By Chris Samson
Years before rap music became popular with American youth, dancehall reggae was the rage in Jamaica. Born in the shantytown clubs of the Caribbean nation in the late '70s, dance-hall style featured DJs rapping over instrumental or ''dub'' tracks in a rhythmic, rhyming patois known as "toasting.''
The king of dance-hall reggae is Yellowman, a black albino who became an instant sensation in Jamaica with a string of hit records in the early '80s. His popularity has not waned over the years; he has become the top-selling reggae artist since Bob Marley.
"I am like Elvis,'' he joked during a telephone interview from his San Diego area hotel room this week. "I keep on going.''
Yellowman, who is in the middle of a concert tour that will bring him to the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma on Sept. 7, is not a big fan of American rap musicians, who he views as rip-off artists.
"We are the original,'' he says emphatically. "Every rap artist in America ... they get influence off me and other [Jamaican] rappers. They all come to my concerts -- Ice-T, LL Cool J, Run-DMC, Salt N Pepa, Tone Loc, Hammer -- all of them. The thing is, they don't say they were influenced by us. They think it's their original style of music. They think they're doing reggae, but they're not.''
While differences of rhythm, language and musical backing still separate Jamaican dance-hall reggae and American rap, Yellowman sees some of the differences narrowing. Yet he says he is doing essentially the same style of music today as when he started.
"I haven't changed too much,'' he says. "I'm the same performer. I just keep on doing the same type of music.''
But what he does on stage has earned him a reputation as reggae's most dynamic live performer. In the words of Jamaican radio personality Barry Gordon, "the man can chat the box, non-stop, without one mistake.'' A review in the Boston Globe likened a Yellowman concert to spending "an hour in a hot tub: soothing, stimulating, sensual.''
In concert, Yellowman is in constant motion, strutting, boasting, spouting "slack'' (risque) lyrics. But offstage, he is a soft-spoken, introspective man who goes by his real name, Winston Foster.
His latest album, "Prayer,'' shows this softer side of his personality. The title track is the Lord's Prayer performed with a blend of sweet vocals and dance-hall style chanting. "I realized that God gave me this talent,'' he says. "So I decided to do that song and name my album that. I try to reach other people.''
Yellowman says he's noticed a difference in the crowds that come to see him during his twice-yearly concert tours. "I see more younger people following me. And when a do a concert, they sing along with me. A few years ago, they didn't do that.
"I think the people -- white and black -- love the real reggae music,'' he says. His performances mix vintage material and contemporary dance-hall styles -- with outrageous medleys of American pop classics thrown in. He also pays homage to Bob Marley. "When I do a concert, I do it to entertain people and to educate them at the same time,'' he says.
Born 38 years ago in Kingston, Jamaica, he got his nickname because he was "yellow like cheese'' due to his albinism -- a congenital skin condition characterized by an absence of pigmentation. He never knew his mother or his father and was found abandoned as a young baby -- probably the result of his mother being unwilling to accept an albino as her child. Because of Jamaican society's traditional negative attitude toward albinos, or "dundus,'' he was shunned and placed in an institution and forced to attend a special school.
A few years ago, he had to overcome more adversity -- a battle with throat and skin cancer. "I am recovered now,'' he says.
By his early 20s, Yellowman realized he had been born with a special musical talent and he became a dance-hall DJ -- first at Black South International Discoteque. On his first stage show, Yellowman was booed by crowds shouting "Dundus come off,'' but he persevered and won over the audience.
In 1979 he surfaced at the annual amateur talent contest at Tastee's Club and won the top prize. Wearing a bright yellow outfit which has since become one of his trademarks, he sang "Barnabus Killing,'' which he said was a reply to the popular tune "Barnabus Collins'' sung by the popular Jamaican DJ/rapper known as the Lone Ranger.
By 1980, he became the resident DJ for the popular Aces discoteque in St. Thomas, Jamaica. He soon began recording his songs and getting radio airplay.
By the time he appeared at Reggae Sunsplash in August 1982, he was the biggest reggae star in Jamaica, with a string of hits that included "Mad Over Me,'' "Operation Eradication,'' "Soldiers Take Over'' and "Mr. Chin.'' The "albino dread'' delivered a powerful show that solidified his popularity and left the crowd calling for more. Headlines in a Jamaican newspaper the next day said, "Yellowman Steals the Show.''
Since then, Yellowman has recorded more than 25 albums. Some of his songs have been banned from airplay, because of their sexual or political content. But even without radio exposure they have become huge hits and underground favorites.
''Operation Eradication,'' for example, was a serious commentary about the feared Eradication Squads in Jamaica.
Most of his records have been either hastily made or recorded live. But his improvisational skills and sense of phrasing and rhythm shine through nonetheless.
Yellowman, still going strong more than a dozen years after he took the musical industry of his native country by storm, speaks in reverent tones about his music.
''I was born with this talent,'' he says. ''I get it from God. I do this because I love it.''
(Yellowman and the Sagittarius Band will appear Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 8 p.m. at the Phoenix Theater, 201 Washington St., Petaluma. Native Elements will open the show. Tickets are $13 advance, $15 at the door. Phone the Sonoma State University Student Union at 664-2382.)
(Published Sept. 2, 1994)
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