General Echo: The “Slackest” Deejay In Dancehall

Long before artists such as Lady Saw, Shabba Ranks, Vybz Kartel, and others became known for their explicit and provocative lyrics, lewdness was already a significant part of Jamaican dancehall music. In fact, one particular deejay proudly pioneered that type of lyrical content. His name was General Echo, aka Ranking Slackness.

General Echo, although he gained fame for the “clean” song Arleen, was also the artist who introduced explicit lyrics to the Dancehall space and merrily bestowed upon himself the title of “slackest deejay in Dancehall” at the time.

As a matter of fact, Echo is regarded as one of the first deejays to shift away from ‘cultural’ lyrics towards risqué or sexually explicit content.

He was so enamored with sexually explicit lyrics that he earned the distinction of being the first deejay to release an entire album dedicated to “slackness.” The album, Slackest LP, was produced by the late Winston Riley on the Techniques label in 1979.

The titles of most of the songs on the eight-track album were clear indicators of the vulgarity they contained.

There was the risque Bath Room Sex, Cockie No Beg Friend, Lift Up Your Dress Fat Gal, and the more modest Roast Duck, Stretch To Fit, Adam & Eve, Give Me One Of Your Gal Friends, and Tribute To Hotel Staff.

The Ranking Slackness album was a classic display of General Echo’s pride in his explicit songs. In the intro to Roast Duck, he boldly proclaimed: “Goodness gracious. This happen to be the slackest LP in the world, with the slackest deejay in the universe”. Bragging some more, he then demanded “roast duck on the truck”.

“Papa wid di slack ting again,” he boasted in the intro to Stretch to Fit, before crudely directing a woman on how to position herself, demanding a blood test, and making various other coarse orders.

Even the Christian Bible wasn’t exempt from General Echo’s irreverence, as he delved into the story of the first humans in the song Adam and Eve, vividly depicting the size of their private parts and graphically detailing the sexual positions they engaged in.

In Cockie No Beg Friend, Echo was at it again in the intro, declaring: “General Echo is my name and people in the ghetto call me Ranking Slackness, and in the country people call me ‘slackitidy’. And the tourist all over the world say: “what a naughty little boy!”

He then continued by detailing the antics of his private parts, boasting about their gymnastic prowess and ability to father children. He even sang that if perchance he dies goes to hell, how he would engage in sexual acts, not only Satan’s wife, but the devil’s grandmother.

In Lift Up Your Dress Fat Gal, General Echo, addressing what he said was his wife and 38 girlfriends, metaphorically refers to his private part as a “testament” that would cause excitement, and, amidst the gibberish, chases a woman away to go to the sea to wash her private parts.

General Echo, whose real name was Earl Anthony Robinson, was born on December 8, 1955. He died at age 24 on November 22, 1980, the year he had arguably the biggest song in Jamaica, Arleen, which Winston Riley also produced.

Reports are that he was killed under controversial circumstances by members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) in Kingston on November 22, 1980, along with two members of his EchoTone HiFi Sound System Flux and Big John.