VP To Produce Steely And Clevie Compilation

A double compact disc revisiting the work of producers Wycliffe 'Steely' Johnson and Cleveland 'Clevie' Browne will be released on January 29 by VP Records.

The set, which also includes a DVD, is titled Steely and Clevie: Digital Revolution. It contains 42 songs the duo worked on between 1989 and 2003.

Johnson died from a heart attack, at age 47, in September 2009 in New York City. He had gone there to receive treatment for kidney failure.

Digital Revolution is packed with numerous hit songs that made Steely and Clevie the dominant force in dancehall for nearly 15 years. The first disc covers the years 1989-91 and includes songs such as Sorry by Foxy Brown, Ram Dance Hall by Tiger, Singing Melody's Shower Me With Your Love, Murder Dem by Ninja Man, Caan Dun by Shabba Ranks and Come Back Sonia from Cocoa Tea.

1991 to 2003

The second disc contains songs the duo produced during the period 1991 to 2003 when dancehall music hit the North American charts in a big way.

Trailer Load and Ting A Ling from Shabba Ranks, When by Tiger,Mama (Baby Wayne), Double Trouble (Beres Hammond), Love Of A Lifetime (Junior Tucker), Love Is The Answer (Garnet Silk), Call The Hearse (Bushman), I'm Still In Love With You (Sean Paul and Sasha) and No No No by Dawn Penn, are some of the songs on disc two.

I'm Still In Love With You and No No No were covers of songs originally done at Studio One. They were minor hits in the United States in 2002 and 1992, respectively.

Johnson and Browne met in the 1970s while the former was a member of the Roots Radics band and Browne played in the In Crowd band. They played on Bob Marley and the Wailers' Trench Town and Stiff Necked Fools from the singer's Confrontation album.

The Digital Age

When the sensational com-puter-driven Sleng Teng beat exploded in 1984, Browne said he and Johnson were among a handful of musicians who did not oppose the new digital concept.

"We shared a similar vision that this was the future of reggae music," Browne told The Gleaner two years ago.

Some of Steely and Clevie's biggest triumphs came with the deejay Shabba Ranks, who was the most successful dancehall act of the 1990s. They first worked with him in the late 1980s when he was the breakout artiste for producers Lloyd 'King Jammys' James and Bobby 'Bobby Digital' Dixon.

They also embraced the roots revival of the 1990s, producing hit songs by new-wave Rasta singers Garnet Silk and Bushman.


Source: Jamaica-Gleaner