Sly & Robbie

A cornerstone of Jamaican music for over 40 years, Sly & Robbie were important figures in shaping reggae's languid rhythms and grooves and became leading producers as the genre evolved into dub, dancehall and ragga. Both made their names as young session musicians in Kingston: Sly Dunbar (born Lowell Dunbar on May 10, 1952, in Kingston, Jamaica) as a drummer and Robbie Shakespeare (born in Kingston, Jamaica on September 27, 1953) as a bass player. They were united in 1975 by producer JoJo Hookim to work as the rhythm section for his studio band The Revolutionaries. Their mutual love of Motown and soul created a signature sound that helped score hits for Jimmy Cliff, The Mighty Diamonds, Peter Tosh and Culture and they were even asked to produce albums for French crooner Serge Gainsbourg. The duo was at the forefront as roots reggae turned to digital and electronic programming in the 1980s, and were key members of Compass Point, a recording studio and group set up by Island Records as a reggae equivalent to Nashville. They experimented with an eclectic range of styles on debut The Sixties + Seventies + Eighties = Taxi (1981) received widespread critical acclaim for Rhythm Killers (1987) and scored a small hit in the UK with “Boops (Here to Go)”, later sampled by Robbie Williams on his track “Rudebox”. Their reputation grew mainly as producers for Black Uhuru, Grace Jones, and Mick Jagger. They later collaborated with Simply Red on a version of Gregory Isaacs' “Night Nurse” and worked with Queen Latifah and KRS-One on Silent Assassin (1989), before later remixing acts as diverse as Britney Spears, Bob Dylan, Madonna and Marianne Faithfull. In 2019, they collaborated with Roots Radics on the Grammy-nominated album Sly & Robbie vs. Roots Radics: The Final Battle. The duo continued to work together until Robbie Shakespeare’s death on December 8, 2021, at the age of 68.

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