ÍøÆغÚÁÏ

"I was born on Rousseau Road/the number was 21A," so Jacob Miller sang on "Killer Miller." In actuality, the star apparently hailed from Mandeville, in the Jamaican hills; however, his single mother sent her son to live with his grandparents in Kingston, and thus he did indeed grow up on Rousseau Road. His date of birth is equally contentious, with claims made for both 1952 and 1955, while one can infer from interviews with Augustus Pablo an even later date, circa 1960.

There's no doubt though that Miller was a handful, star struck, and desperate to be a star himself. Coxsone Dodd gave him his first shot in 1968, when the youth recorded a few songs for the producer, including the single "Love Is the Message." It barely caused a ripple, but did catch the attention of Augustus Pablo, who gave the song airing at his Rockers Sound System. That wasn't enough to keep Dodd's interest, and Miller's career seemed to be over before it had even begun. However, Miller continued practicing, hanging around the studios, watching the stars, and jovially boasting about his talent to anyone who would listen.

In 1972, Pablo and his brother Garth Swaby launched their own Rockers label, initially a home for Pablo's own instrumentals, but soon branching out to vocal cuts. In 1974, Pablo brought Miller into Dynamic Studios to re-record "Message," resulting in the phenomenal "Keep on Knocking," one of the foundation stones of the new Rockers style. Over the next 18 months, the young singer cut five more songs for Pablo, each one a Rockers classic -- "Baby I Love You So," "False Rasta," "Who Say Jah No Dread," "Each One Teach One," and "Girl Named Pat" -- and all boasting seminal dubs from mixer King Tubby on the flip.

It was with these early singles, most deeply dread in theme, that Miller established his reputation. However, Rockers' finances precluded the constant recording that the young singer craved, and thus when he was approached by Inner Circle, Miller jumped on board.

Circle already had a few singles to their credit, and had backed several singers in the past, before folding then rising anew in 1973 as a Top 40 covers band, plying their reggae-lite arrangements around the resort circuit. And then Miller arrived, creating the heaviest frontline in Jamaica's history, and some of the heftiest roots around. However, their first cut together, the seminal "Tenement Yard," was credited to the singer alone, as were many of their future numbers, causing chaos for future archivists.

It's difficult to draw a distinct line between Miller's solo career and his work with Inner Circle; for not only were many of his releases co-produced by the singer and Roger Lewis, as ABC

Productions, virtually all were backed by at least some of Circle, with the lineup enhanced by members of the Revolutionaries. However, the acid test is the arrangements. Miller preferred Rockers style, while Circle indulged in experimentation, delving into pop, soul, funk, and even disco. And while Circle notched up the bigger hits, Miller maintained his street cred with his solo offerings, which were much more consistent and often of higher quality than his work for the mothership.

Across 1975, the singer struck a deep chord with such classics as "Forward Jah Jah Children," "Tired Fe Lick Weed in a Bush," the Gussie Clarke-produced "Girl Don't Come," and "I Am a Natty" (a Joe Gibbs' produced cover of Bob Marley's "Soul Rebel"), even as Miller and Circle worked on their Trojan album Blame It on the Sun. The following year, Miller took second place at the Independence Song Festival with "All Night Till Daylight," and turned the soul masterpiece "Dock of the Bay" into a dread classic, amongst a slew of other fine releases.

Circle signed to Capital Records in 1976, unleashing Reggae Thing, and Ready for the World the following year. Miller's own solo album debut, Dread Dread, also appeared in 1978, showcasing both the lighter and heftier sides of the singer's oeuvre.

Miller and Circle were featured in the seminal film Rockers this same year, while the singer played an even more instrumental role in the One Love One Peace Concert that April. Ostensibly a celebration of the 12th anniversary of Haile Selassie's state visit to Jamaica, in the aftermath of the appalling Green Bay Massacre (where ten unarmed Skulls were gunned down by the Jamaican soldiers), the festival expanded to acknowledge the precarious peace now in place between Kingston's rival gangs.

Miller brought together on-stage Claudie Massop and Tony Welch, leaders respectively of the Tivoli and Jungle gangs, Kingston's most vociferous rivals. And while Bob Marley got the

glory, accomplishing a similar feat with the island's two fiercely rival political leaders, it was Circle that headlined the show.

Before the year was out, Miller had released two further solo albums, the crucial Killer Miller and the festive Natty Christmas. The former included a slew of classics, including "Forward Ever," "80,000 Careless Ethiopians," "Lamb's Bread Collie," and "Shaky Girl," the latter cut for Joe Gibbs. 1979's Wanted included another clutch, including such dread masterpieces as "Standing Firm," "Healing of the Nation," "Sinners," "Peace Treaty Style," and the smoky love song "I've Got the Handle."

Miller was now at the height of his powers, and with his charismatic stage presence, had even supplanted Marley as the island's most popular singer. Circle's phenomenal performance at the One Love concert brought the band a contract with the Island label, who released the hugely popular Everything Is Great, which spun off two British hit singles. Their new album, New Age Music, was already impacting abroad.

