politics of the activist of the same name The album includes both the title track as well as another underground hit, Slavery Days, two of Burning Spear’s most popular hits of all time which still get regular airplay on the radio Burning Spear spent decades touring extensively, and several live albums have been released including Burning Spear Live, Live in Paris, Live in South Africa, Live in Vermont, Peace and Love Live, Live at Montreux Jazz Festival and (A)live and Action! both of which paved the way for reggae music both in the UK and abroad In 1970 Dekker released You Can Get It If You Really Want, written by Jimmy Cliff, which reached No 2 on the UK charts award for the Best Reggae Album, with their landmark album Babylon the Bandit in 1987

Marcia Griffiths

Dubbed the empress of reggae music, long time musical sensation Marcia Griffiths began her professional singing career in 1964 at age 15, with Byron Lee and the Dragonaires band

She released her debut song, Feel like jumping in 1978 under Coxsone Dodd’s Studio One label While there, she released several duets including Young, Gifted, And Black in 1970 and The Pied Piper in 1971 as half of the duo, Bob and Marcia

She toured with Bob Marley as a member of I-threes and made the billboard charts with Electric Boogie Song She’s also credited with creating the electric slide dance

Sizzla Kalonji

Miguel Collins is the famous reggae/dancehall star known professionally as Sizzla Kalonji His illustrious career in the music industry is well served as he continues to enjoy over two decades as a bonafide reggae ambassador

Attempting to dissect his amazing and consistent body of work

Steel Pulse

provocative songs — 400 Years and Get Up, Stand Up. After leaving The Wailers, he continued to take on the establishment or as he called it, “the sh itsim ” Peter Tosh exemplified reggae culture, as a proud Rastafarian with strong ties to Jamaica Two of Tosh’s greatest statements were the albums Legalize It and Equal Rights, released in 1976 and 1977, respectively The former called for the legalization of marijuana (also known as ganja in Jamaica) for which he was a passionate advocate

Steel Pulse was formed in Birmingham in 1975 They are a roots reggae band whose songs often focused on themes of social injustice and racism Despite rising popularity in the UK, Steel Pulse were often banned from playing live gigs in the UK due to their controversial Rastafarian beliefs, and yet they still rocketed to international fame and became the first reggae band to ever play on The Tonight Show in the US They also became the first nonJamaican band to win a Grammy is a tedious task at hand. The deejay has released 90 studio albums to date, with 21 of such charting on the Billboard Top Reggae Albums music chart, with some of the most important being 1997’s Praise Ye Jah and 2013’s The Messiah, which brought Sizzla his first Grammy nomination Some of his most loved tracks include Thank U Mamma and I’m Living No other contemporary artiste has managed to recreate the popularity of reggae throughout the 70s and 80s as Sizzla has today