Justin Hinds Interview
at Phantasmagoria, Wheaton MD
June 26, 1998
Toby Gohn

The legend of ska and rocksteady days Justin Hinds spoke with me for a few minutes after his show in early summer. The show was a barn stormer, paced by many of his hits from the 60's with producer Duke Reid. He spoke with me (Toby) regarding numerous different issues.


Toby: Thank you for joining us. That was a great show. I heard that last year was your first tour of the U.S..

Justin: Yeah, that was my first tour of the U.S.

T: How would you say the U.S. crowds have been, receptive or...

J: Well, they accept me, I can see they love my music, ya know, because of the spiritual ting my music. Over the years they listen to me and not seeing me they welcome me.

T: Right, right. I wanted to jump way beck real quickly. I know that when you started in with Duke Reid at Bond Street, for the first seven years or so you were pretty faithful to him as one producer. Especially during the sixties that was kind of a rare commodity. People would do the producer circuit throughout Kingston, jump from studio to studio. What was the sound or what was the appeal to Duke's way?

J: Well, Duke is a very nice man. Ya know? Duke do good for poor people, he help a lot of people in my country. I would say ha run a record store, and he run a liquor store, and he have three big sound system, and whenever time the people don't have money to buy food they would go down to the studio take his sound system, just give them liquors, and just give them on consignment and they made money, they bring it back to him. So, he was a good man.

T: So you say his treatment of artists was better than sometimes he gets a rap for?

J: Yes mon.

T: Definitely. Cause I know Coxsone sometimes gets a bad rap as well.

J: Yes, well it's like that in the music sometimes like that, ya know?

T: Right. Back in the sixties when you guys were a trio, the vocal harmonies were more in unison instead of call and response...

J: Yes, we were more in unison because for one reason we grew up in one village and we go to one school. We grow up together for years, and we play together for years, so it was like dat. That's why we have this appeal, ya know?

T: That was a very unique sound. Especially for that time.

J: Yes, and we do a lot of rehearsal, cause we just rehearse everyday. We used to work for the Water Sport Enterprise, and then, in working for the Water Sport Enterprise where you sing for the tourists? We just keep a going on.

T: How would you say growing up in St. Anne, the country aspect of your life, has influenced your music?

J: Well the country is a better living to me more than living in the city. Cause when I'm in the country I relax and I don't have to fret to sleep at night. Ya know? And I could listen to birds, ya know, I could see the ocean, I could go to the river, ya know, and I could inspirate from the wind, ya know, as I see the wind as one of the most powerful ting Earth has. The Almighty himself, ya know? Now I see him because he ride upon the wings of the wind and leads to the heart of men, so when I'm in the hills I could listen to the whispered spirit, ya know? So this inspire more, when I'm in country.

T: You're also considered among just a small hand full of artists, like Bob Andy and Larry Marshall, as having very deep cultural lyrics. And I know you’re a conscious artist, but you have that real gift lyrically that some Reggae artists...even back in the sixties when ska and rocksteady were there, it's all "love you baby", it's not upliftfulness and righteousness...

J: No, because you see right now I'm coming from a spiritual house, ya know? My father is a righteous man, and my mother, ya know? So I have this religious feelings within me, ya know? And seeing the Rastaman vibration is a positive vibration to all the nation. Not just seeing that a man wear his dreadlocks on his head is a Rastaman. The Rastaman don't matter what color, creed or race you may be, as long as your conscious within yourself. Love everybody like you love yourself. Do unto others as you like others to do unto you. Honor your mother, your father, your days may be long. And you seeing justice, equality, rights, ya know? That's a Rastaman. Ya know? Cause a Rastaman don't steal, a Rastaman doesn't kill, he doesn't rob. He try to walk on his integrity, ya know? Yes.

T: Coming more to the present, what do you feel about the state of Jamaican Reggae today, with the slackness artists getting a lot of promotion and the moneys?

J: Well, I would say the music lost it's spirituality. Cause, a lot of people involved with music today who just have a lot of money, and maybe they would just dump it down on the younger generation or some deejays to do, to just do some work, ya know. When I see the music it's like a garden with a lot of flowers or a lot of fruits. Some people say this fruit is sweet while when another one say it's sour, music is like dat ya know? So I have to keep...what I'm here to do today is to bring back the spiritual vibration into the
music.

T: Don't stop doing that.

J: Yes mon.

T: Do you think there's a lack of...even the cultural artists that are now, like Tony Rebel or Luciano, still the majority of the artists are deejays. Do you kinda miss the days when singers dominate?

J: Yes, because it's easier for a man to talk more then sing, it's easier to talk. So, is like, ya find the younger generation more into the rapping because it's really very hard, very rarely you find a guy that can sing to be on the chart or to record him. So, when you find this way you find a lot of guys who adopt each other. So this guy talks slackness, there come another guy try to talk the same thing. So you will see our part of the music which is more divine, which is more culture, which is more lyrically. Ya know lyrics is more effective, and they could listen, they could learn something, they don't see that. They’re just seeing the raggamuffin part of it. Yes.

T: Do you feel that the technology that is overtaking the music from a production standpoint, is that killing the roots and the vibration in the music?

J: Yes, yes. Definitely, yes. That is killing the roots of the music because of the electronic sound or they put the digital, ya know? These guys go and compute, and these things take away the original, the roots of the music been taken away. That's a key, the root of the music, just because of one could go in his room and he could just set up all his digitality, but we don't see it that way. We need to listen to the livity that was there from the beginning, like from the Skatalites days, been coming through the Skatalites, Baba Brooks, different type of musicians, ya know?

T: Right. Everybody already knows this, but, Tommy McCook, passed on last month. What do you think his legacy in Jamaican music, I mean not even Reggae, he was there from the beginning, in arranging, he was an originator and an innovator...

J: Well I see him as an ambassador, and we really miss him. Ya know? We lost a man, ya know, cause it's like in my days coming up I school under those guys Ya know those are the people that really bring me, and Tommy serve a lot to the music industry, even Mr. Coxsone and Duke Reid, ya know? And we coo pon all these people that involved with the music. We all miss Tommy. Ya know? We miss a hero, a hero of the music.

T: In closing, do you have any messages for the young artist that all they might see is the Beenie Man or whoever, they don’t know where to find something that will uplift them more so?

J: What I would say to them, they have to write more conscious lyrics. Lyrics that mean sense to their brother and sister, ya know? That they can sit down, it headify dem, ya know? They should write more on the spiritual point of view, not to say they iust singing, writing about the girls and the boys and whatever, they need to write about Jah, ya know? Jah love us, give us life to live, ya know, we should love each other, and we should stop fighting, killing, rob, ya know? We should just be dear, ya know, try to reach the heights of life that was given, ya know? That's what it's all about, so like tell them to do today, write some good conscious music and get into it and think of the days when the music was more spiritual, ya know? Then you will find interests, soon as they start to work of it that way they will find the uplifting of Jamaican music.

T: Very nice. What other stops do you have on your tour, are you doing a tour right now?

J: Right, we're on a three month tour.

T: What other parts of the country will you visit?

J: All across the country, all the way back to California, then we're coming on the coast of Texas, then back to St. Louis, all the way back here to Washington.

T: You're gonna be back in Washington?

J: Yes.

T: Very nice. Alright, well thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate that.

J: Your welcome, your welcome. Thank you for doing this work too.

T: Alright.