Philip Smart - (2016) Meets The Agrovators At King Tubby's

Jamaican Recordings – 059

Phillip Smart was one of the great engineers to learn his trade as understudy to the

legendary dub master himself Osbourne ‘King Tubby’ Ruddock. Alongside other
luminaires such as Prince Jammy and Scientist, Phillip Smart would step in at the
controls when demand for King Tubby studio dubs grew to such an extent that
each single release was expected to carry a version/dub flipside.

Phillip Smart was born and raised in the Havendale area of Kingston, Jamaica.
He initially worked alongside artist/musician/producer Augustus Pablo who grew
up in the same area. In the early 1970’s at the height of the dub revolution Prince
Phillip Smart as he became known was in the thick of it and engineered many dub
classics that flew out of the door from King Tubby’s studio. It was often re-workings
of producer Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee material that would be versioned for the flipside of
a release and was often the side that was in demand at the various Sound Systems
across Jamaica and exported around the world.

Phillip Smart moved to the United States in the late 1970’s, aroumd 1981 opened his
highly successful studio HC & F, on Long Island, New York. It produced some sizable
Jamaican Dancehall hits for his two record labels TanYah and Eclipse. Tracks like
Dirtsman’s ‘Hot This Year’ and ‘Rikers Island’ and most notably artist Shaggy used
the studio to work up his massive hits ‘Oh Carolina’, ‘Big Up’ and ‘Angel’.

But it’s in the heady days of the early 1970’s and up to 1976 that we concentrate for
this release. When Version was King and Prince Phillip Smart was at the controls
mixing up some fine dubs with Jamaica’s finest musicians The Aggrovators.
Working some of producer Bunny ’Striker’ Lee’s rhythms in fine style…