Veteran deejay hails icon U-Roy

Veteran deejay U Brown says the late dancehall pioneer U-Roy inspired him to choose a music career.

"During the late '60s when I was growing up in Tower Hill, I saw U-Roy moving around the community all the time. He was the top deejay on King Tubbys sound system in those days. Around the same time, he started his recording career. By the early '70s, he was very popular. Despite his popularity, he was very cool and humble," said U Brown. "U-Roy inspired me to become a deejay. I used to play his songs on the jukebox and sing along with them. That's how I learned to deejay."

U Brown said that, eventually, he began to create his own lyrics. "The first sound system I worked on was Silver Bullet. After that, I got a break to work with King Tubbys. From that point, I just kept going forward in the music business," he said.

U Brown, whose given name is Huford Brown, began recording in 1973 by releasing a pair of singles, Jamaican Tobacco and Wet Up Your Pants. Winston Edwards produced both songs.

He followed up with several other recordings, but he didn't get his big break until 1978, when he scored his first big hit with a song titled Weather Balloon on his Hit Sound label.

U Brown is currently promoting two recently released singles, Money Worries, featuring Singing Ray, and Far Away, featuring Wayne Wade. He's also working on a 17-track album with veteran musicians Devon Bradshaw (bassist) and Beezy Coleman (guitarist).

Some of U Brown's other hits are Keep On My Knocking, which was done with Jacob Miller, Say What You Say with Dennis Brown, and Border, which was done with Gregory Isaacs.