In March 1980, Miller accompanied Marley and Island head Chris Blackwell to Brazil, to celebrate the opening of the label's new offices there. Meanwhile, the rest of Circle were preparing for their forthcoming American tour in support of the Wailers. The trio returned to Jamaica on the 21st; two days later Miller was dead, killed in a car accident on Hope Road. Jamaica had lost one of the greatest singers of the age, long before his time. ~ Jo-Ann Greene

Inner Circle is, of course, best known for "Bad Boys," a ubiquitous crossover hit thanks to its use as the theme song for the long-running Fox TV reality series Cops. But the band had a lengthy history prior to its international breakthrough, dating all the way back to the late '60s. They hit the big time in Jamaica during the '70s as a danceable yet rootsy Rastafarian reggae outfit, fronted by the charismatic singer Jacob Miller. Miller's tragic death in a car accident in 1980 put the group on hiatus for several years, and when they finally regrouped in the mid-'80s, they began to temper their rootsiness with elements of pop, R&B, and dancehall. Originally recorded in 1987, "Bad Boys" became a worldwide smash in the early '90s, and the group soldiered on into the new millennium amid several personnel changes.

Inner Circle was originally formed by brothers Ian (bass) and Roger Lewis (guitar) in 1968. The group's other charter members were guitarist Steven "Cat" Coore, keyboardist Michael "Ibo" Cooper, and multi-instrumentalist Richard Daley. Initially, they made their living playing in hotel lounges. When the rest of the band split to form Third World in 1973, the Lewis brothers assembled a new lineup that included keyboardists Bernard "Touter" Harvey and Charles Farquharson (the latter of whom didn't stick around for long), and drummer Rasheed McKenzie. Inner Circle recorded a couple of albums for Trojan over 1974-1975, Rock the Boat and Blame It on the Sun, which relied to some degree on smooth American soul covers. They also had a small hit single with "I See You."

Inner Circle's musical outlook changed with the arrival of vocalist Jacob Miller in 1976. Miller, a devout Rastafarian and a successful solo artist in his own right, made the band into a more spiritual, socially conscious outfit, and they quickly signed with Capitol Records. Over the next few years, Miller penned hits like "Tenement Yard," "Forward Jah Jah Children," "Tired Fe Lick Weed in a Bush," and "All Night Till Daylight" (some of which were credited to Miller, but nonetheless featured the whole band). Capitol issued two LPs, 1976's Reggae Thing and 1977's Ready for the World; sometime during this period, the group also recorded a bit with disco stars KC & the Sunshine Band.

At the peak of their early popularity in Jamaica, Inner Circle performed at the legendary One Love Peace Concert in 1978, along with Bob Marley and many others. Heartland Reggae, the film documentary of the concert, helped introduce them to international audiences, and landed them a new deal with Island Records. Their 1979 label debut, Everything Is Great, was a hit in Europe, and the disco-tinged title track made the U.K. Top 20 and the French Top Ten. Several more singles, including "Stop Breaking My Heart," "Mary, Mary," and "Music Machine," helped consolidate their success. Tragically, just as the band was poised for a major international breakthrough, Miller was killed in a car accident on March 23, 1980. Devastated, the rest of the band broke up. Ian Lewis and Harvey moved to Miami and opened a recording studio, and Roger Lewis joined them several years later.

Roger's arrival in Miami sparked a renewal of the old Inner Circle chemistry, and soon the band decided to re-form, recruiting new lead singer Carlton Coffie and drummer Lancelot Hall. They recorded the comeback album Black Roses for Ras in 1986, updating their old roots style with elements of contemporary dance music, R&B, pop, and the emerging dancehall sound. The follow-up, 1987's One Way, was a generally acclaimed effort that followed much the same blueprint, and contained the original recording of "Bad Boys." The group mounted a successful tour in support, but took several years to come up with another album, finally returning in 1991 with Identified.

Meanwhile, the Fox television network chose "Bad Boys" as the opening theme song for its police reality show Cops, which premiered in March 1989. As the program swelled into a hit, "Bad Boys" became a household pop-culture reference. Cops was syndicated throughout the world, including Sweden, where "Bad Boys" was released as a single in 1991 and topped the charts. From there, it became a hit in several other European countries as well. "Bad Boys" was finally issued in the U.S. in 1993, and vaulted into the pop Top Ten. An album of the same name was quickly cobbled together from existing material; most of it was from the group's 1992 party-reggae album Bad to the Bone, which supplied the sexy follow-up single, the Top 20 hit "Sweat (A La La La La Long)." Bad Boys won a Grammy for Best Reggae Album, and its title song eventually sold over seven million copies worldwide.

Inner Circle quickly recorded a follow-up album, the pop-oriented Reggae Dancer, which was released in 1994. Its lead single, "Summer Jammin'," was featured in the Eddie Murphy comedy Beverly Hills Cop III, but the enterprise failed to sustain Inner Circle's momentum as a pop-culture phenomenon. In 1995, "Bad Boys" was again used as a title song, this time for the Will Smith/Martin Lawrence action comedy of the same name. Around that time, however, Coffie was hospitalized with a serious illness, and was forced to take leave from the band. When he recovered, he decided to start a solo career, and was officially replaced by his substitute, singer/toaster Kris Bentley. Bentley made his debut on the 1997 set Da Bomb, which was issued in America one year later in a slightly reconfigured version titled Speak My Language. The band mounted extensive world tours over the next few years, and continued to release new albums, including 2000's Big Tings. ~ Steve Huey