This fantastic 2CD collection covers the first 20 years of Gregory Isaacs’ unique path to fame. He fought his way out of the ghetto to become one of the icons of his era, a true survivor. Cool, yes. A ruler, undoubtedly. But that description doesn’t reveal the half of it.
He’s never left the grass roots and it shows in everything he’s done. Hence there’s never been any sense that he’s sold out, even when he’s signed major record deals, been in the charts and his songs have been used in adverts. His lovers material is every bit as accepted as his truths and rights lyrics and his dancehall tunes in the 80s were a triumph of genuine ragga feeling. He is the real deal, as Jamaican as Kingston, where he was born in 1951. You don’t get to achieve as much as Gregory has for just one reason – as this collection makes perfectly clear.