THE Jamaican dancehall’s decades-long link with Clarks footwear steps up front on Clarks in Jamaica, a 21-song compilation scheduled for release in October by VP/Greensleeves Records.

It contains songs by artistes either paying tribute to the British shoe, or referring to it. These songs include Clarks Booty Skank by Trinity, Dillinger’s CB200, Super Cat’s Trash and Ready and Clarks Booty by Little John who has three songs on the set.

Chris O’Brien, artiste and repertoire manager at VP/Greensleeves in London, said Clarks in Jamaica is the music version to the book of the same name by British writer Al ‘DJ Al Fingers’ Newman.

Along with noted reggae producer Bunny Lee, Newman was part of the August 14 ‘Clarks in Jamaica’ lecture at Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

A similar ‘conference’ is scheduled for the University of Nottingham in October as part of promotion for the album.

Officially established as C & J Clark International Ltd in 1825, it is one of the world’s oldest shoe manufacturers. Jamaicans who migrated in droves to the United Kingdom during the 1950s travelled to its headquarters in Somerset, south-west England, to purchase the durable shoe, starting a bond that still exists.

While Clarks were once identified with the ‘roots man’ and hardcore ‘steppers’ in Jamaica, deejay Vybz Kartel’s 2010 smash hit, Clarks, helped push it mainstream. When Britain’s Prince Harry visited Jamaica in 2012, he sported custom-made blue Desert Clarks.

The Clarks company recently used ‘foundation’ deejay Jah Stitch to endorse some of their products.

— Howard Campbell