Two Bad DJ

Chronique

One of the young DJs at the forefront of the shift away from cultural concerns, Clint Eastwood is the younger brother of the equally celebrated DJ Trinity. It was producer Junjo Lawes' clever idea to pair the younger toaster with the British DJ General Saint, and the end result was a clutch of chartbusters and this stellar album (which features many of them). Built around some of the Roots Radics' heaviest rhythms, the DJs announced their arrival with "Tribute to General Echo," a hit which helped define their style. Simple sentiments echoed back and forth between the duo, which succinctly captured the disbelief and dismay that swept the island in the wake of Echo's unnerving and unexplained death at the hands of Jamaican police. The song was one of the few on Two Bad D.J. to tackle a serious theme. Instead, the duo quickly established a reputation as one of the most entertaining DJ teams around. From revising nursery rhymes ("Jack Spratt") to an informative lesson on bananas ("Banana Export"), chiding a former ghetto girl for deserting her old friends ("Sweet Sweet Matilda"), across to a clutch of cuts extolling nicer young women and the pleasures of the dancehalls in general, the pair's wit and exuberance were a winning combination. And that doesn't even include the mega-hits like the slacker-themed "Another One Bites the Dust," borrowing Michael Prophet's "Gunman" rhythm, and the fabulously funny "Talk About Run," where the DJs shame their namesakes when confronted with the living (and talking) dead. Clint Eastwood and General Saint's appeal stretched into the U.K.'s mainstream, and the album even snuck into the chart there. Not surprisingly, something this fun has a life all its own, and Two Bad D.J. remains one of the Greensleeves label's hottest sellers.

© Jo-Ann Greene /TiVo