Tippa Lee - Cultural Ambassador (Deluxe Version) (2016)

Tippa Lee was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. He started performing on his father's sound system as a child, standing up on a beer bottle box to reach the mic, and made his first recordings at King Tubby's studio at the age of 12. Eventually, he teamed up with Rappa Robert, and as a duo they had a number of hits including 'Nuh Trouble We', an anthemic statement against police harassment that was a number one Jamaican hit in 1988 and is still played often on Jamaican radio. In more recent years, Tippa Lee has been based in the US, performing live and releasing underground CDs. Cultural Ambassador was produced by Tom Chasteen, DJ and promoter at LA's long-running Dub Club. Tom and Tippa have been working side by side for years. This record is the result of many hours performing and recording together and much mutual respect. The musical tracks were recorded by a hand picked studio band including reggae legends Tony Chin on guitar and Fully Fullwood on bass, who between them probably played on a quarter of all the records that came out of Jamaica in the '70s. Icluded in Cultural Ambassador is a dub version of the album mixed by Tom Chasteen that reconfigures the tracks live on the mixing board with echo and reverb in a traditional dub style.