Robert "Bob" Nesta Marley (February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for the ska, rocksteady and reggae bands The Wailers (1964 – 1974) and Bob Marley & the Wailers (1974 – 1981). Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited for helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement, (of which he was a committed member), to a worldwide audience. Marley's best known hits include "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman, No Cry", "Exodus", "Could You Be Loved", "Stir It Up", "Jamming", "Redemption Song", "One Love" and, together with The Wailers, "Three Little Birds", as well as the posthumous releases "Buffalo Soldier" and "Iron Lion Zion". The compilation album, Legend, released in 1984, three years after his death, is reggae's best-selling album, being 10 times platinum in the US, and selling 20 million copies worldwide.

Peter Tosh, born Winston Hubert McIntosh (18 October 1944 – 11 September 1987) was a reggae musician who was a core member of The Wailers who then went on to have a successful solo career as well as being a trailblazer for the Rastafari movement.

Tosh grew up in the Kingston, Jamaica slum of Trenchtown. He stood out because of his height at 6 feet, 5 1/2 inches. His short-fuse temper and unveiled sarcasm usually kept him in trouble, earning him the nickname Steppin' Razor after a song written by Joe Higgs, an early mentor. He began to sing and learn guitar at a young age, inspired by the American stations he could pick up on his radio. After an illustrious career with The Wailers and as a solo musician, he was murdered at his home. Robbery was said to be the motivation behind Tosh's death.

Toots and the Maytals, originally called simply The Maytals, are a Jamaican musical group and one of the best known ska and reggae vocal groups. According to Sandra Brennan at Allmusic, "The Maytals were key figures in reggae music. Formed in the early 1960s when ska was hot, the Maytals had a reputation for having strong, well-blended voices and a seldom-rivaled passion for their music. Hibbert's soulful style led him to be compared to Otis Redding

Jimmy Cliff (born James Chambers, 1 April 1948, Somerton District, St. James, Jamaica) is a Jamaican ska and reggae singer, musician and actor. He is the only currently living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest possible honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievement in the arts and sciences. He is best known among mainstream audiences for songs such as "Sittin' in Limbo", "You Can Get It If You Really Want", "Many Rivers to Cross" from the soundtrack to The Harder They Come which helped popularize reggae across the world; his cover of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" and Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" from the film, Cool Runnings. Outside of the reggae world, he is probably best known for his film appearance in The Harder They Come. Even after a string of hits, the singer has never quite managed to achieve mainstream acceptance, although in the late 1960s and early 1970s, he seemed poised for international stardom.

Winston Rodney (born March 1, 1948), also known as Burning Spear, is a Grammy Award winning Jamaican roots reggae singer and musician. Like many famous Jamaican reggae artists, Burning Spear is known for his Rastafari movement messages.

Rodney was born in Saint Ann's Bay, Saint Ann, Jamaica, as were Bob Marley and Marcus Garvey; who both had a great influence on Rodney's life: Garvey in his philosophy, which Burning Spear greatly took to, and Marley in directly helping Burning Spear get started in the music industry by introducing him to Clement Dodd. Burning Spear was originally Rodney's group, named after Jomo Kenyatta, the first Prime Minister and President of an independent Kenya, and initially including bass singer Rupert Willington, later expanding to include tenor Delroy Hinds. As fame took hold the name of the group gradually became synonymous with Rodney.

Burning Spear is one of the strongest proponents of Marcus Garvey's self-determination and self-reliance for all African descendants, thus leading to several album releases in commemoration of the Jamaican activist.

In 2002, Burning Spear and his wife, Sonia Rodney who has produced a number of his albums, founded Burning Spear Records.

Burning Spear advocates messages of honesty, peace, and love, which tie in with his social and religious messages of Rastafari and black unity. Along with his musical message, the Spear continues to tour all over the world. His concerts often last 2 hours long with several bongo drum solos by Burning Spear himself.

Burning Spear was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer on October 15, 2007.

Bunny Wailer, also known as Bunny Livingston (born Neville O'Riley Livingston, April 10, 1947, Jamaica), is a singer songwriter and percussionist and was an original member of reggae group The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. He is widely regarded as a musical legend and is considered one of the longtime standard bearers of reggae music. He has been named by Newsweek as one of the three most important musicians in world music.

Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley were raised in the same household as brothers. Bunny's father Thaddeus "Toddy" Livingston lived with Bob Marley's mother Cedella Booker and had a daughter with her named Pearl Livingston.

As he was by some way the least forceful of the trio, he tended to sing lead vocals less often than Marley and Tosh in the early years, but when Bob Marley left Jamaica in 1966 for Delaware, to be replaced by Constantine "Vision" Walker, he began to record and sing lead on some of his own compositions, such as "Who Feels It Knows It", "I Stand Predominant" and "Sunday Morning". His music was very influenced by gospel and the soul of Curtis Mayfield. In 1967, he recorded "This Train", based on a gospel standard for the first time at Studio One.

As the Wailers moved from producer to producer in the late 1960s he continued to be underused as a writer and lead vocalist, although he sang lead on "Riding High", and on one verse of the Wailers' Impressions-like "Keep On Moving, both produced by Lee Perry. By 1973, each of the three founding Wailers operated their own label, Marley with Tuff Gong, Tosh with H.I.M. Intel Diplo, and Bunny Wailer with Solomonic. He sang lead vocals on "Reincarnated Souls", the B-side of the Wailers first Island single of the new era, and on two tracks on the Wailers last trio LP, "Burnin'" , "Pass it On" (which had been cut as a sound-system only dub plate five years earlier) and "Hallelujah Time". By now he was recording singles in his own right, cutting "Bide Up", "Arab Oil Weapon" and "Life Line" for his own label.

Bunny Wailer toured with the Wailers in England and the United States, but soon became reluctant to leave Jamaica. He and Tosh became more marginalized in the group as the Wailers became an international success, and attention was increasingly focused on Marley. Bunny subsequently left the Wailers to pursue a solo career, which continues in the present.

After leaving the Wailers, Bunny became more focused on his spiritual faith. He identified with the Rastafari movement, as did the other Wailers. He has also written much of his own material as well as re-recording a number of cuts from the Wailers catalogue. Bunny Wailer has recorded primarily in the roots style, in keeping with his often political and spiritual messages. The album Blackheart Man is a good example of his roots reggae style, while "Sings the Wailers" successfully reworks many of The Wailers songs with the backing of top Jamaican musicians, Sly and Robbie. He experimented with disco on his album 'Hook Line & Sinker'. He has also had success recording in the typically apolitical, more pop dancehall style. He has outlived his contemporaries in a culture where death by violence is commonplace.

Bunny Wailer was both the quietest and most spiritually creative of the Wailers. However, he also had a dancehall/Rockers edge that was best exemplified by the album "Bunny Wailer Sings the Wailers" in which he re-interprets some of the Wailers material as a solo Roots singer backed by a solid Sly & Robbie based Roots reggae grouping. The album was produced Bunny Wailer, recorded at Harry J studies. Some of these tracks are re-worked classic Wailers tracks (e.g. Dreamland - first recorded in 1970 with Lee 'Scratch" Perry and released as a 7" in 1971 with a U-Roy version on the B -Side). Another classic is Dancing Shoes, first recorded in the early 1960s as a driving Ska/Soul classic with Bunny Wailer as lead vocal.

Bunny Wailer has won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 1990, 1994 and 1996.

Black Uhuru, formed by Derrick "Duckie" Simpson, is a Jamaican reggae band probably best known for their hits "Shine Eye Gal", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", "Sinsemilla", "Solidarity", and Grammy winner "What Is Life?". They were the first group to win a Grammy in the reggae category when it was introduced in 1985. They originally formed as "Black Sounds Uhuru". Uhuru is the Swahili word for freedom. The group was named by Stan "Roy Scientist" Palmer.

