"In the early nineties we were doing a lot of stuff in Brixton. There was Cooltan and a few back street blues kind of places or broken down warehouses. Mad places. We used to joke that if you can play those places, you can play anywhere. It was so dangerous. All night dances, pitch dark, nutcases coming in smoking coke ... Oh man! We were just playing the Roots."

Markie Lyrics was drinking tea and blowing herb smoke out the back door. We had convened in his kitchen to discuss the new releases on his Universal Roots label, but our conversation had happily meandered off the script. It would be impossible to restrict a free spirit like Markie anyway. The RDK Hi-fi story has been a crazy trip and Markie maintains a distinct and idiosyncratic position in the history of UK Roots.

 

There are so many tales to tell and views to expound, it's difficult to stick to the matter at hand. Markie reported how he had turned a recent request for a simple written biography into an unruly rambling treatise. Where would you start a story like his?

"I found myself going off on tangents. Talking about being at Dub Vendor in Clapham Junction in the eighties. Record buying was manic in those days. All the people lined up at the counter. Fridays and Saturdays were packed. People hanging around outside, coming in and out. Those times were uneasy, amazing days. It would be deadly serious in there. I used to stay for hours, because I wasn't so much into the Ragga and all that, so I had to wait till the Roots came on. One off pre, you know what I mean. So if you didn't get it right then it was gone and you wouldn't see it again."

I wondered how often he would encounter the other fanatical Roots collectors who went on to shape the UK Dub scene by starting their own labels, such as Boom Shacka Lacka, Conscious Sounds, Jah Warrior and Dubwise.

"I used to go up to Daddy Kool's in Berwick Street and those guys would have been there. They knew each other a bit, but we had our own sound and we were going out of London regularly. I was living in Wandsworth and I didn't really know them lot then. I had my own thing going on. I used to go and see Manasseh in about '88 or '89 but I was never a Shaka man really. I loved Shaka but it wasn't my sound. I was following Young Lion Soundsystem that I knew round Wandsworth and the UK Dub scene is kind of based on the Shaka thing."

Markie's RDK Hi-fi occupied a parallel region. Independent, but analogous to, the hard core Shaka-ite UK Dubbers. Mark Iration, Dougie Wardrop and Russ Disciple weren't the only ones to spread the authentic teachings of a UK Roots message across mainland Europe.

"They went to different places. They had links in France, Holland and a few other places. They were producing music and had their own studios. I was doing soundsystem. But we did get in our van and go all over Europe. We did the first soundsystem tour of Italy in '92. We went to Milan, Pisa, Rome, Bari, Napoli; right down to the south and back. It was crazy and we went back through Switzerland. People like One Love Hi Powa came and measured up all the boxes, so they could start building their own. Then they'd come over to London and I'd help them to get their equipment together".

 

It was when he established the Universal Roots label in 1998 that Markie began to join forces with producers like Nick Manasseh and Russ Disciple.

"I've had something going on with Russ for a few years now. We've got a little routine, it works out. I go to him with an idea and tell him the kind of rhythm I want to make. A lot have been covers, although we've written a few as well. Russ will do the main programming. Some rhythms might just be drum and bass, guitar chops and percussion. Others might be full horns, all sorts of piano pieces and whatever. I get the musicians in, I finance it all. I direct and arrange, as well as get vocalists that I want to voice on it; sort them out, pay them and deal with all that. I choose the mixes and then press them up and get them on the streets ".

For twelve years Universal Roots have been releasing diverse, bold and enduring Roots & Culture music. Their catalogue includes some of the classic UK productions of the era. Three brand new 7" singles will be released this month. The rhythm has a sixties Rocksteady/Reggae texture and Markie is excited about the positive reaction it's been getting.

"It's upbeat and rootsy as well. I love the way Russ has done it. It sounds both authentic and modern. He's done a fantastic job taking an old school sound and making it digital. It's Rocksteady but Russ has done some proper dub mixes as well. The dubs are tough . Good selecting is about pulling out something that people wouldn't expect to work, something that you didn't realise was gonna drop so heavy. You'd hear tunes like that in the dance in the seventies and eighties. The dub would be tough . Rub a Dub tunes with a dub that was dropping heavy. It's not particularly what everyone else is coming out with, but sometimes you've just got to do it and see how it goes".

The vocal that's been delivered by charismatic RDK deejay Knatty P can't fail to make an impression. 'Run Run Run' is a lyrically captivating tale.

"It's a true story actually. Knatty wrote that quite passionately. He loves country life, that's what he's into. He was living in Pewsey in Wiltshire and a rogue policeman from Marlborough set him up. Knatty's quite a flamboyant character and the policeman was some kind of BNP sympathiser. The police raided his house and accused him of stealing a wallet from an off duty policeman in a pub. They harassed him quite a lot; followed him back in the night and stuff like that. They eventually dropped the charges, but the   police can be quite frightening when they're on your case and out to get you. Knatty had to move to Bath. He was forced to live back in town because it wasn't a very nice situation. He wrote the tune out of frustration".

