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Baker's Dozen

Awakening Songs: Buju Banton's Favourite Music
Zakiya Mckenzie , July 29th, 2020 09:41

As Buju Banton releases his first album in a decade, he guides Zakiya Mckenzie through the songs that shaped him, from discovering dancehall on the school minibus to collaborating with Pharrell Williams

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Frankie Paul – ‘Worries In The Dance’
Travelling in the minibuses in those days, we would say to the driver, ‘we won’t take your bus unless we hear ‘Worries in The Dance!’’ I used that particular form of transportation to hear songs like that and identify a selection of songs that I liked and later tried to get. This song is such a time marker for me, when this first came out I was admiring artists like Frankie Paul from afar. Later on, I got to know him from being at King Jammy’s [Studio] on St Lucia Road, Waterhouse. When I really got to know Tony Tuff and Junjo Lawes, when I met Frankie Paul, it was even greater, the songs meant even more to me because now I knew the person who sang them.