The first line-up of the group was Garth Dennis, Don Carlos, and Derrick "Duckie" Simpson. The group has undergone several lineup changes: Carlos left, replaced by Michael Rose; then Dennis left to play with the Wailing Souls, and was replaced by Errol Nelson. During this early period, the band's most famous recording is the album entitled Love Crisis, later re-released as Black Sounds Of Freedom. In 1979 the group was joined by Sandra "Puma" Jones, a social worker from South Carolina, USA. Under this lineup (Rose, Simpson and Jones), with Sly & Robbie as producers (and also permanently employed on drum and bass), they released the band's most popular albums: Sinsemilla, Red, and with some of the Compass Point All Stars, Chill Out and the Grammy-winning Anthem,^[2] as well as others. During this period, Black Uhuru became one of the most popular reggae groups in the world, regularly touring with the likes of the Clash, the Police and the Rolling Stones. Live 1984 (a concert at the Rockpalast in Germany; actually recorded on October 18, 1981) captures the band at the height of its power. In 1989, their album Red was ranked #23 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.

After Rose went solo in 1985, Junior Reid joined for a few records and also left; Puma Jones left in 1987 (and died of cancer three years later, in 1990). In 1990, Simpson reunited with Dennis and Carlos in the original line-up of the group. They recorded several albums and toured extensively. By the end of the 1990s, Dennis and Carlos left the band and fought a legal battle against Simpson over the name and rights of Black Uhuru. Simpson won the lawsuit and formed yet another incarnation of Black Uhuru with Andrew Bees as lead singer. Only one album, Dynasty, was released before Bees went back to pursue his solo career.

Sly and Robbie are one of reggae's most prolific and long lasting production teams. The rhythm section of drummer Lowell Dunbar (nicknamed Sly after Sly Stone, one of his favorite musicians) and bass guitarist Robert Shakespeare started working together in the mid 1970s, after having established themselves separately on the Jamaican music scene. They are humorously also sometimes referred to as Sly Drumbar and Robbie Basspeare, one example being the sleeve notes of Black Uhuru's Red album.

Sly and Robbie may well be the most prolific recording artists ever. One estimate is that they have played on or produced some 200,000 songs , considering that some of their riddims such as "Revolution" have been used on over 100 songs.

Third World is a Jamaican reggae band formed in 1973. Their sound is influenced by soul, funk and disco. According to Billboard's Jim Bessman, Third World is considered by some reggae purists to be overly commercial.

The band started when keyboard player Michael "Ibo" Cooper and guitarist (and cellist) Stephen "Cat" Coore, who had originally played in The Alley Cats then Inner Circle, subsequently left to form their own band. The original drummer, Cornel Marshall, arrived via one of Jamaica's most renowned groups of the sixties, Tomorrow's Children. The lineup for their first album as Third World also included a singer named "Prilly" and percussionist Irving "Carrot" Jarrett. The album included a cover of Satta Massagana, originally performed by The Abyssinians, which became a local hit.

Their second album, 96° in the Shade, had several local hits and featured the band's classic lineup. "Prilly" was replaced by the distinctive vocalist "Bunny Rugs" Clarke and an all-new rhythm section: Ritchie Daley on bass and former Inner Circle drummer Willie Stewart, who had defected to join the new band. Notable among its eight tracks were 1865 (96° in the Shade), Rhythm of Life and the album's only cover, Dreamland, written by Bunny Wailer. This last was originally titled Dream Island, as recorded by the American R&B band, The El Tempos.

Third World's greatest success came in the late 1970s and early 1980s, peaking with their cover version of The O'Jays' Now that We Found Love, a hit single on both sides of the Atlantic in 1979. This song brought them to the attention of Stevie Wonder, who worked with them and wrote, along with Melody A McCully, their hit Try Jah Love. They were also guests during the third season of SCTV.

Amid claims of artistic differences "Carrot" split from the band in the mid-1980s. The resulting five-piece band then went on to record more commercial tunes like Sense Of Purpose, Reggae Ambassador, Forbidden Love, and Shine like a Blazing Fire.

Despite several more lineup changes, including the departures of Cooper and Stewart, and a decline in mainstream success, the band are still recording and performing up to the present day, including in front of a television audience at the Cricket World Cup 2007 Opening Ceremony in Kingston.

