(Powerhouse, 1987)
Way back when the likes of Collie Buddz, Alborosie, Gentleman and even Snow were still getting tucked into to bed by their respective mamas, there was a white boy deejay who truly knew how to ram dancehalls in Jamaica. His name was Dominick and he didn’t chat in no Jafaican patois. This geezer was a proud cockney.
He got into the mic man business purely by chance. During a journalistic trip to Jamaica to interview some artistes for the magazine Black Echoes in 1983, he was asked by Billy Boyo – “so Dominick, yu can deejay?” At that stage he far from a deejay, but he was a hustler and saw his chance and ran with it. He was then introduced to the legendary Volcano producer who told him, “me want a white man who can chat pan di mic”.
Perhaps his cockney style was a mere novelty initially, but it proved popular. And before long he was holding the mic in dances in some of Kingston’s roughest neighbourhoods alongside the likes of Barrington Levy, Little John, Super Cat and Early B the Doctor.
Eventually he returned to England where he linked with Saxon Sound before unfortunately managing to end up in jail some way or another. But while in jail he was inspired to carry on with reggae by a cassette sent to him by Papa Levi. He then receiving a visited from Jamaican producer George Phang who told him he had no business being in jail and that instead of petty crime he ought to come stay with him in Jamaica so he could records. Record he did.
Dominick cut two LPs during the golden era of Jamaica’s digital dancehall period – one with Jammy$ called Ready for Dominick in 1986 and another self-titled long player for George Phang’s Powerhouse label in 1987 which featured this week’s track of the week, Computer Trim.
Demonstrating both Dominick’s remarkable ability to reconcile his cockney accent with the raggmuffin style and pattern, and his extremely clever and humorous lyrics; Computer Trim is a killer piece of reggae history at its most obscure.
To learn more about this fascinating figure, check out this wicked interview.
And If you want to see some classic footage of the man live in session at Sunsplash alongside Peter Metro, check this.
Naram
