Big Youth
Jamaican deejay
Manley Augustus Buchanan (born 19 April 1949, Trenchtown, Kingston, Jamaica), better known as Big Youth (sometimes called Jah Youth), is a Jamaican deejay, mostly known for his work during the 1970s.
He commented, "Deejays were closest to the people because there wasn't any kind of establishment control on the sound systems".
Biography
Early career
Before beginning his musical career, Buchanan worked as a diesel mechanic at Kingston's Sheraton Hotel, where he would develop his toasting skills while he worked, and was nicknamed "Big Youth" by his co-workers. He started to perform at dances, initially influenced by U-Roy, and became a regular with Lord Tippertone's sound system by 1970, becoming the resident deejay, and attracting the attention of Kingston's record producers. His early 45 singles for producers such as Jimmy Radway ("The Best Big Youth"), Lee Perry ("Moving Version") and Phil Pratt ("Tell It Black") were artistically and commercially unsuccessful.
1970s peak
By 1972 he had begun working with Augustus "Gussie" Clarke, a teenage producer whose rhythms and singers were more in tune with the vibes on the streets of Kingston, and "The Killer" (on a version of Horace Andy's "Skylarking" rhythm) became his first major Jamaican hit record, soon followed by "Tippertone Rocking". Following this, he released the successful "S-90 Skank", featuring a motorbike being revved in the studio, for Keith Hudson's Imbidmts label, versioning the producer's own "We Will Work It Out". This became his first Jamaican number one hit, and also featured in a television advert for the Honda motorcycle that inspired it. The first album to feature his vocals, Chi Chi Run was produced by Prince Buster in 1972. Distinctive musically, his half-sung style contrasting with his contemporaries, he was also visually distinctive, with his teeth inlaid with red, gold, and green jewels.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q794747. VIAF identifies the subject as 38549102. The Library of Congress control number is n91023690. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1970 and 1972.
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This entry incorporates text from “Big Youth” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.