Biography of Gregory Isaacs

Nobody sings a love song quite like Gregory Isaacs, reggae music's "Cool Ruler." His voice is languidness personified, insinuating itself around snatches of rhythm like a duppy through a canefield. There's no insistence here, more an intimation. His is the voice of lullabies and laments and loneliness, of indignation and sufferation, of soothing and seething. Few singers in Jamaica have had as many hits as he, few his impressive durability. A recent issue of the Reggae Directory was devoted entirely to a discography of Isaacs, listing more than 400 releases in the past twenty years. Recording initially in the late '60s as part of the Concordes, he cut his first solo disc, "Another Heartache," for WIRL, the label founded by onetime Jamaican prime minister Edward Seaga. Almost immediately, Gregory decided to establish his own labels, Cash and Carry and African Museum, and produce himself. On his third album, Extra Classics, he found his own voice on such laidback laments as "Mr. Cop" and "Rasta Business," and most especially "Loving Pauper." The follow-up, Mr. Isaacs, joined him with Sly & Robbie and the Heptones and gave the world the four S's: "Sacrifice," "Slavemaster," "Smile," and "Storm." As an example of the respect other artists accord Gregory, on the Soon Forward album he is backed by the voices of Junior Delgado, Dennis Brown, and Leroy Sibbles. The Cool Ruler collection continued the streak of classics, which culminated in 1983's Night Nurse, one of his all-time best-sellers. Throughout the '80s, Gregory released more music than any other artist of the time, sometimes offering six singles in the space of a week. Many of them were critically and commercially successful, such as "Rumours" and "Private Beach Party." Throughout his career, though, he has had frequent and well-publicized run-ins with the law, contributing to his image as the ultimate rude-boy artist, with his head in the clouds and his feet in the street. Ultimately, though, as Gregory says, "Only love can win the war!" ~ Roger Steffens