Knatty P has had an enigmatic, if sporadic, recording career so far. His crisp, concise lyrics are loaded with meaning; tending towards the profound and poetic style of someone like Ini Kamoze.

"Knatty is a very thoughtful deejay. He's Roots, very deep and un-commercial. His catalogue is quite varied. He can go from deep, cryptic kind of lyrics to very jovial, tongue in cheek dancehall deejaying. He doesn't just churn tunes out. He has to take a rhythm, study it and write a song. His stuff might be cryptic, but it's structured and thought out. I support Knatty because he's original, pushing boundaries and dealing with things that are relevant to today."

The other vocalist featured is Reuben Mystic.

"He lives locally in Brixton. I've linked up with him a few times and knew he was up for doing some vocals. I always like to get a few new artists on the label and try to support local talent. I'm not into recording artists over the internet, sending rhythms out by e-mail. When I do my vocals I'm there in the studio. Personally I feel that when you record, a whole vibe is going down. People have got to be in the right vibe. I'm not saying you can't do a good tune through the internet because you probably can. But I've always been there, that's a principle for me. I like my local community wherever I am. I happen to live in Brixton and I like to work local. There's a Reggae community here".

His Reggae music is raw, unprocessed cultural practice. Any independent label that survives and perseveres for as long as Universal Roots, inexorably grows into a commentary on its surroundings. Knatty P and Reuben Mystic are both Jamaicans fated to encounter Markie Lyrics on the scene in Brixton; the unofficial capital of West Indian Britain. Their stories are in their songs. Reuben Mystic demonstrates the faith and conviction of a relatively recent exile. Knatty P describes the prejudice that still awaits beyond the urban confines.

Universal Roots has been immersed in the vigour and life of South London.

"I've been nearly twenty years in Brixton. I was in Wandsworth for about ten years before. I got into Reggae around Young Lion, Jah Life and Coxsone Soundsystems in the mid eighties. A lot of Reggae was going on in Wandsworth, Battersea and Clapham. I moved over here when I met my wife Claudia and we've had the family here".

Brixton was regarded as a 'symbolic location' and lawless, multi-ethnic community by the Metropolitan Police, it was also the site of 'Di Great Insohreckshan' as described by Linton Kwesi Johnson. However, Markie Lyrics and RDK Hi-fi are just as easily identified with an alternative source of opposition and resistance. Squatters, anarchists, radicals and free party people constituted another distinct Brixton subculture.

"There was a lot of people we knew in the squat scene. There were loads of empty properties in Lambeth. Derelict houses and buildings. There was the remnants of the hippies from the sixties, punks, anarchist bookshops and centres. All sorts of stuff, a diverse culture. I've grown up in both communities. We bordered the two sides. We were quite mixed, so we bridged that gap. We took the Reggae Roots music of resistance to the squat scene. The anarchist and alternative crowd liked all that. We got opportunities to play in a lot of places. Reggae was the first music to use a big bass; before Rave music, Jungle and all that. The rave people were hiring soundsystems off us between 1988 and 1990. We had the only big bass soundsystems at the time. That was all intermingling. House parties and warehouse parties were going on regularly. Round this area three or four parties would be going on in one night on a Friday or Saturday. It was a big party scene, along with blues parties as well."

RDK's associations were natural and uncontrived. Much of their good standing was earned by delivering an unadulterated Roots soundsystem experience. Nothing was yielded or compromised to accommodate new elements in the audience. Their apprenticeship, as an emergent and aspirant sound, was fleeting. They rapidly came to epitomise their scene. Legendary sessions at free festivals and squat parties ensured that they became the Reggae sound for a generation of rebels living hand to mouth in Lambeth's urban wreckage.

 

Today is part of a new era, with it's own challenges.

"Brixton has changed a lot. You'd have whole blocks of flats that were squatted in the eighties and nineties. They got rid of most of those six or seven years ago. There used to be a big squatting community in Lambeth. A lot of property has been sold off and middle classes have moved in. Half of Brixton is council estates and the other half is big Victorian houses; impressive places that make a lot of money on the property market now. We used to have parties in some massive houses, you know what I'm saying. Now they're worth a lot of money. I could show you loads of places round here that we used to do parties in big houses. Now they're all done up for the hoi polloi ".

The prominent Cooltan Arts Centre, 121 Centre and Agnes Place squats have gone. Markie's own circumstances have also changed. His family tolerated life on the infamous Angell Town Estate, where he says friends were reluctant to visit after dark, until it was radically redeveloped in the mid nineties. Resident's participation in the consultative process lead to the destruction of the concrete blocks and dark, high-level walkways. They were replaced with terraced houses and gardens. However, Universal Roots isn't set to become some relic of Brixton's edgy and exciting past. The everyday struggles continue and the challenge for Markie is to add to the discerning reputation that his label has built.

His supporters know what to expect.

"I'm into Roots Reggae. Rockers music. You don't hear much melodic Roots nowadays. It ain't hype. People get hyped up about something for a little while and then it fades. Whereas Roots is Roots, it's just there."  

   

June 2010

 

RDK Myspace: www.myspace.com/rdkhifi

Universal Roots website: www.originalrockers.com