General Echo (b. Earl Anthony Robinson. 8th of December, 1955) was born at Maiden Lane, Kingston, Jamaica. Has father passed away when he was still very young and his mother, Mrs. Elma Robinson, worked as a dressmaker. He graduated from Kingston Senior School and eventually started to work at Peart Electrical in downtown Kingston. He started his own set, Echo Tone, in 1975. But soon moving on to Ray Symbolic and then to Stereophonic around 1977. It was on Sound Systems such as Gemini, Stereophonic and Ray Symbolic in the late 70's he started making a name for himself. Even though he was one of the new generation deejays who based his style on the originator U-Roy's style he still had a groundbreaking and unique timing and tone of voice when chatting. This was one of the reasons why he got such a strong following, another reason because was the reigning master of slackness lyrics. When deejaying on his own set the Echo Tone Hifi General Echo was quite a sight and was most certainly an entertainer as he could stop the music entirely in order to tell a joke or two in the dance and then let the music continue after he had said them.

His first album was a recording for Dudley »Manzie« Swaby called »Rocking & Swing« and was released before he started chatting slack on records. He met Manzie in 1977 and began recording music. His debut recording being »People Are You Ready« which he cut for Winston Riley's brother Buster. He also released a couple of non-slack singles such as »Drunken Master« for George Phang and »Arleen« (which was a #1 hit in Jamaica). He then released albums for both Junjo and Winston Riley (for the latter under the name of Ranking Slackness).

In 1980 the 22nd of November when driving to check on an amplifier for Stereophonic at the premises of a sound system builder known as Mr. Denton General Echo and his friends Leon »Big John« Johns (owner of Stereophonic Sound) and the selector Flux where pulled over by the police. It was by Derrymore Road in the heart of Kingston. For an unclear reason the three musicians where all shot dead and the police never provided any satisfactory explanation of why the executions happened. The death of General Echo was a shock to the whole of Jamaica and the reggae community in particular. Noteworthy tribute songs where recorded by Clint Eastwood & General Saint (»Tribute To General Echo«) and Tippa Ranking (»Echo Get Shot«) among others.