ENTITY · GROUP

Roots Radics

Probable

The Roots Radics are a Jamaican band formed in 1978 by bassist Errol "Flabba" Holt, guitarist Eric "Bingy Bunny" Lamont and drummer Lincoln "Style" Scott. They became the dominant studio and stage band of the early 1980s, spearheading the sparse, bass-heavy sound that launched the dancehall era, and were closely associated with Henry "Junjo" Lawes's productions at Channel One. They backed artists including Gregory Isaacs, Bunny Wailer, Eek-A-Mouse and Israel Vibration.

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At a glance

Type: group
Confidence: Probable
Era: Open era →

Musical & sonic elementsPeople & roles

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Discogs — Roots Radics

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Discogs source for Roots Radics credits.

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In stories

Story · Well supportedSession bands built the reggae sound

From The Skatalites to Roots Radics, Jamaican music history depends on flexible bands, rhythm sections, horn lines and arrangers as much as named singers.

Story · Well supportedJunjo, Volcano and the youth-deejay boom

In the early 1980s a wave of teenage deejays turned the dancehall over to youth.

Story · Well supportedThe house bands that built the Jamaican sound

Singers and producers changed by the week; the studio band underneath them almost never did.

Debate & reception

How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →

commentary

Credit the rhythm section

Reggae histories often foreground singers and producers, but session musicians and rhythm sections require explicit credit trails where sources allow.

Stance: front artist vs backing musician labour

debate

Sleng Teng: digital revival or the ruin of live reggae

Wayne Smith's 1985 'Under Mi Sleng Teng', built by King Jammy and Noel Davey around a Casio MT-40 preset, is widely credited as the first fully digital dancehall riddim. Purists and some session players held that the drum-machine sound cheapened reggae and displaced the live rhythm bands (the Roots Radics and Sly & Robbie's circle) who had defined the music, while champions argued it democratized production — a youth with a keyboard could now cut a hit without costly studio time — and that it launched the most-versioned riddim in Jamaican history. Later writing frames the moment as either a revival that birthed modern dancehall or the ruin of organic reggae craft.

Stance: democratizing computer riddim vs. the death of the session-band sound