IT’S not often that Tappa Zukie performs in Jamaica. On May 30, however, the veteran deejay makes a rare home appearance when he performs at the Irace Reggae Jam in Kingston.

The 60-year-old toaster is best known in Jamaica for the self-produced 1976 hit, Oh Lord, which topped local charts for six weeks.

But most of his base is in the United Kingdom where he made a name wih songs like She Want a Phensic and Natty Dread a Wey Shi Want (done with Horace Andy).

“Dem nuh gi nuh show a Jamaica…really an’ truly mi nuh have a agent fi book mi here,” said Tappa Zukie. “Mi nuh fussy, but yeah, me’d a like mek money inna Jamaica ’cause a mi home.”

Born David Sinclair, Tappa Zukie is from the Greenwich Farm area of Kingston and a protégé of producer Bunny Lee. He migrated to the UK in the early 1970s and developed a following among the punk movement there mid-decade through albums for the Virgin Records affiliate, Front Line Records.

Tappa Zukie also excelled as a producer with his Stars and Tappa labels. The former released Oh Lord and ‘Natty Dread’ as well as Death Before Dishonour by Dennis Brown, Gregory Isaacs’ One Man Against the World and the Beres Hammond anthem, Putting up Resistance.

He said he has taken a break from producing.

“The music business reach a way ’cause the Internet gi it a beaten. Bounty Killer an’ Beenie Man a get number one song wid 4,000 copy…when mi get a statement fi Oh Lord from Federal (Records) it sell over 80,000 copy,” Tappa Zukie explained.

Like many of his contemporaries from the 1970s, Tappa Zukie retains a following in the UK and Europe. He last performed there in 2013.

The Irace Reggae Jam event also features singers Fred Locks, Carl Dawkins, Jnr and the Mau Mau Warriors.

— Howard Campbell