Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

Tony Rebel... on the comeback trail. - file

DEEJAY TONY Rebel rode into the dancehall on a wave of consciousness during the early 1990s, helping to spark a Rasta revival reminiscent of the 1970s.

There are flecks of grey in his beard and his frame is a lot more bulky, but the message that made songs like Fresh Vegetable and Chatty Chatty hits remain.

After an extended break, the 46-year-old Rebel is tuning up for a comeback, which began last month with the release of Blackman Redemption, his ode to United States President-elect Barack Obama.

"It's not another Obama cliché ... to me, Obama is more than a person, he's a movement," he said. "All that Martin Luther King, Booker T. Washington and Rosa Parks fought for is manifested in him."

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On Blackman Redemption, Rebel is accompanied by his protégé, singjay Queen Ifrica, and veteran session singer Nicky Burt. The song is driven by Bob Marley's 1979 song of the same name and was produced by Donovan Germain of Penthouse Records, who produced Fresh Vegetable and Chatty Chatty.

Rebel told The Gleaner that he has been working with Germain in recent months. The renewed collaboration has produced several songs, including Another Bill Again and Chant Down Babylon.

Although his last album, I Rebel, was released in 2007, Rebel has to go back to 2000 to find his last hit song, the catchy Just Friends, which was done with singer Swade.

He says he has spent much of his time developing artistes from his Flames Productions recording firm, the most noted being Queen Ifrica. The time is right, Rebel believes, for him to take another crack at the charts.

"Now is the time to strike again," he said.

Part of a troika

Born Patrick Barrett in Manchester, Tony Rebel was part of a roots troika that emerged from central Jamaica in the early 1990s. The others were singer Garnet Silk and dub poet Yasus Afari.

Their Christian Souljahs organisation gathered other roots artistes like Kulcha Knox, a deejay from Manchester, and singers Utan Green and Everton Blender from Clarendon.

Silk died under mysterious circumstances in 1995.

Rebel says there is a possibility of him releasing a new album in 2009. He produced Queen Ifrica's upcoming set, Montego Bay, which is scheduled to be released in February.

Flickers of a roots revolution

✓ Tony Rebel and Garnet Silk were once part of Sugar Minott's Youthman Promotions camp.

✓ Rebel is a cousin of former Deputy Prime Minister Seymour Mullings.

✓ Silk's hit song, Everything I've Got, was written by Tony Rebel.

✓ Rebel teamed with Queen Latifah on the 1993 song, Weekend Love, from her Black Reign album.

✓ One of Silk's first hit songs, I Can See Clearly Now, featured rapping by Yasus Afari.

✓ Ghetto People Song by Everton Blender, a Flames production, was an anthem for the Reggae Boyz football team during their 1998 World Cup campaign.