Lee "Scratch" Perry (born Rainford Hugh Perry, on March 20, 1936, in Kendal, Jamaica) is a reggae and dub artist, who has been highly influential in the development and acceptance of reggae and dub music in Jamaica and overseas. He employs numerous pseudonyms, such as Pipecock Jackxon and The Upsetter.

Perry's musical career began in the late 1950s as a record seller for Clement Coxsone Dodd's sound system. As his sometimes turbulent relationship with Dodd developed, he found himself performing a variety of important tasks at Dodd's Studio One hit factory, going on to record nearly 30 songs for the label. Disagreements between the pair due to personality and financial conflicts, a recurring theme throughout Perry's career, led him to leave the studio and seek new musical outlets. He soon found a new home at Joe Gibbs's Amalgamated Records.

Working with Joe Gibbs, Perry continued his recording career but, once again, financial problems caused conflict. Perry broke ranks with Gibbs and formed his own label, Upsetter, in 1968. His first single "People Funny Boy", which was an insult directed at Gibbs, sold very well. It is notable for its innovative use of a sample (a crying baby) as well as a fast, chugging beat that would soon become identifiable as "reggae" (the new sound did not really have a name at this time). From 1968 until 1972 he worked with his studio band The Upsetters. During the 1970s, Perry released numerous recordings on a variety of record labels that he controlled, and many of his songs were popular in both Jamaica and the UK. He soon became known for his innovative production techniques as well as his eccentric character.

In the early 1970s, Perry was one of the producers whose mixing board experiments resulted in the creation of dub. In 1973, Perry built a studio in his back yard, The Black Ark, to have more control over his productions and continued to produce notable musicians such as Bob Marley & the Wailers, Junior Byles, Junior Murvin, The Heptones, The Congos and Max Romeo. With his own studio at his disposal, Perry's productions became more lavish, as the energetic producer was able to spend as much time as he wanted on the music he produced. It is important to note that virtually everything Perry recorded in The Black Ark was done using rather basic recording equipment; through sonic sleight-of-hand, Perry made it sound unique. Perry remained behind the mixing desk for many years, producing songs and albums that stand out as a high point in reggae history.

By 1978, stress and unwanted outside influences began to take their toll: both Perry and The Black Ark quickly fell into a state of disrepair. Eventually, the studio burned to the ground. Perry has constantly insisted that he burned the Black Ark himself in a fit of rage. After the demise of the Black Ark in the early 1980s, Perry spent time in England and the United States, performing live and making erratic records with a variety of collaborators. It was not until the late 1980s, when he began working with British producers Adrian Sherwood and Neil Fraser (who is better known as Mad Professor), that Perry's career began to get back on solid ground again. Perry also has attributed the recent resurgence of his creative muse to his deciding to quit drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis. Perry stated in an interview that he wanted to see if "it was the smoke making the music or Lee Perry making the music. I found out it was me and that I don't need to smoke."

Perry now lives in Switzerland with his wife Mireille and two children. Although he celebrated his 70th birthday in 2006, he continues recording and performing to enthusiastic audiences in Europe and North America. His modern music is a far cry from his reggae days in Jamaica; many now see Perry as more of a performance artist in several respects. In 2003, Perry won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album with the album Jamaican E.T.. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Perry #100 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[2]More recently, he teamed up with a group of Swiss musicians and performed under the name Lee Perry and the White Belly Rats, and made a brief visit to the United States using the New York City based group Dub Is A Weapon as his backing band. Currently there are two feature length movies made about his life and work: Volker Schaner's "Vision Of Paradise" and "The Upsetter" by filmmakers Ethan Higbee and Adam Bhala Lough.

After meeting Andrew W.K. at SXSW in 2006, Perry invited him to co-produce his forthcoming album Repentance. The album, released on the 19th of August 2008, on Narnack Records, features several guest artists including Moby, Ari Up of The Slits, producer Don Fleming, drummer Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt, bassist Josh Werner of Matisyahu, and adult entertainer Sasha Grey.

In 2008, Perry reunited with producer Adrian Sherwood on an album called The Mighty Upsetter. Unlike the dance-hall/pop oriented Repentance, The Mighty Upsetter returned to the dub/reggae styles for which Perry is known.

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