Lord Sassafrass - "A CLASSICAL CONFRONTATION"

Lord Sassafrass in the kitchen cookin' chickin. Very proud of his cooking.

(Exerpt from an upcoming feature on Lord Sassafrass)

R. Lowe February, 2013

It was 1986 at 2:00 in the morning, the night was especially hot and without a moon.  Sassafrass was driving a motorcycle through the outskirts of Western Kingston with Ginger Tea, his hype man riding pillion.  A hype man is a person who cheers on a performer at a dance which encourages the crowd to join in.  This was not Sassa’s area, he was moving through a neighboring area, hoping to pass without drawing attention.  In the darkness, Sassa steered left around a corner and Ginger Tea was steady leaning and looking right, at some activity on the corner.  This caused the motorcycle to lose balance and wobble.  Hitting the brakes, the bike came to a halt.  Immediately, two men approached the bike.   As they approached, the shorter, stockier man turned his head and exclaimed, “Hey Sassafrass!  Ya gone foreign and mi nah hear ya voice again!  Come chat pon the sound fe me.”  The short man motioned over to the corner where Ginger Tea had been looking and Sassa could hear the music coming from beyond the zinc fence.  Although Sassa was feeling kind of “boomy” (apprehensive/jumpy), there was pressure to comply given that he was not in his own area, but was being shown some decency. 

Once inside the yard, there was a crowd of people moving in the darkness.  A small set of lights were strung in the corner and on either side, Sassa and Ginger Tea could see a sound system with individual groups of men.  This yard had two neighborhood sounds competing and Sassa immediately recognized the dj working the mic on one of the sounds, it was Gregory Peck.  Sassa comments on many of the dance goers, “Them nuh really know Peck.  So I stand up beside him to support him.”  As Sassa settles into position, Gregory Peck turns to him and in his clear voice over the speaker boxes he shouts out pure attack lyrics against Sassa, trying to kill him!  This was Peck defending his area as he was the local favorite.  Quite likely that Peck wanted bragging rights of killing a hot dj who was scoring on the charts.   Peck had not yet recorded much and had not yet made impact on the music scene, but he was ready for a fight.   Peck then proceeds to run through a few riddims aggressing toward Sassa in relation to his recent time spent in New York, him being fat, and any other crafty insult he could manufacture.    Sassafrass was almost knocked over, “I come there to support this guy and he try to kill mi man!  Being a dj, ya have to be great to go into another dj area.” 

Once Peck had his time on the mic, the crowd recognized that Lord Sassafrass needs to make his response and they beat the fence.  At this point Sassa’s hype man Ginger Tea grabs hold of the mic and shouts to the crowd,  “We nuh mix wid dutty bungle!  All weh we deal with a nice n deacent peeeple.  Hear dis, a strickly  one, one. One me dealwid tonite people. Ecko Mnott one, Gentrees one, Sassa one!  Come dung now Horseman.”  Standing next to Ginger Tea, Lord Sassafrass takes hold of the mic and djs his song “Pocomania Jump,”  “Poco jump, poco jump, make we do the poco jump…grow a Marveley inna one tenement. Month end come an me couldn’t pay mi rent…”  Sassafrass commented, “The place tun over.”   Sassafrass was able to depart that night with his pride, but was still struck at how Gregory Peck attacked him without provocation.  Sassa recalls, “The little bwoi a try.”  The next day, he reasoned with Echo Minott about the incident.  Echo said, “Yeh a kill im wa kill u,  a bus im waa bus, weh u tink?  Yu was like dat bak in a de days.  Yu want piece a everybody.   Yu wrenk and feisty.”   Ironic that it was Gregory Peck that followed Sassa’s  Poco lyrics lead and later recorded one of his most recognizable songs “Poco Man Jam.”