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Tapper Zukie

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 6 months ago

The name Tappa Zukie (b. David Sinclair, Kingston the 2nd July, 1955) is a combination of the name his grandmother used to call him (Tapper/Tappa) while the latter part was from the name of the gang he ran with as a youth, the Zukies. In his teens, Tappa began working with Sound Systems, the first one being I-Oses Discotech and then for Maccabees. When working on the latter he caught the attention of producer Bunny Lee. Initially working as a bodyguard for him. His runnings with crime however also had caught attention of the police. In 1973 his mother sent him off to relatives in England. Bunny Lee who was impressed by the youth still didn't want his talent go to waste and pulled some strings. The day after he had reached London, the young Tappa opened up for U-Roy on stage. His show impressed the producer Larry Lawrence of Ethnic Records that immediately took him to the studio to record his debut single »Jump & Twist«. His debut album, Man Ah Warrior, soon followed with productions by Clem Bushay and by Tappa himself.

 

At the end of the year he returned to Kingston and started recording singles for various producers such as Yabby You, Bunny Lee, Jo Jo Hookim and Ossie Hibbert. Even though Bunny Lee wanted him to sign a exclusive deal Tappa refused. Bunny Lee did still give him a batch of backing tracks to work with. Out of these recordings came his second album, MPLA (named after a communist party in Angola). The album was financed by Zukie himself. He also set up his label, Stars. Due to economical difficulties Zukie however had to put his record on hold, releasing only singles from the album. He had also by this time started to produce other artists such as Errol Dunkley.

 

In the mid-1975 Zukie returned to London searching for a distribution deal for his Stars-label. He inked a licensing deal with Klik that released a single off MPLA. His name was now starting to grow big. In 1976 the full album followed, released on Klik, soon enough placing itself the best selling of the UK that Christmas. Soon after Zukie also signed a deal with Virgin Records who released MPLA with new cover art in 1978. The same year Zukie had been shot in the leg and stomach ending up in hospital.

 

In 1976 when punk/rock musician Patti Smith visit London to make a show, Tapper joined her on-stage and impressed her with his style that she also invited him to open for her group on the bands next tour. She was so impressed that she released his debut, Man A Warrior, on her own MER label.

 

By now Zukie had picked up steam and released several successful albums such as Man From Bosrah, Earth Running, Escape From Hell, In Dub, Peace in the Ghetto, and Black Man albums between the years of 1977 to 1979. And even though he initially was higher profile in Britain than in Jamaica this soon had changed with the massive hits, »Oh Lord« and »She Wants A Phensic«.

 

During the early 80's Zukie was often travelling between Kingston and London constantly recording and producing. Releasing albums such as Raggy Joey Boy and People Are You Ready?. By 1983 Zukie had started to focus on primarely production recording pretty much all of the more important artists in Jamaica -- Mighty Diamonds, Max Romeo, Ken Boother, Sugar Minott, U-Roy and many many more.

 

In 1986 Tappa released his first solo album in some years, Ragamuffin. Ten years later followed his next solo album, Deep Roots. As Tappa had focused on productions he had thus taken much of the focus off himself often just appearing on b-sides of his own productions. Further productions followed with artsits such as Sly Dunbar, JC Lodge, Beres Hammond and Simpleton.

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