Lee 'Scratch' Perry ADD

Lee 'Scratch' Perry Meets Kabaka Pyramid For Empowering New Single 'Black'

11/17/2023 by Press Release

The latest single from Lee Perry’s multigenerational collaborative new album Destiny – produced by Bob Riddim.

Reggae legend Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and producer Bob Riddim enlist the lyrical skills of Kabaka Pyramid for their new single Black.

The song is an intergenerational message of black pride, pairing Kabaka’s effortless melodic flow and preternatural word-power with Scratch’s deep reflections and characterful voice of Afro-futurist experience.

Together they travel the rich, pulsing vein of black music and culture, decrying colonialism, self-righteous doubters and skin bleaching, while championing the need to remember their roots.

Black is the latest single from Lee and Bob Riddim’s highly collaborative new album Destiny. Recorded in the final year of Scratch’s life, and currently garnering rave reviews around the world, Destiny is a Lee Perry album unlike any you’ve heard before.

Where many recent albums by Perry are the work of producers in thrall to his classic 1970s dub soundscapes at his Black Ark Studio, Destiny takes the bold step of placing Scratch’s poetic utterances over Bob Riddim’s contemporary reggae backings. Scratch shares six of the nine original tracks with young artists from Kingston, Jamaica’s new generation. It’s a gamble that pays off – in a return to the flamboyant, forward-thinking music he crafted in his heyday.

Destiny comprises nine original tracks, with almost all instruments played by Bob Riddim, fusing modern reggae with the Upsetter’s colourful vision and vibe. With this powerful statement, the Upsetter delivers an eclectic, contemporary reggae record that revisits the artforms he initiated. Driven by Bob Riddim’s rock-solid productions, Perry’s vivid and free-ranging poetry addresses deep and existentialist themes, reflecting decades dedicated to his craft.

Kabaka Pyramid won the 2023 Reggae Grammy Award for his album, The Kalling. Scratch won the Reggae Grammy twenty years earlier, for his album, Jamaican E.T.. Bob Riddim was nominated for the 2023 Grammy Global Music Performance award for Neva Bow Down by Rocky Dawuni featuring Blvk H3ro (Blvk H3ro also appears on the Destiny project).