Dillinger – Answer Me Question LP Radiation Roots (Italy)

LP version. Radiation Roots present a reissue of Dillinger’s Answer Me Question, originally released in 1977. Trained in the art of deejay toasting by the legendary Dennis Alcapone, Lester Bulllock initially called himself Alcapone Junior, until maverick record producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry renamed him Dillinger in the early 1970s, following his success on a west Kingston sound system called Smith the Weapon, based in the ghetto of Payne Avenue. Perry cut Dillinger’s first dozen tracks, and there was early work for other producers such as Prince Tony, Augustus Pablo, Enos McLeod, and Phil Pratt; then, Dillinger’s debut album, Ready Natty Dreadie (1975), was a local hit for Studio One, but the CB200 set for Island catapulted him to international prominence. Yet, the Dillinger material with the roughest edge was always produced by Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee, as this LP, Answer My Question, so amply demonstrates. First issued in the Netherlands on the Scramble label in 1977, it shows Dillinger on fearsome form, his relaxed rhyming toasts tackling sound system matters, the Rastafari lifestyle, action movie subplots, the highs and lows of romantic relationships, the need to help the less fortunate, and other burning issues of the day with biting wit and verbal dexterity, all delivered over tough Aggrovators rhythms – including an unusual cut of the “Three Piece Suit” rhythm.