Born Joseph Jackson, in Kingston, Jamaica, July 1st, 1959, he was
introduced in to the music business while at Tarrant Junior Secondary School in Kingston, where he performed in the school concerts and won local talent contests back in the mid-70's. As he grew up he participated in stage shows and parties in different Jamaican parishes for veteran singer/promoter Jackie Brown. His first performing name was as "D.J. Jolly", and he performed with well know artists like Horace Andy, Dennis Brown, Bingy Bunny, Bongo Herman , and Keith Poppin. At the age of 15, he went to one of Studio One's Sunday auditions and what resulted was his first big hit "Gun Court", using the Larry Marshall "Mean Girl" riddim, and produced by Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd. This release also came with a name change to "Little Joe". The success of this recording led to more producers becoming interested in his work and as a result he cut more records for different producers such as Bunny Lee where he did "Old Tradition". "Honda 750" he cut for Pete Weston. "Psalm 54" and "Jacket" were recorded with the help of Watty Burnett. "Stop Your Coming And Come", came courtesy of Sly and Robbie and "Natty BMW" he did with Bunny Diamond. He also cut "Shine Eye Girl" and "Natty Never Get Weary" for Sonia Pottinger's famous High Note label. After these he went on to record for 'Prince' Tony Robinson who advised him to again change his name, and so he became Rankin' Joe. He worked alongside Robinson and had hit records such as "A You Mr. Fennigan", and made an LP of the same name. Through his association with Robinson he was also introduced to the King of DJ's U-Roy, and left Ray Symbolic Hi Fi were he had been DJing with Jah Screw for the past few years, to work on U Roy's legendary King Stur-Gav Hi-Fi Sound System, the most popular sound system in Jamaica at that time. It was here he developed his original style of fast rapping and tongue twisting that is known as Bang-Dilly.Joe's string of successes kept rolling with an introduction to Joe Gibbs next, for whom he did the singles "Leave Fe Me Girl Arlene" and "Bald Head Bridge", which was a collaboration with Culture. The latter was released as a disco 12" 45 record and is one of the best extended mixes of the "rockers" period of the late 70's. In 1977, he was voted the most popular DJ of that year, both for his records, which were constantly in the charts, and his performances on King Stur-Gav. In 1978-79 he was approached by top dancehall producer Henry 'Junjo' Laws for the Volcano Label. Here he recorded an album titled "Saturday Night Jamdown Style", which was released by Greensleeves and VP Records to much success.
1980, was a busy year with the release of "Dub It In A Dance", a self produced LP, "Natty
Superstar" for Gibbs and "Shaolin Temple Zion High" with Black Uhuru and Dennis Brown, who also produced, while King Tubby did the mixing. He was also offered a deal to tour London for the first time with original soundsystem Ray Symbolic alongside promoter Errol Dunkley and Jah Screw the Selector. In 1981-82 he toured America, Canada, Germany, and the West Indies. He then married and moved to New York where his musical output dropped off with just some sporadic releases and production work such as Frankie Paul & Leroy Sibbles "The Champions Clash" in 1985.He remained rather quite for the next 20 years until in 2005 he released "World In Trouble" after enjoying something of a resurgence thanks to Blood and Fire's 2003 release "Zion High", a collection of some of his vintage tracks, plus the good work he had performed with the Version City Rockers, as well as the Easy Star Allstars, where he appeared on two tracks of their ambitious remake of Pink Floyds "Dark Side of the Moon" titled "Dub Side of the Moon". Off the back of these successful releases he has started back working more regularly with a host of new and diverse reggae artists such as Jah Warrior, Twilight Circus, Jahtari and my personal faves Mungos Hi Fi. -
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