Stuart Brown

Stuart Brown – African Star Sound (Sound System Owner)
Interview by Rich Lowe © 2004 Jamaica Way Productions

Listen to an audio interview with Stuart Brown:

A – Name is Stuart Brown. The name is African Star. The sound was founded in Canada around 1979-80. We went to Jamaica to live in 1986-87. We used to be a top sound in Canada. Move to Jamaica and keep up the same thing – go work an’ work an’ work.

Q – You have one sound system?

A - Yes.

Q – You have selectors that work for you, what are their names?

A – We gotta guy name Gary and a guy name Harry Joe. That’s their nickname on the sound.

Q – Tell me about the formation of African Star.

A – Stuart Brown started African Star for reasons that a lot of people don’t know. I used to be a dj on all people’s sound and it wasn’t working because I want to talk longer than they wanted me to talk. They probably want time to do two to three songs and I wanna work…

Q – All night.

A – Yeah. I wanna do a good piece before I leave. It wasn’t workin’ out. It look like a problem around these sound system in Toronto. I had a lotta records and listening to the other sounds I realize I have more records than them an’ I figure I could put it in a better form, I could please the people more than they did. I started to emerge with a sound. From there I was the dj and the selector an’ I had a singer.

We work, doin’ very well until we go on and on. I was the selector all the time in Canada. A lot a dj work on the sound from Nicodemus to Brigadier, to Supercat, Early B. Supercat – Early B was workin’ on African Start in Canada before they were workin’ on Jaro in Jamaica. Leroy Gibbons… a lotta artists pass through on the sound. We went to Jamaica an’ we start do it in Jamaica.

Early B was not recognize in Jamaica by the public at all. At the time when I had them in Toronto, I just went to Jamaica on a vacation an’ I hear these guy workin’ on a real small sound – they used to call the sound King Majesty. They were workin’ and I say: “These guys are tougher guys than Brigadier an I gonna take them to Toronto!” I always do that.

Q – Was that before “One Wheel Wheelie?”

A – Yeah. That was way before “One Wheel Wheelie.” He (Early B.) wasn’t workin’ on “Jaro” at that time yet. He was workin’ on King Majesty at that time! I take him there. They did so well that they were there with me for over a month and they were doin’ regular jobs. It was all packed! It all work out nice and they go back to Jamaica and that’s where he start work with “Jaro.”

Q – His passing was so sad. He was never known to be a bad man.

A – No he was not. He was a very quiet person. There’s nothing that you could do that would bother Early B. He wouldn’t complain about anything at all.

Q – He had good lyrics and a nice style.

A – That is why I even get involve with Capleton. He was like the splittin’ image of Early B. They had something goin’ for them. They wasn’t just a dj that come out an’ had a format goin’ for them – they could get some place that they wanted to go.

[Stuart Brown is – in part, responsible for the early success of the artist known as Capelton. Capleton’s early sound system work was with African Star and it was while with African Star that Capleton recorded his first series of hit songs in Jamaica. Stuart Brown was also Capleton’s manager during this period of time]

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