Following Wycliffe Steely Johnsons recent passing, Wyclef Jean has dropped this tribute to him on...

Following Wycliffe Steely Johnsons recent passing, Wyclef Jean has dropped this tribute to him on the Steely and Clevie production of the classic taxi riddim.

Back in the 1980s Steely andamp; Clevie revolutionised the sound of dancehall music and basically produced 90 per cent of the dancehall music recorded in those days; this track being one of them.

If you have any doubt about their contribution to dancehall music take a look at their discography here http://www.discogs.com/artist/Steely+...

1st September 2009, marked the passing of Wycliffe Steely Johnson, half of one of the most prolific production teams of the contemporary dancehall era - Steely andamp; Clevie.

Steely first attracted attention during his tenure with Sugar Minott’s Youth Promotion collective, playing keyboards on the 1978 classic Ghetto-ology before joining the ranks of the Roots Radics, the quintessential band of the early 1980s dancehall boom backing artistes such as Gregory Isaacs, Bunny Wailer and many others.

At the time, Cleveland Clevie Brown, a veteran of Studio One sessions was beginning to explore the possibilities of drum machine technology, a subject of much derision from other drummers in the reggae community. He and Steely first played together at Lee Scratch Perry’s legendary Black Ark Studios during the late 1970s, and the two men immediately clicked, frequently teaming in the years to follow.

By 1986 Steely and Clevie were established as the house band at King Jammy’s Studio and the concept of electronic production was beginning to catch on among other artists. The duo, whose experiments with computer technology went back several years, was well ahead of the pack in this field.

King Jammy’s became the hub of the reggae scene in the latter half of the 1980s, and Steely and Clevie maintained a relentless pace, cutting upwards of ten sides a week behind artists including Cocoa Tea and Dennis Brown. In 1988 they formed their own label, named simply Steely and Clevie, and soon scored major hits with singles from Foxy Brown, Tiger, Johnny P and Dillinger. The duo also issued a string of their own one rhythm records. Subsequent work with Maxi Priest, Shabba Ranks, Aswad and Caron Wheeler helped win Steely and Clevie even greater mass attention and solidified their dominance of the era.

Wycliffe Steely Johnson passed away on the morning of 1st September 2009 at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital in Long Island, New York, from heart failure. He had been battling for his life after contracting pneumonia whilst recovering from kidney complications in December 2008. A great loss to the reggae community.